They don't ask what your sexual orientation is on job applications.
They do, however, ask your ethnicity and gender, and those do play a role in the hiring process (see: affirmative action).
I encourage anyone who is MENA, white, or asian (or any mixture of the 3) to check "hispanic". A LOT of asian/white/MENA people lie about their ethnicity on college applications and job applications, it's kind of an open secret.
Arabs do not benefit from affirmative action and there's no box to check for "arab". IIRC it's:
A) White
B) Latino
C) Native american or alaska or hawaii native
D) African American
E) Asian
Sometimes they'll have "two or more races" and/or "prefer not to say".
If you're MENA and being honest you either check "white" and get penalized or "asian" and get penalized even more severely. You can also check "other" if that's available (seems to only be a small minority that have this as an option) though I'm not sure how it impacts your chances of getting the job relative to white/asian. It's weaker than "hispanic" either way, so you should always check that regardless.
