Fewer gay professionals feel being gay helps their career

Fewer gay professionals feel being gay helps their career


Workplace DEI may be dying as the majority of gay people no longer think being gay helps them get ahead at work anymore.

The percentage of LGBTQ+ professionals who feel that being out-of-the-closet benefits their careers fell from 78% to 49% since 2023, according to an Out Leadership study Thursday. Simultaneously, a record 88% of respondents reported feeling comfortable at work.

“To me, the most striking finding is the divergence, not just the decline,” Out Leadership founder and CEO Todd Sears told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “In other words, people are not going back into the closet (yet, but I think more will in this current environment); they are questioning whether personal visibility and authenticity will translate into advancement.”


Sears told the DCNF that Out Leadership found this pattern across all five global regions they surveyed and across every generation, with Gen Z reporting the sharpest drop. These regions included the U.S., Europe, Asia-Pacific, Australia/Oceania, and South America. “That consistency tells us this is a structural story about how careers work inside companies, not a story about any one country or news cycle,” he said.

“Historically, because of discrimination, LGBTQ+ people did not feel safe being themselves at work — and anyone, gay or straight, understands what it costs to spend the workday hiding part of who you are. Energy spent covering is energy not spent performing,” Sears said. “So when companies made deliberate efforts over the past twelve years to identify and develop LGBTQ+ talent, they weren’t trying to give anyone an advantage; they were removing a drag on performance.”

Sears claimed that deliberate efforts to help LGBTQ+ professional feel comfortable at work provided businesses higher productivity, higher engagement, lower turnover, and a better bottom line. “A generation of leaders learned they could bring their full perspective to the organization, and companies benefited from the difference of insight that came with it,” he said.

“What’s changed in the last two years is not on the talent side of the equation, it’s on the demand side. Many companies have stopped actively seeking out difference of perspective in their recruiting and retention efforts, and have pulled back from the systems that turned that openness into leadership: sponsorship, development, and visible evidence that people who bring a different point of view actually advance,” Sears said when asked what Out Leadership believes may be contributing to that drop. “When companies stop signaling that difference is valued, leaders draw the rational conclusion that the qualities they bring—resilience, empathy, the ability to navigate across audiences and markets—are no longer recognized as leadership assets.”

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