When Ronald Moore moved to Atlanta a decade ago to take over as site manager for Hewlett-Packard, he remained in the closet at work until he ran into a co-worker at a gay bar.

“I sat down with him and said I guess this would eventually happen. He told me he’d seen me there already a couple months ago and people at work already knew,” Moore said.

So Moore, an African American, came out to his supervisor. The person had no issues with his employee’s sexual orientation, which empowered Moore to become active in Atlanta gay rights groups. He is now business diversity director for Hewlett-Packard as well as a past-president of the Atlanta Executive Network, a gay business organization.

Moore said he hadn’t come out earlier in his 25-year career with the company because he was unsure of the consequences, especially as a person of color.
“ I already had to deal with that issue — why add one more to it,” he said.

But the face of corporate America is changing to recognize that all kinds of employees, including gay men and lesbians, are key to a company’s success — and bottom line. More and more major companies, such as Hewlett-Packard, include sexual orientation in non-discrimination statements and offer domestic partner benefits.

“Where I think we are at in corporate America is that diversity is a business objective, not just a social objective,” Moore said. “This includes diversity in thinking styles, age, ethnicity, religion. A company wants to retain a person with the best ideas regardless of the package the ideas come in.”

On Aug. 19, AEN will sponsor a Corporate Diversity Panel. Scheduled participants include BellSouth’s chief diversity officer, Valencia Adams; Beth Johnston, Delta Air Lines’ vice president of human resources-field operations; Claudia Woody, vice president of global services for IBM; and Gloria Johnson-Goins, vice president for diversity and inclusion at Home Depot USA.

“It’s important for people to come hear this panel and ask questions — we don’t always get this kind of chance,” said AEN Executive Director Glen Paul Freedman. “It is so important that more companies are adding sexual orientation into their policies … This says that companies recognize you and value you as an employee and are willing to go on the record stating that.

“Do we still have a long way to go?” Freedman asked. “Absolutely. Our responsibility is to educate and everyday we are moving forward.”

Home Depot changing?
Just three years ago, Atlanta-based Home Depot drew strong criticism from local gay rights activists for refusing to include sexual orientation in its non-discrimination statement.

In May 2001, the company so popular with gay shoppers finally relented and began officially protecting gay and lesbian employees from discrimination.

Now, on the heels of Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli’s $25,000 contribution to the Republican National Committee and his recent multi-million dollar fund-raiser featuring President Bush at his Buckhead residence, the nation’s largest home improvement chain has partnered for the first time with a gay organization.

In late July, the Fortune 500 company became a Bronze Partner, which includes a donation between $1,000 to $5,000 to AEN, and plans to be a 2005 partner as well.

“I’m very excited about this,” Freedman said. “This is the first time Home Depot USA has partnered with [any] gay and lesbian organization. We’re honored AEN is the first and we know there will be others to follow.”

Since 2002, the Human Rights Campaign has rated companies through its Corporate Equality Index, which awards points based on policies such as domestic partner benefits and whether non-discrimination statements include sexual orientation and gender identity.

In tentative 2004 ratings, Home Depot scored 57 out of 100 — the lowest of the four companies participating in the AEN panel. IBM scored a perfect 100, while BellSouth and Delta Air Lines both received scores of 86.

Home Depot is also the only company represented on AEN’s diversity panel that does not offer domestic partner benefits to gay employees.

Asked repeatedly to comment on why the company is partnering with AEN, Home Depot officials eventually declined.

Freedman said he understands Home Depot has had its share of problems on gay issues, but the partnership with AEN proves the company is moving forward.

“They are making some major changes … they’re progressing,” he said. “They’re on the right track and any company on that track is listening to its employees and proves they value their employees.”

In its 2001 proxy detailing business to be conducted at its annual meeting in Atlanta, Home Depot included a stockholder proposal to amend the firm’s equal employment opportunity policy to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Company officials flatly rejected the proposal and recommended that shareholders vote against it. When the move was made public in media reports, it ignited a firestorm of controversy among gay customers and employees.

Corporate Equality Index score Non-discrimination policy includes sexual orientation Non-discrimination policy includes gender identity Domestic partner health benefits Diversity training includes sexual orientation Markets to gay consumers or gives to gay groups Gay employee group 86 yes no yes yes* yes yes 86 yes no yes yes yes yes 57 yes no no yes yes yes 100 yes yes yes yes yes yes Sources: HRC Corporate Equality Index, staff reports *HRC reports BellSouth includes sexual orientation in diversity training. BellSouth officials say the training language doesn’t specifically include sexual orientation, but during the training all differences — including sexual orientation — are discussed.

“We really heard from a number of our associates, particularly our long-time associates, who said, ‘We know the company doesn’t discriminate,’’’ a Home Depot spokesperson told Southern Voice at the time. “We have a respect-for-all-people policy and we have a culture of inclusion. [They said] it’s important to us as associates of the company that we be explicit. And so we said, ‘Well, you know, you’re right. We should be explicit because we don’t discriminate.’”

Some gay rights advocates recently criticized CEO Nardelli’s large contribution to the Republican National Committee and his public support of President Bush, who favors a Federal Marriage Amendment defining marriage as solely between a man and a woman.

Asked about the donations for an Atlanta Journal-Constitution story on top local business executives’ support for the RNC, Home Depot issued a statement saying Nardelli’s contributions were “personal contributions and not related to the company.”

Corporations leading diversity movement
Corporations moving to be more diverse and inclusive dates back to the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, when many companies adopted equal employment policies, Moore said. The next “wave” came with affirmative action, in which companies said they not only welcomed diversity, but promised to seek out diverse employees, he said.

In recent years, more and more companies added sexual orientation to their non-discrimination statements. Federal law currently does not provide such protection, making a company’s written policy very important for gay employees seeking a safe workplace — and for consumers seeking to support gay-friendly businesses.

The latest trend in corporate diversity is to offer domestic partner benefits, and Moore predicted the next wave will be how companies handle gender identity and gender expression.

“That’s cutting edge today,” he said.

Of the four companies on the AEN panel, only IBM specifically prohibits bias against transgendered employees.

But BellSouth has also worked to retain these workers, according to Valencia Adams, chief diversity officer for the Atlanta-based company.

“We have accommodated employees in transition and we’ve made arrangements with workgroups … we work on these cases on an individual basis,” Adams said.

The days of white men in blue suits running major corporations aren’t entirely gone, Moore admitted. But for companies to compete in today’s global market, diversity is becoming the standard for success.

“There is a very different consumer market than there once was. It’s a global market and with the Internet, we view the world as our marketplace — and we have to understand that global environment,” he said.

Delta Air Lines’ recently released “Diversity Learning Map” is a response to the changing environment, according to Peggy Estes, a spokesperson for the airline. The program is designed to help employees understand the increasing diversity of workers and customers, she said.

IBM did not respond to interview requests by press time.

Dyana Bagby can be reached at dbagby@sovo.com.