Workplace equality for sexual minorities is finally on the agenda
In her decade-long career, Neha Dixit has learned how to hide herself well. If an inquisitive colleague asks, marriage and kids are not for her — not after her recent divorce. It’s not like she’s not dating anyone, but she will only refer to her lover with a gender-neutral pronoun. If she can squelch all her natural tomboy instincts and “not look lesbian” at work, she will be just fine.
“If I have short hair, wear only shirts and trousers to work and have no boyfriend, there will be gossip about me,” says Neha, 32, who requested that her real name not be revealed. “When I go to work, I leave a part of myself back at home.”
Neha is a Mumbai-based executive with one of India’s largest telecom companies exploiting new-fangled business opportunities in a rapidly accelerating market. But within the company, conservative mindsets prevail. Homosexuality, she has gleaned from conversations with several colleagues, is considered a mental derangement or a sex-crazed lifestyle imported from Western shores. Coming out in such an environment would be professional hara-kiri. Her sexuality could be a major stumbling block in her career advancement. “I will not be judged by my work alone.” She also risks becoming an office joke; it could start off a trail of gossip and innuendo and her every friendly overture to female colleagues could be viewed with suspicion. Even worse, she fears her sexuality could be used as a weapon by some to blackmail or manipulate her.
In January, 22-year-old Danish Sheikh stood before his co-workers at Google’s office in Hyderabad, where he was a public policy intern, and announced that he was gay. About 25 employees, comprising senior management and junior staff, had assembled in a conference room on the campus to hear him speak. Many others had joined in via videoconferencing from other Google offices in India.
In many ways, IBM is the frontrunner among multinationals in promoting workplace equality for LGBTs. It offers benefits — including pension plans, medical insurance, wedding leave and compassionate bereavement leave — to same-sex couples across several global offices. After the landmark Delhi High Court judgement, it is considering deploying the same benefits in India.
In its 2008 survey conducted with a range of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual employees across 21 private and public organisations in the UK, the London-based charity Stonewall said that being open “evidently makes good business sense”.
If that question had unnerved him, Patankar says in retrospect, he would have exposed a big weakness. “If I had got upset, people would know, ‘ah, to get the better of him, drop the gay card’,” he says. “If you’re open about your identity, no one can use your sexuality as ammunition against you.”
(This story appears in the 01 July, 2011 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)