NBA player Jason Collins made history last month as the first man on a major U.S. professional sports team to come out as gay while still an active player. Now some are wondering if someone in the nation’s corporate boardrooms will follow suit.
Although there has been open speculation about the sexual orientation of Apple CEO Tim Cook, he has never commented on the reports. As it stands today, there is not a single “out” gay CEO in the Fortune 500, or even the Fortune 1000, according to gay rights advocates and diversity issue experts.
“Corporate America is still looking for that first lead blocker CEO to come out of the closet,” says diversity consultant Kirk Snyder. “Once that happens, all the barriers will start coming down.”
Although the corporate world can be a culturally and politically conservative place, one sector in particular is playing a groundbreaking role in advancing gay rights: the financial services industry and, specifically, major Wall Street banks.
The same day Collins told the world he was gay, Out on the Street was holding its third annual meeting. The organization, founded in 2011, advocates for equality for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community on Wall Street and boasts 16 global financial services firms as members, including founding members Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. They were later joined by Credit Suisse, Ernst & Young, HSBC, KKR, KPMG, Moody’s, Nomura, RBS, UBS and Wells Fargo.
Wall Street firms often frame LGBT equality in economic terms. That is, to be successful in a competitive global environment, companies must recruit, retain and promote from the widest pool of talent available.
“One step down from the CEO level, you do find a lot more LGBT people [on Wall Street]. Goldman Sachs has three openly gay partners,” says Todd Sears, founder of Out on the Street. “At some point, you have an obligation to help the next generation. When they don’t see anyone who’s openly gay at the top of their organization, it sends a very strong message.”
Despite advances in workplace acceptance, 41 percent of U.S. LGBT workers remain closeted at the office, according to a report entitled, The Power of “Out” 2.0: LGBT in the Workplace. “Given the increased productivity and lower turnover rates of ‘out’ workers, multinational organizations have a bottomline incentive to create a workplace where LGBT workers feel accepted,” says the January report by the New York City-based Center for Talent Innovation.
“If you’re out of the closet, you’re happier in your career, you get promoted more quickly and you’re much more likely to stay with your current company,” says Sears, a co-author of the report.
Perhaps the most notable gay CEO up to now was Glen Senk, former CEO of Urban Outfitters Inc., a Fortune 1000 company. He left the company in 2012 and now heads jewelry retailer David Yurman. Women's Wear Daily reported he married his partner of nearly 40 years in 2011.
Coming out significantly increases employee earnings, according to Snyder, a professor at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and author of The G Quotient: Why Gay Executives Are Excelling As Leaders . . . And What Everyone Needs To Know.
Snyder’s most recent research shows that out-of-the-closet LGBT individuals earn an average of 30 percent more than their closeted peers. He attributes this to the fact that people who are genuine have more successful working relationships than those who hide major parts of their identities. “To get promoted, to be a successful member of a team, there has to be trust and some level of authenticity. When you’re hiding something, regardless of what that is, there isn’t a connection that creates trust,” he says.
Coming out at work doesn’t have to be a big deal, either. “It’s a non-issue in inclusive organizations. If you’re male and you say, ‘I want you to meet my partner, John,’ other people will just say ‘Hi, John.’ You don’t even have to formally come out these days,” Snyder says.
As to why some remain closeted at work, it’s not necessarily the corporate environment that’s the problem. “The vast majority of Fortune 500 companies have non-discrimination policies, but in 29 states you can still legally be fired for being gay. There’s a huge chasm between government protections and corporate protections,” says Sears.
For those at the top, the stakes may be even higher. If the CEO of a major corporation comes out, consumers could shun the company’s products and services, thus negatively impacting the organization’s profitability. But this fear is likely unfounded, Snyder says. “Boycotts don’t get any traction anymore. They’ve sort of become a cultural joke,” he says.
Nike, Collins’ corporate sponsor, didn’t seem concerned about any drop in sales. In fact, the company made a point of publicly supporting him.
And, despite the stereotype that some businesses, like technology companies, are more inclusive, while others, like automakers, are less so, Snyder says industry is not the primary determinant of whether a company has high-level executives who are out of the closet. “You can find inclusive organizations in almost any field in companies that are headquartered on the East or West coasts. But once companies are headquartered in the Midwest or the South, there are many more closeted people,” he says. He attributes Wall Street’s leadership role in advancing LGBT equality, in part, to the liberal, multicultural bent of New York City.
With celebrities, sports figures, one lesbian U.S. senator and seven gay, lesbian or bisexual members of the House of Representatives now out of the closet, it seems past time for the first Fortune 500 CEO to come out, gay advocates say. When he or she eventually does, Snyder thinks the reaction will be positive, perhaps even uneventful.
“Everybody knows someone, or has someone in their family, who’s gay. Prejudice and bigotry are always born in lack of knowledge. When we have knowledge, the fear goes away,” he says.
