Coming out in India Inc: Lesbians and gays in the workplace

New York legalised same sex marriage last week. While that’s still not on the cards in India, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues are more and more visible. There are Pride Parades in many Indian cities, there are gay characters in the Hindi soap opera Maryada, stores that target lesbian and gay customers in Mumbai. But is the next frontier for LGBT rights India Inc.? A recent cover story in Forbes India suggests more and more corporations, especially MNCs are waking up to their LGBT employees. After the Delhi High Court struck down Section 377, the anti-sodomy law, many companies are also trying to figure out how their diversity policies need to reflect that. [caption id=“attachment_31973” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Reuters”]  [/caption] So is being gay friendly good for business? Firstpost and Forbes India put together a panel moderated by Firstpost’s Sandip Roy to discuss what’s next for LGBT employees in the workplace. The panel was as follows: Anuj Chopra wrote the cover story on India Inc’s Best Kept Secret. Vikram Doctor is a journalist with the Economic Times in Mumbai and an organiser of the GayBombay group. He has written several stories over the years on issues facing gays and lesbians in the work place. Nitin Karani is on the board of the Humsafar trust in Mumbai which works on lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender rights. And has been working in the financial services industry for the last 6 years Arun Mirchandani works in HR for a multinational bankand is the author of the gay fiction novel You Are not alone. Vinay Chandran is the executive director of an LGBT rights organisation, the Swabhava Trust in Bangalore and has consulted on gay and lesbian workplace issues with several multinationals. Here are some excerpts of the discussion: Out Employee, Closeted Company In this section Anuj Chopra and Vikram Doctor discuss why companies that are so often so excited to talk about their diversity policies seem to be reticent when it comes to LGBT policies, even if they have them on their books: Catalyst for change Chopra points out in his story that they approached a range of companies but were finally only able to talk to the MNCs. The Indian-owned companies did not respond. So where are these winds of change coming from? Is it really HR policy in Santa Clara, California that is bringing about change on campuses in Bangalore? Hear what Vikram Doctor and Arun Mirchandani have to say: Let sleeping gays lie Many companies think that sexuality is an issue that’s best left at home in the bedroom. Why drag your private stuff into the workplace and make an issue out of it? Gay men and women would say their heterosexual counterparts do it all the time, every time they put a photo of their spouse on their cubicle wall. Vinay Chandran and Anuj Chopra tackle the issue of why make what’s private the whole company’s business: Next frontier for gay rights? Workplace equality might be the next frontier for HR departments but what about LGTB activists? Where does this issue feature among all the other issues on the front burner – marriage, adoption, social discrimination, the challenge to the High Court’s reading down of Section 377? Nitin Karani, Vinay Chandran and Vikram Doctor weigh in. Equality on paper Even if Indian companies do include their LGBT employees in their diversity policies does that change the conversation around the water cooler? What can take a diversity policy from being a Powerpoint presentation to something that actually matters? Vinay Chandran shares his thoughts. You can listen to the whole audio discussion here: Read the story on Forbes India  here and here.