Black and Gay in Corporate America

Sabin D. Blake, 34, has navigated the professional obstacles of being African American and gay throughout his career. Blake, a dealer organizational manager, Northeast region, for General Motors Corp., is no longer in the closet. That hasn’t always been the case though; for years, he lived a double life using non-gender specific pronouns such as “they” to describe individuals he has dated during casual conversations with colleagues.

“Being a double minority you choose what you present. I could hide being gay, I definitely couldn’t hide being black,” says Blake who kept his sexual orientation hidden for several reasons including fear for his personal safety. “I had these relationships with people where I would be going to dinner with their families. I was involved in their lives but I wasn’t being who I really was.”

Once keeping the secret became too disheartening, Blake made the decision to gradually reveal his sexual orientation to fellow GM employees and business associates. “It was hurtful not being authentic. And my energy was being sucked away,” he says. But each time he told someone he was gay it became easier for him. “It freed me. It allowed me to be more productive, more creative, and more innovative at work,” he says.

Blake attributes his level of comfort to GM’s workplace and the high visibility of gay senior-level executives and straight allies. “I know that GM has strong language in their anti-discrimination policies and very strong support of their employee network groups.” His experience resonates with African American corporate executives who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). For those who choose to “pass as straight,” they expend a great deal of time and energy covering up their personal lives or avoiding certain colleagues and company events.

A survey commissioned by the Human Rights Campaign found that out of 761 LGBT participants, only 25% of African Americans revealed their sexual orientation on the job. African American LGBT employees have unique challenges and experiences associated with being a minority because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

Coming out in the workplace is an ongoing process especially when you are in high-level positions, says Yvette C. Burton, Ph.D., CEO of the Arcus Foundation, an LGBT social justice organization. “Business is driven by relationships, where it is quite natural for people to want to get to know you; it relates to how trustworthy you are as a professional. Whether it is a new job opportunity around the world, a new team, or a new boss, it requires a new set of conversations about who you are,” she adds.

Many African Americans that are part of the LGBT community don’t live in the closet but tend to live in private, maintains Sharon J. Lettman-Hicks, executive director and CEO of Washington, D.C.-based National Black Justice Coalition, a civil rights organization dedicated to empowering the African American LGBT population. There are graduated levels of “being out,” she says, so even if many don’t deny being LGBT they choose not to call attention to their sexual orientation. Says Lettman-Hicks: “They don’t desire to open themselves up to public scrutiny.”

There’s also the fear factor. Racial discrimination in the workplace is prohibited by a number of federal and state laws, but gay rights activists say anxiety around denied promotions, dismissal, discrimination, and harassment for being gay is all too real since there’s no federal law that protects LGBT individuals on the job except in the federal workplace. According to the Human Rights Campaign, on the state level it is legal in 29 states to discriminate based on sexual orientation and in 37 states to do so based on gender identity or expression. (If the employer is in a city or state whose laws prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, then that employer must adhere to those laws.)

Rosalyn Taylor O’Neale thinks she was fired in the early ’80s because she was a masculine-looking lesbian. “When I first entered corporate America I was in my ‘boy days,’ meaning I had short hair and wore pantsuits with ties.” O’Neale, 61, acknowledges progress has been made since then. Today, she serves as vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer for Campbell Soup Co. in Camden, New Jersey. Still, for some LGBT people, being out in the workplace can range anywhere from uncomfortable to a downright dangerous proposition.

Such issues have become increasingly important to corporations as part of their diversity initiatives and efforts to gain greater market share. Take Black Enterprise’s 40 Best Companies for Diversity, in which firms were measured against four key categories: the percentage of African Americans and other ethnic minorities represented among employees, senior management, and corporate board members, as well as the percentage of total procurement dollars spent with businesses owned by African Americans and other ethnic minority groups. We found that 23 companies on this year’s roster are also included on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2011 list of the Best Places to Work for LGBT employees.

Last year’s legislative repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” in the military, and prominent professionals such as CNN’s Don Lemon coming out publicly, have placed a spotlight on gays in the workplace. (See sidebar on Lemon.) Despite this, African American LGBT executives can still find it tough as a double/triple minority to gain acceptance from corporate colleagues as well as within their own community.

Fight for a More Inclusive Environment
Research shows that there are between 2 million and 6 million people who are treated unfairly at work because they are LGBT, says Kimberley McLeod, media field strategist for Communities of African Descent at GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). She says it’s not enough to establish policies to protect LGBT employees in the workplace. “Employers must also provide an inclusive environment where people feel safe to be their whole authentic selves. Fragmented employees who feel

they have to leave a part of themselves at home when they come to work will constantly hide or lie about details of their personal lives,” McLeod says. “They will be afraid to have conversations at the water cooler about their partner or to have a photo of their partner on their desks.”

While more companies have policies that protect LGBT workers, there needs to be improved inclusiveness and sensitivity training, especially for transgender workers, McLeod says. A survey by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force found 90% of transgender employees reported harassment at work. Research by the Williams Institute, which works to advance sexual orientation law and public policy, shows that between 15% and 43% of gay and transgender workers experience some form of discrimination on the job solely because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Additionally, 8% to 17% have been passed over for a job or fired because of their sexual orientation or gender identity; 10% to 28% received a negative performance evaluation or were passed over for a promotion because they were gay or transgender; and 7% to 41% were verbally or physically abused or had their workplace vandalized.

Ironically, even companies that have strong diversity policies, including protections and benefits for LGBT employees, are challenged with consistently upholding these values. Recently, several major corporations were called out by civil rights organizations such as Garden State Equality and the Tennessee Equality Project for failing to oppose legislation–lobbied for by The Tennessee Chamber of Commerce & Industry–that repealed Nashville’s ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Garden State Equality rescinded awards to KPMG, Pfizer Inc., and AT&T based on their non-action. Several major national corporations also have representatives on the Tennessee Chamber board including Nissan, FedEx, Comcast, DuPont, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Caterpillar, Whirlpool, Alcoa, and United HealthCare.

Michigan is one of the states where workers can be fired for being LGBT with no legal recourse, says Adam Bernard, chairman of GM Plus, the automaker’s LGBT employee resource group. In 2007 GM–which is on both BE’s 40 Best Companies and Human Rights Campaign’s Best Places to Work lists– joined a coalition sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign to support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). The legislation is being debated in Congress to determine whether to enact a national law that provides basic protections against workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, Bernard explains.

Since its inception in 1993, the 200-member GM Plus has actively campaigned for equal treatment and safe, acceptable working conditions for all GM employees. Sexual orientation was added to GM’s non-discrimination policy in 1999 and GM, Ford, Chrysler, and the United Auto Workers (UAW) jointly announced the auto industry’s first same-sex domestic partner healthcare benefits a year later. In 2003, GM started targeting the LGBT community as part of its marketing efforts. The automaker added policy protection for employees based on gender identity and gender expression in 2006. Such internal and external efforts of corporations such as GM have provided open, inclusive, and supportive environments that have made it less daunting for LGBT workers and managers to be “out at work,” Bernard says.

Now, hundreds of companies have enacted policies protecting LGBT employees. As of March, 433 (87%) of the nation’s 500 largest corporations had implemented nondiscrimination policies that include sexual orientation, and 229 (46%) have policies that include gender identity protections. In addition, the majority of the nation’s largest employers now provide benefits to same-sex partners and spouses of employees. About 25 of the top 100 companies have removed discriminatory language from health insurance plans to allow coverage for transgender-related medical treatment.

When the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index launched in 2002, 13 companies received its top rating of 100%. In 2011, 337 companies earned a 100% rating, up from 305 in 2010, including Ford, Bank of America, and IBM–all on this year’s 40 Best Companies for Diversity list. The top three industries for employers rated 100% are law firms; banking and financial services; and retail and consumer products. Forty-seven companies scored 0%.

Finding the Right Support System
Colleen Taylor has spent her 21-year career working at three financial institutions (JPMorgan Chase, Wachovia, and Capital One) that have been inclusive and supportive of both LGBT and African American employees and their communities. “I have been out for 20 of those years,” says Taylor, an executive vice president and head of treasury management and merchant services with McLean, Virginia-based Capital One Bank.

Taylor, 43, one of BE’s Most Powerful Women in Business, made a conscious decision to come out to family, friends, and colleagues. “Anyone who knows me knows I’m gay. And I’m black. And I’m also a woman. It’s just part of who I am,” she says. While it has not been her experience, Taylor knows others in despair because they are not out at their workplace. “African American LGBT employees need to feel comfortable about showing up at work being who they are,” says Taylor, who points out that leadership sets the tone. “CEOs and senior executives need to be committed around a true sense of inclusion and diversity” by verbalizing it and reinforcing it with policies and programs.

Early on in his career, Curtis Pate III, 33, worked at financial services companies absent of openly

gay senior executives–and definitely not any person of color. At that time, he believed coming out at work would have been detrimental to his career. “I would often hear comments about gays and lesbians that were off-putting.” Since coming to work for

American Express two years ago as global training manager of finance, Pate says he is now in a welcoming corporate environment for a black gay man in a highly visible role. He shares a home near Philadelphia with his partner of 13 years, who works for a major insurance provider. “We are getting to a point of comfort where we can talk with our colleagues about wanting to have children and wanting to get married,” he says.

Pate is involved in the LGBT and African American employee resource groups at American Express, which is on BE’s 40 Best Companies list and the Human Right’s Campaign’s Best Places to Work roster. “All of our employee networks have a common ground which is built on mutual respect. They also partner with each other,” says Pate. “There are a good number of members of the LGBT group that are members of the African American group. That alone helps bridge some of the gap.”

Over the past three decades, employee resource groups (also called affinity groups or business networks) were started, mainly as social networks to provide a safe space for women and minority employees. At the most basic level, such groups focus on employee retention but can also support business opportunities with LGBT consumers and other initiatives. Today, employee resource groups are used for diversity recruitment, promotion, leadership development, supplier diversity, and increasingly for business development, says Orlan Boston, a principal with Deloitte Consulting L.L.P. and chief diversity officer for Deloitte Consulting. Having such groups not only indicates an investment and commitment to challenges facing LGBT and African American employees, but it also demonstrates a bottom-line impact, adds Boston, who is Hispanic, African American, and gay.

There are issues beyond the control of even the best companies that have philosophical practices and principles around diversity and inclusion. This is why it is important that

companies collaborate and partner with major LGBT organizations, explains Burton, 45, who for more than a decade served as a global business development executive for IBM and also served as an expert witness before the U.S. Senate in support of the federal adoption of domestic partnership benefits for federal employees.

Boston maintains that companies must improve policy development efforts regarding fertility coverage for lesbian couples, surrogacy benefits for gay male couples, and unfair taxation of domestic partner benefits. “On average, domestic-partner couples incur an additional $1,500 annually in taxes whereas if they were a married heterosexual couple they would not pay,” he explains. Only five states legally recognize same-sex marriage and another six states (plus the District of Columbia) validate some form of civil unions. Nationwide, which is on BE’s  40 Best Companies list and the Human Rights Campaign’s list, has restructured its benefits package to be more LGBT inclusive. “We have had a very forward-looking approach to our benefits,” says Candice Barnhardt, the company’s chief diversity officer. “We have been active around the tax equity act so that the taxation of domestic partner health plan benefits is treated more fairly.”

Smart, aggressive companies are also targeting their marketing and advertising campaigns to reach the LGBT consumer market, which has estimated buying power of $835 billion. Aaron Walton is co-founder and co-CEO of Los Angeles-based Walton Isaacson (No. 8 on the BE Advertising Agencies list with $12 million in revenues), which has helped develop campaigns for Dove, Courvoisier, Harrah’s, and Maytag to reach this growing segment. “Black gay consumers and employees have a different perspective on LGBT marketing

because they have lived with being a minority within a minority,” says Walton, who is openly gay and has been with his partner for 24 years. “We make sure brands understand that being inclusive is not going to hurt their general market efforts. It will actually bring in new consumers and help build their business.” He further states that roughly 85% of general market consumers don’t care if a brand they prefer has also been targeted to the LGBT community.

Companies are doing a much better job around diversity and inclusion today than 10 years ago, says Pate. “But what is going to drive the workplace is the politics and community outside of that,” he adds.

Gaining Acceptance in the Black Community
Research shows African Americans face greater challenges coming out in their own communities where homophobia is prevalent. “African Americans overwhelmingly turn a blind eye to the existence of LGBT persons. We function like ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ within the African American community. We don’t acknowledge our black LGBT with the respect and dignity they deserve,” says Lettman-Hicks. “We prefer to use stereotypical or derogatory references instead of uplifting a valuable sector of our society. Politically, black folks see gay rights as a white America issue.”

There is the added social pressure for African American LGBT workers in part due to the historical relationship between the black community and the black church, which often sets the climate and tone of political and social movements. Walton, whose mother is a minister, says Julian Bond is one black civil rights leader who has spoken eloquently about the gay rights movement. Bond also has repeatedly acknowledged the contributions of openly gay civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, who was a friend of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the chief architect of the 1963 March on Washington.

It’s not just religious institutions. “We have to also look at institutions of higher learning, especially historically black colleges and universities, in fostering inclusion,” says Lettman-Hicks. This past May, nine historically black colleges and universities held a summit at Spelman College (funded by the Arcus Foundation) to address issues facing LGBT students, breaking the silence on a subject considered taboo on most black college campuses.

The same can be said for black fraternities and sororities, says O’Neale, who is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha. LGBT brothers and sorors aren’t usually comfortable bringing their partners to the “big dance,” such as national conferences and social events, explains O’Neale, who has been with her partner for 20 years and is one of the 18,000 legally married couples in the state of California. “The African American community has always had mixed emotions about the LGBT community. There is a history of excluding and marginalizing LGBT individuals.” In addition, LGBT African Americans can feel invisible within the general LGBT community, she says.

The Next Phase of Activism and Advocacy
The tide is changing with the next generation, says Boston. The experience of an LGBT baby boomer is very different from that of a Gen-Xer or Millennial. “We actively recruit LGBT students and candidates on college campuses. They are asking about domestic partner benefits, anti-discrimination policies, affiliations with national LGBT organizations, and the number of openly gay people on the board or the executive committee,” Boston says. “A good number of those asking these questions aren’t even LGBT, but they consider themselves straight allies who care about fair workplace practices for all employees. We never would have gotten those questions 10 years ago from job seekers.”

For more of our coverage on the triumphs and challenges of Black LGBTs in the workplace and beyond, visit blackenterprise.com/blacklgbt