When to Come Out: The Challeng Facg Gay CEOs - Knowledge at Wharton

Contents:

• THE CEO IS A GAY FOR ME
• TREVOR BURGS, FIRST OPENLY GAY CEO OF PUBLIC BANK: ‘SUCCS IS THE BT REVENGE’
• WHEN TO COME OUT: THE CHALLENG FACG GAY CEOS

THE CEO IS A GAY FOR ME

"started cryg, "oh my god brother ed to work for me day and night here, I'm so imprsed by brother and I thk i should fort him a ltle"He went , " actually so bad, Everyone here is a gay, men were dancg on a pole wh that nu I am""I shouldn't be here but first should fd my brother, ahh their is he" he ran to the bar to meet his hyung but he spot someone the oppose a very faiar face"It's him, MOXEAN SHANG I should return but I need to meet my brother he won't spot me, Don't worry ok be brave"he refully whout noticg reached to his brother, "shu "yuan saw him and said loudly, "Deok why are you here??

TREVOR BURGS, FIRST OPENLY GAY CEO OF PUBLIC BANK: ‘SUCCS IS THE BT REVENGE’

But he may be bt known as the first openly gay CEO of a publicly listed bank after the pany he found, C1 Fancial, Inc, IPO'd 2014.

)Of urse, Burgs' journey to succs as an openly gay man wasn't always easy. "I end up beg, I thk, the first openly gay person ever promoted to managg director at Man Stanley, " says Burgs, who spent a there om 1998 to 2008.

WHEN TO COME OUT: THE CHALLENG FACG GAY CEOS

(A spokperson for Man Stanley nfirmed that Burgs was among the first openly gay executiv to be promoted to managg director at the firm. "Tim Cook is openly gay.

Gay and lbian people were always there. "Here, Burgs talks to CNBC Make It about g out llege, climbg the ranks while openly gay and his advice for the growg up: 'I was a prec kid'I grew up wh a sgle mother Hanover, New Hampshire, where there are more ws than people. I thk 's bee I didn't have much realizg he was gay: 'I had no name for 'When you velop those feelgs as an 11-, 12- or 13-year old, they n put a name to [today].

I had been the print of my aterny and end up rigng and beme print of the gay stunts' I moved to Boston after graduatn. As a prec 21-year-old, I ran an experiment: On half of my [job] applitns, I left off that I was print of the gay stunts' group. On the [other] half, I put that I was print of the gay stunts' group.

It was really neat to go work for a pany that 1994 was fortable hirg an openly gay that pot on, I sort of never had a filter.

But there were all sorts of crazy cinc of slurs and discrimatn and clients tellg crazy stori about hatg gay people and hatg people who have was very much of that time of the sort of the late 1990s and then thgs really started to change a ltle 's sort of the advice that I give to people, that life is not always fair. I really wanted to help shape a different sort of environment where people, whether they're gay, women or people of lor, uld be much more thentic wh themselv. ]On endurg antigay sentiment: 'The were really their problems, not my problem'It really helped me velop a very thick sk durg that time and realizg that the were really their problems and not my problem.

Dpe all the barriers that have fallen recent years for gay people the U.

S., there is still a arth of openly gay CEOs. Beg gay or lbian Ameri the past half has meant watchg barriers fall some surprisg quarters. S., where attus have evolved most dramatilly, no openly gay CEO exists the Fortune 500, many note.

That’s bee gay men and women n hi what sets them apart, and they sometim pay a terrible price for their secrecy. Moni McGrath, vice an of Wharton’s Arty Instute of Executive Edutn and an experienced ach to Fortune 500 executiv, says she has e across gay CEOs the closet, and “’s don’t ask, don’t tell, ” she says, referencg the Clton-era directive toward gay people servg the ary. “I thk the choice of where and when you e out is a very personal one, ” not Mira Patel, an MBA stunt and -print of Out4Biz, Wharton’s gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr (GLBT) stunt group.

But gay- and lbian-supportive laws and polici do not exist across the board by dtry, or geographilly. S., views on homosexualy have changed Europe, Asia and Rsia, often beg more liberal, though not always.

Rsian print Vladimir Put has ma gays and lbians a special target of ernment harassment and hostily recent years. In Cha, homosexualy was removed om the ernment’s list of mental disorrs 2001, but the issue has spng to life recent years, wh Che gay activists advotg anti-discrimatn laws and same-sex marriage.

Vlence agast gays persists India, where homosexual behavr is still a crime, although recent years gay issu have bee more wily accepted and discsed media and through popular films like Don’t Know Why. In his recent book tled, The Glass Closet: Why Comg Out Is Good Bs, Browne pots out that 77 untri, homosexual acts between nsentg adults is still illegal.

In 2013, Uned Natns secretary-general Ban Ki-moon began a major drive to repeal anti-gay laws around the world, llg such laws “an outrage.