Asking for a friend. Edit: I personally do not know any openly gay individuals at my office, unless they are keeping it on the down low. Found it very strange especially in San Francisco, home to the biggest lgbt community in all of the US. Large corporations like to pride themselves on being extremely pro-gay in recent years but the lack of visibly here makes me wonder if people really are still that uncomfortable coming forward? #TechIndustry #LGBT #Gay #Tech
Have you been to any pride parade recently? It’s 80% corporate now Actually a common complaint amongst the LGBTQ+ community
True, but just because corporations are marching in pride parades as a PR move doesn’t necessarily mean the workplace is a comfortable place to come out.
Where is your friend? What company At Salesforce - no issues whatsoever
I'm not gay but gotta think tech is one of the better industries to come out to your coworkers. I went to tech school when I was younger and there was a gay guy in our class. People weren't exactly PC about it behind his back...
Nobody gives a shit. Be gay.
God if only that statement were true. Up until June of this year it was 100% legal to fire someone solely for being gay (in the US). Let that sink in.
Seriously? That's absurd. Sexual orientation has no bearing on professional performance. In my circle, literally nobody cares, and I've never seen anybody discriminated against for their sexual orientation. Though, you totally could be right. As hard as I try to always see things from other's perspectives, I am a straight male and have never been in your shoes. Either way, I think you need to be yourself. Anyone who tells you otherwise isn't worth the effort of putting up with.
You may not see a lot of openly gay coworkers because most mature people realize that in a professional setting it doesn't really matter that much. Unless relationships come up in small talk, there's not a lot of opportunity for that information to be relevant. Are you expecting people to send out emails announcing that they're gay? That said, on the Microsoft campus in Redmond it's pretty common to see people who are clearly T, and I've seen people who are clearly T or in same sex relationships at other big companies as well.
Replying to my own comment - in case you are hiding portions of yourself from your coworkers out of fear of being ostracized, I'm not sure you have to. And if you are in such a situation, I think there are many workplaces that would welcome you with open arms. Knowing my team personally and seeing the amount of support for diversity efforts (coming from my CVP on down) in my greater org, I feel like Microsoft is one such company, my previous co is another, and most other big tech companies would be similar.
Oh wow, it’s interesting that you mention that you’ve noticed employees who are openly T. Wouldn’t have expected that and it’s great to hear that your company widely embraces the lgbt community. And to your earlier point about relationship details needing to be left out of professional environments, I see your point but at one point or another these things usually get shared to some degree. For instance, with straight coworkers you’ll usually find that during small talk they’ll mention a small detail about their girlfriend/boyfriend/wife/husband freely and without thinking twice about it. On the other hand I haven’t noticed anyone I’ve interacted with alluding to the fact that they are in a same-sex relationship during these kind of casual work conversations. And if they have it’s usually with a neutral term like *partner* which honestly makes me cringe haha.
Openly gay and it’s a literal non issue. Could not be less relevant to my work.
Love to hear that. If you don’t mind sharing, what department do you fall under? Genuinely curious if sentiments could vary between job types, e.g. engineering, marketing, finance
Did you tell your friend you will be posting the question on Blind?
Had openly gay coworkers at lyft, non-issue.
Was closeted for a few years, been out for a few years now @work, never going back in. I'm in the dgaf stage - take it or leave it. But I know some folks who are just private or cannot be out due to their country of origin or just aren't ready. Also - how do you even bring it up? It just doesn't come up as much until you're pretty close with someone unless you are in a serious relationship with a partner. Even then it takes a while to know if the "we" your colleague mentions is a hetero partner or not (but also I'm not really examining to find out cause whatever). Also the corporations are pro gay. That doesn't make the people pro gay. I definitely don't fault anyone for being cautious or just private. It's hard enough to do well at work, adding a layer of possible bias does seem inconvenient.
Everyday we go to work and are expected to congratulate people for getting straight married or reproducing. Definitely witnessed favoritism for people that have children, especially when layoffs roll through. We’re all human, most of my social circle is people I’ve worked with at some point in my career. We have happy hour, holiday parties, team building exercising, etc where being out, inviting my partner as a plus one, etc are all cases where my sexuality relevant in the work place. I would never work some place where I have to hide it!
Glad to hear about your positive experiences being out in the workplace and being able to share that facet of yourself without hesitation. I always scoff when others hold the sentiment that it’s not important to share that part of yourself in a professional setting (sure, maybe if you’re a robot) because keeping that information private can really hinder you from being able to make connections at work, human to human, as you mentioned.
I’ve definitely had some excellent experiences being out at work. Got my entire office to come to happy hour at a gay bar many years ago, been out with clients all over the world, escorted to gay bars in several countries by clients. I’ve been in Glenn Beck’s studio’s with a rainbow watch band on. There are gays everywhere in tech!
Tell your “friend” nobody cares, it’s 2020
You do realize gay marriage was only legalized in 2015 and is now at extremely high risk of being reversed pending the results of the 2020 election?
“Nobody cares” = “since my rights aren’t at stake I could care less if yours are”