Hi all, I am a foreigner living and working in the United States (green card holder).

I lost my job recently and have been job hunting very seriously. Every time I file a new job application, I feel a bit of awkwardness regarding the “diversity” related questions. Such questions are forbidden in my home country, so I had no exposure to that prior to working in the US.

How much do they matter? Does appearing “more diverse” have any impact, positive or negative, on getting employed?

I’m a gay man, does indicating that in the application change anything? Is it safer for me to not mention it in order to avoid homophobic biases?

I’m diagnosed with a serious mental illness, but it’s under control and it did not impact my performance in previous jobs. Technically I could claim that I’m disabled, but what would the impact be on my application, if any? Being “disabled” can mean a million things, so I’m afraid it could translate as “this employee would not be able to do XYZ thing” in an employer’s head.

Am I just overthinking all this? I know that in theory employers wouldn’t throw my application in the thrash just because of reasons like that. But you never know what people actually think, and it feels like it’d be easy for an employer to cover their tracks if they didn’t hire someone for diversity related reasons.

For added context, I live in California. Which is a pretty diverse environment, so I doubt employers struggle to fill in diversity requirements? I’m mostly afraid of lowering my chances of getting employed by answering these questions honestly.

I’d be especially curious to hear what it looks like from the employer’s side? Do these factors come up in discussion when deciding to hire or not hire someone?