Changing Corporate America

The legal and cultural advances made by the Civil Rights Movement, the New Left, Feminism, and LGBTQ rights activism, pressured many companies to diversify. Additional pressure came from the increasing mobility within corporate America; being able to embrace diversity became a competitive advantage. At first most corporate diversity initiatives were aimed at women and people of color.¹ However, closeted LGBTQ employees witnessed changes in their organizations, including top-down support for diversity by managers and corporate leadership, that inspired them to come out and advocate for LGBTQ workplace equality. With help from outside organizations, the workplace activism of the 1970s through the 2000s mobilized a national network of employees, corporations, and organizations. In addition to helping LGBTQ people feel safe at work, their advocacy helped change culture outside of the workplace, culminating in the achievements of non-discrimination legislation and protections for same-sex marriage.

Employee groups were responsible for most of the activism within corporations, and they often operated as both support groups and educational resources. Their duality embodied a transaction; by agreeing to align with the values of their companies and to support their diversity initiatives, employee groups were sanctioned by those companies, so they were both personally and institutionally oriented. As the popularity of LGBTQ employee groups grew, umbrella groups like COLLEAGUES and workplace conferences like Out & Equal began to form, so employee groups, company representatives, activists, and organizations could strengthen each other through education. 

Inspired by their employee groups, corporations became active participants in the movement. A powerful example of their commitment to LGBTQ workplace equality was revealed in 1996 when 28 big-name companies endorsed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, proposed federal legislation to outlaw sexual-orientation-based discrimination in hiring and employment practices. Also, Raeburn found that "in industries in which career tracks entail movement from one firm to another, once an industry leader grants domestic partnership benefits, many others follow suit," and in general, corporate benchmarking by competing companies helped spread the adoption of LGBTQ inclusive policies and make them industry standards.

Outside from corporate America, activists and organizations, like the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), pushed for change within it. Unlike employee groups, they were free to have a more assertive agenda and were not limited by performance requirements outside from their activism. As a result, those external activist and organizations became instrumental in influencing policy change by advocating for what employee groups could not safely demand from their employers. For example, in 2002, HRC began the Corporate Equality Index, an annual rating of LGBTQ equality at large companies, based on evolving criteria. The Corporate Equality Index helps pressure low-scoring companies to improve their workplace conditions by clearly identifying measures to implement and high-scoring companies to follow. 

In some ways, workplace activism helped to isolate sexual orientation and gender expression from radical queer politics by defining and mobilizing an LGBTQ subculture of middle- and upper-class professionals interested in corporate success. Like the effect of the Mattachine Society's reformation, workplace activists' separation from radical LGBTQ activism appealed to a wider range of people, but radical activism and workplace activism were never entirely separate. The networking of employee groups and organizations involved workplace activists in grassroots organizing and direct actions, including marches on Washington D.C., and activists from both wings of the movement partnered to support LGBTQ-inclusive legislation.

Raeburn, "The Rise of the Corporate Workplace Movement," Changing Corporate America from inside out: Lesbian and Gay Workplace Rights, 49-50.

Raeburn, "Winds of Change Outside Corporate Walls: External Factors Influence Gay-Inclusive Policies," Changing Corporate America from inside out: Lesbian and Gay Workplace Rights.