By Melissa J. Anderson

Out & Equal’s latest Workplace Survey shows that support for LGBT inclusiveness is dropping across the United States.

Last year, 47 percent of all respondents said they supported policies that ban discrimination against LGBT people. This year, that number was 43 percent.

While LGBT support for polices that ban LGBT discrimination increased from 76 percent to 84 percent over the past year, that jump was not enough to counteract the decrease in support from heterosexual people – both allies and non-allies. Support for these policies decreased for allies (from 81 percent last year to 73 percent in 2012) and non-allies (from 29 percent last year to 22 percent in 2012).

Similarly, LGBT individuals are more empowered this year than last when it comes to speaking up about discrimination (an increase from 61 percent to 75 percent). On the other hand, heterosexual support has dropped here as well, from 64 percent to 62 percent for allies, and 16 percent to 10 percent for non-allies.

Nevertheless, the organization says the support LGBT employees do receive from allies is important. “Ending all forms of discrimination in the workplace benefits all employees,” says Selisse Berry, Founding Executive Director of the organization. She continues, “It’s breathtaking to see how many more allies gave stronger voice to our issues and stand buy us to defeat unequal treatment.”

Noting the uptick in the percentage of LGBT indivdials feeling empowered to call out discriminatory behavior, Berry added, “We know our mission is strengthened when we see more LGBT employees able to summon the courage to speak up when they see or experience discrimination.”

By Melissa J. Anderson

Earlier this summer, the Boy Scouts of America ignited a firestorm of controversy after announcing a secret 11-member internal council had decided that openly gay scouts and troop leaders would not be welcome within the 102 year-old institution.

Two of the group’s board-members, Ernst & Young CEO Jim Turley and AT&T CEO Randall L. Stephenson, both spoke out against the policy and announced they would work to turn the decision around internally.

The response by National President Wayne Perry and Chief Scout Executive Robert Mazzuca was clear – they don’t expect change anytime soon. The Huffington Post reported:

“The Boy Scouts of America respects the opinions of our board members and are thankful for their leadership,” the statement said. “While we have supporters and board members with different viewpoints on this issue, and who may choose a different direction for their organizations, we believe that good people can personally disagree on this topic and still work together.”

The statement says a lot about how the BSA leadership sees the situation: an abstract conflict of ideas, one over which people are invited to politely agree to disagree. What they don’t grasp is the real affect it has on the organization’s membership. They are, in essence, telling boys across the country that not only is being gay not okay, but inclusion is not a core value of the group. While even the military has put an end to Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the Boy Scouts has new implemented its own insidious brand of the policy.

But the involvement of Turley and Stephenson has brought another issue to light – how can (or should) leaders embody the values of their organizations outside the corporate space?

By Melissa J. Anderson

A new survey of employees at Australian companies has revealed some surprising data around being out and age. According to the research, younger employees were the least likely to be out in the workplace. This runs contrary to common belief around today’s young LGBT individuals being more comfortable being open.

The study of 770 individuals is a part of the 2012 Australian Workplace Equality Index, which ranks Australia’s top companies in terms of LGBT equality. This year’s employer of the year, PwC, rose several spots from number eight least year. Professional services firms nabbed top spots on the Index.

Luke Sayers, CEO of PwC Australia said, “We recognise that people are the key to our success as a business, which is why we are committed to building a culture that empowers every individual and celebrates difference.”

But, the study showed, not everyone is on board with the move toward inclusiveness. The survey also generated an “alarming” number of “hate” responses as well, which show that companies have a long way to go creating an inclusive environment.

By Melissa J. Anderson

“A lot of times, people don’t necessarily want advice, they just want someone to talk to,” explained Nini Mishra, manager in Accenture’s change management practice and an active member of its LGBT allies program.

Mishra is an enthusiastic LGBT ally (also known as “straight ally”) at the company. She explained that the company’s formal LGBT ally program was launched recently, but she has been participating in the informal “Friends of LGBT” group for quite some time. “I had a number of friends and colleagues who are open and out, and they were people who I had a huge amount of respect for personally and professionally. Over the years, a lot of them confided in me, just going out to coffee and talking about their feelings,” she explained. “To me, that’s what the LGBT allies program is about – to support fellow colleagues and be role models for how to foster inclusiveness.”

She suggested that LGBT inclusiveness is just one layer to Accenture’s wider value set of diversity and inclusion. “I think it transcends a lot of other points. It’s just treating people as individuals, with respect, and being open to differences,” she explained.

Anthony Sharrock, IT Strategy and Transformation Consultant at Accenture, and UK co-lead of the company’s LGBT Allies program, agreed. “I initially thought, ‘what’s the point of an LGBT ally network?’” he explained. “As a gay man, I didn’t really get the concept. But I began to realize it’s actually another avenue to help make LGBT employees feel comfortable about being themselves at work, and to do this well. It needs to be okay to be gay any place in the firm, no matter your project, team, et cetera. That takes more than just having a great LGBT network.”

He added, “It’s part of pushing the agenda forward. In the same way we want to see men at women’s networking events, we want to see straight people at LGBT events.”

By Melissa J. Anderson

Our most recent research on LGBT women in the professional services revealed how senior leadership plays an important role in building an inclusive culture, one in which LGBT women can thrive. In fact, 53% of our respondents said senior management at their companies visibly and vocally support LGBT initiatives.

This research was focused mainly in the US. While we believe the study revealed important insight about how senior individuals can influence the careers of LGBT employees, we also believe that the wider national culture in which companies are situated has an impact as well. In that vein, we have launched a new study on LGBT women in financial services, specifically in the context of the UK’s unique workplace environment.

While about half of the respondents to our first survey (55.4%) said coming out has not or would not hurt their career advancement, other research has shown that lesbians in the professional workplace often feel they are a “double-minority.” Both LGBT and female, many feel they have two glass ceilings to break through, or as Stonewall has described it, they must contend with the “double glazed glass ceiling.”

How do UK LGBT women in finance feel about their opportunities for advancement? How do employee resource groups or affinity networks, as well as workplace relationships and straight allies affect the career paths of this group? How can UK companies better engage and propel this group of women to success?

These are questions we hope to answer with our upcoming research – and we’ll need your help to find out.

If you are an LGBT women in the financial services in the UK, please take our survey here: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/882311/LGB-Workplace-Survey. It only takes about 10 minutes, and all answers will remain confidential and anonymous. Please feel free to share the link with colleagues who may provide valuable input as well. (We also welcome the participation of LGBT men and straight allies!)

By Melissa J. Anderson

“I’ve been involved with LGBT groups since 2002, and I first noticed the term ‘straight allies’ around 2004,” recalled John Henry Watson, Vice President at Citi. “I saw an ‘A’ at the end of LGBT and wondered what it meant, and when I found out, it seemed like a no-brainer.”

Now co-head of Citi’s LGBT network chapter in New York, Watson said one of the areas he focuses on is sustaining Citi’s ally program and keeping allies involved in the long term. “Straight allies are definitely a crucial component of a diversity strategy and they help to demonstrate and sustain a supportive, inclusive culture.”

In its report on straight allies [PDF], the UK group Stonewall explains how support from straight employees is critical in achieving inclusiveness in the workplace.

“Good straight allies recognise that gay people can perform better if they can be themselves and straight allies use their role within an organisation to create a culture where this can happen. Straight allies might be at the very top of an organisation or a colleague in a team. Either way, they recognise that it’s not just the responsibility of gay people to create a workplace culture that is inclusive of everyone.”

Watson believes, “If a straight ally goes through the effort to understand the issues that LGBT coworkers face, it’s not only energizing, but it can have a positive business impact.”

How can companies cultivate an ally culture that will provide this critical support?

By Melissa J. Anderson

Recently North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue told MSNBC that the state’s ban on gay marriage would hurt its business environment. The Hampton Rhodes Pilot quoted:

“This is a big day for North Carolina. Chuck, this hurts our brand,” Perdue said. “Our state has been known around America and around the world as a progressive leader, as an inviting state, the hub of business and opportunity. This is bad for business.”

In fact, she’s not the only one. Many of the state’s corporate leaders have been outspoken on North Carolina’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, which passed last week. For example, as the Advocate mentioned recently, “Jim Rogers, the CEO of Duke Energy, has compared the amendment to the Jim Crow laws, and Cathy Bessant, technology chief at Bank of America, taped a video saying that the amendment would signal a ‘backward-looking economy.’”

These are strong words, and for these business leaders to come out so strongly in support marriage equality in a fairly conservative state, it no doubt took a lot of courage as well. Does the fact that some – like Bessant – have related their public stance on these values to business indicate that they have their company’s support or speak for their company? For that matter, when a CEO makes his or her personal beliefs public – like Rogers, are they ever separate from his or her company’s cultural values?

By Melissa J. Anderson

Accenture recently announced a new LGBT component to its Skills to Succeed corporate citizenship program. As part of the goal of Skills to Succeed (training 250,000 people around the world to get a job or build their own business), Accenture is teaming with Out & Equal to honor a non-profit group whose mission is to provide job training to LGBT individuals.

Matthew Coates, Accenture senior executive and Global LGBT Network lead, explained that coupling diversity goals with Skills to Succeed seemed like a natural step. “We believe we’ll get more value as far as our diversity goals – that’s why this crossover has occurred.”

He continued, “The outcome is trying to help people succeed in the workplace – in this instance it’s about LGBT.”

Additionally, Coates said, Accenture believes that combining the diversity goals with Skills to Succeed enables the company to send a message to its workforce – and potential recruits – about the company’s values.

By Melissa J. Anderson

Yesterday, Bank of America hosted the second annual Out on the Street Summit, a gathering of LGBT employees and straight allies in the financial services to share best practices on building a more inclusive workplace.

One of the key ideas presented at the event was the importance of leadership advocacy for the issue of building an environment where every employee can bring his or her whole self to work.

Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, opened the conference. He explained that he felt it was critical for top firms to be a voice for equality, and to ensure that every employee is able to come to work every day and not have to leave who they are at the door.

He added that he believes his colleagues at all of the large firms across Wall Street feel the same way.

Much has been said about the business case for diversity, and quite a bit of the discussion from last year’s Out on the Street summit focused on this topic. But Moynihan pointed out that while the business case is clear, that’s not the most important aspect to him. It’s just the right thing to do, he explained. As a leader, he believes, it’s up to him to guide the conversation about LGBT inclusion within his company and industry.