I won’t forget my first meeting with senior executives at a major airline over 30 years ago, when one asked me, “Do you think many gay people work here?”   

It was an honest question. But more urgently, it was a wake-up call.  

Our invisibility—not only in corporate America but in most communities—along with fears, myths, and misperceptions about LGBTQ+ people meant we did not count.  

When I spoke with business leaders back then, I grasped how critical it is to expand our visibility and advance our workplace progress. While there were a handful of trailblazers, it wasn’t easy to identify corporations that had embraced LGBTQ+ inclusive practices. In 1994, I conducted the first authentic survey of Washington, D.C.-area employers to shine light on which companies—if any—had LGBTQ+ welcoming practices and policies in place.  

The survey asked about tangible policies like nondiscrimination protections, same-sex domestic partner benefits, and the presence of LGBTQ+ employee resource groups (ERGs). For most of those surveyed, it became clear that few had ever before asked about these inclusive practices and policies.  

So, where could we turn then to find hope? Even these early signals, however, made it plain to me that business leaders are our natural allies. 

All business decision-makers rely on metrics to navigate the competitive landscape. To make the invisible visible, first we must identify and measure it. Our simple survey of 50 employers three decades ago helped model the first Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI), the national benchmarking tool on corporate practices, policies, and benefits for LGBTQ+ employees. 

When first published in 2002, the CEI surveyed 319 companies of which only a handful – 13 employers — earned 100 out of a possible 100 points. Compare that to the last year’s CEI survey in which 545 major employers scored 100 points, and 97% provided sexual orientation and gender identity nondiscrimination protection. 

What was a trickle is now an unstoppable rising tide of workplace equity, inclusion, and belonging that is reshaping the world in which we live and work—and this gives us hope. Where diverse talents are found, the true sense of belonging grows. 

As the great economist Cyndi Lauper once said, “Money changes everything.”  

Today, most major companies recognize that discrimination—in any form—is a curse to economic growth and vitality. Gallup research shows that a disengaged workforce costs businesses as much as $350 billion each year. Study after study has shown that companies with workplace cultures of inclusion and belonging enjoy higher self-reported rates of employee engagement, which can lead to positive business outcomes, including higher customer satisfaction, higher productivity, higher sales and yes, higher profitability. 

Remarkably, this year the business case earned stronger validation in a financial performance study commissioned by the Human Rights Campaign. The expert study reports that, over a 15-year period, companies with consistently high CEI scores saw greater cumulative revenue growth than comparable low-scoring companies. 

Top-scoring companies also reported average net income more than 8 times their lowest-scoring peers, along with greater gross profits and more stable share price performance. Customer, employee and investor satisfaction were united among top CEI performing brands. 

Our visibility is now not simply a given. It is a business imperative. This gives us hope.  

In 2019, it made headlines when 206 corporations representing more than 7 million employees and $5 trillion in revenue signed an amicus brief to the US Supreme Court to advocate that LGBTQ+ Americans be protected from unjust firing on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  

Today, in the face of unprecedented attacks on LGBTQ+ rights at the local, state, and federal levels, business leaders—often behind the scenes, sometimes in public coalitions—provide a critical edge from city council chambers to the halls of Congress by insisting on fair, inclusive business climates and working to defeat anti-LGBTQ+ measures. As history shows, companies have led lasting change when political inertia stands in the path of equal rights. 

With Out & Equal’s emergence more than 25 years ago, American and global businesses’ collective voice has been harnessed to advance vital workplaces of equity and belonging—supporting LGBTQ+ employees and leaders to thrive in our careers, our lives, our families and our communities. 

Communities and economies are made stronger by the contributions of the people we value—not the ones we discard. LGBTQ+ people, once obscured, dismissed, and disparaged, now visibly and positively influence our public life, our personal and professional well-being, and the global economy immeasurably.   

When valued and respected, we are prized for what we contribute, whether as workforce talent, philanthropists, business owners, families, innovators, partners, investors, voters, or consumers. This is precisely why Out & Equal thrives and our dedication to workplace belonging grows. And this gives us hope.  

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Co-founder and CEO of Washington, D.C.-based Witeck Communications, Inc., Bob Witeck (he/him) is a pioneering corporate communications strategist, consultant, author, speaker, and researcher dedicated to the advancement of LGBTQ+ communities in the workplace and beyond.  The co-author of Business Inside Out: Tapping Millions of Brand-Loyal Gay Consumers, he was recognized by American Demographics magazine for his contribution to the worlds of demographics, market research, media, and trend-spotting related to the US LGBTQ+ population. Bob has served on the boards of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA), GLAAD, GLSEN, and the NEA Foundation and currently serves on the Human Rights Campaign’s Business Council and the board of the Matthew Shepard Foundation.