Soccer Star Robbie Rogers Is The First Gay Male Athlete Competing In A Team Sport in North America.

Robbie Rogers is the first openly gay male athlete competing in a team sport in the twenty first century in North America. Glen Burke, a former Major League Baseball player did compete as an openly gay man back in the 1980s. However, back in the 1980s society and the media were not accepting of homosexuality. Robbie Rogers competed with the LA Galaxy during their game with the Seattle Sounders and won 4-0. The crowd gave Rogers a standing ovation and he competed for thirteen minutes. Rogers still needs to get match fit because he hasn’t competed in professional soccer since December 8th 2012. This is very encouraging and exciting to see a young gay man be proud and brave competing in a professional team sport. Hopefully, more gay male athletes will have the courage to come out of the closet like Robbie Rogers.

UK Telegraph Article: Orlando Cruz Breaks Barrier Is The World’s First Openly Gay Male Professional Boxer!!!

The world of sport has become a little more colourful now that the 31-year-old Puerto Rican boxer Orlando Cruz, currently ranked fourth-best featherweight in the world, has given a statement to the Boxing Scene website openly declaring that he is gay.

“As I continue my ascendant career, I want to be true to myself,” he wrote. “I want to try to be the best role model I can be for kids who might look into boxing as a sport and a professional career. I have and will always be a proud Puerto Rican. I have always been and always will be proud gay men.”

Cruz himself, however, has precious few role models. Traditionally, there has been a tendency for gay sportspeople to hide their sexual orientation until they retire. Justin Fashanu, the only English footballer to openly declare his homosexuality, was disowned by his brother John Fashanu and subjected to a great deal of homophobic abuse; he took his own life in 1998.

Emilie Griffith, a welterweight in the 1960s who was the first boxer from the US Virgin Islands ever to become a world champion, is another tragic figure. He managed to keep his bisexuality largely hidden from the public despite being seen by Alan Hubbard, a sports writer, “passionately kissing one of his cornermen”.

In 1962, Benny Paret, a Cuban boxer, threw homophobic insults at Griffiths during the weigh-in. Griffiths was restrained, but in the subsequent fight he responded with such a devastating chain of blows that Paret was knocked unconscious. Griffiths continued to attack while the Cuban was propped against the ropes, and Paret died of his injuries 10 days later. Griffiths suffered from guilt throughout his life, but was also haunted by the bitter irony that underpinned the episode. “I kill a man and most people forgive me,” he said. “However, I love a man and many say this… makes me an evil person. So, even though I never went to jail, I have been in prison most of my life.”

In 1992, Griffith was beaten almost to death in New York after leaving a gay bar near the Port Authority Bus Terminal in an attack that was thought to be motivated by homophobia. He currently received full-time care and has been diagnosed with pugilistic dementia.

But for all the dark tales from the past, times have changed. Cruz’s announcement has not provoked the same degree of shock that it might have done in previous decades, and his career is not in any danger. Nevertheless, he will doubtless be the victim of a degree of abuse, and is clearly brave to have put his head above the parapet. Orlando Cruz is poised to become a symbolic figure among gay sportspeople, whether they are out of the closet or not.

Ricki Lake Show Interview: Former NSYNC Star Lance Bass Talks About His Decision To Come Out As A Gay Man.

NY Times Article: Gay & Lesbian Athletes Recent History of Coming Out Of The Closet In Sports.

By ISABELLA MOSCHEN

Associated PressDavid Kopay

Big-time sports lag behind other areas of American society in terms of the number of gay and lesbian participants who feel they can be open about their sexual orientation. Not once, for example, has an active male player in any of the four major professional sports leagues in America publicly acknowledged being gay. But retired football, basketball and baseball players, along with active players in other sports, have come out. And there are plenty of lesbian athletes in women’s professional sports. Here are some milestones from the last four decades :

1975 David Kopay, a former professional football player, publicly acknowledges that he is gay in a Washington Star article. Three years after retiring from the sport, he becomes the first N.F.L. player to come out. “It took me a long time, too long, to accept myself as I really was,” Kopay tells the University of Washington alumni magazine in 2008. “I’m hoping I can at least make a difference in that others in my position will have the freedom to be who they are.”

1976 Tom Waddell, who was a decathlete in the 1968 Olympics, appears inPeople magazine — with his male partner. That same year, he serves as the Saudi Arabian team physician at the Olympics in Montreal. Waddell later founds what becomes known as the “Gay Games.”

Dennis Oulds/Central Press, via Getty ImagesAmerican tennis player Billie Jean Moffitt (later King) at Wimbledon in 1964

1981 Billie Jean King, regarded as one of the top female tennis players of all time, is outed by a former female partner. King is perhaps best known for winning a 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” match against Bobby Riggs. In 1990, Life Magazine calls her one of the “100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century.” Today, she lives with her partner, the former professional tennis player Ilana Kloss, in New York City. “We have to commit to eliminating homophobia because everyone is entitled to the same rights, opportunities and protection,” King has said.

1981 Martina Navratilova, a tennis icon, says that she is a lesbian, soon after defecting to the United States from Czechoslovakia. Winner of two Wimbledon singles titles, she goes on to capture seven more over the course of her career. At a 2010 benefit dinner, Navratilova reflects, “I’m told I lost millions in sponsorship, but in my heart I know I gained things of much greater value — the opportunity to live my life with integrity and the knowledge that others might have come out because of my example.”

1982 Glenn Burke, a retired outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Oakland Athletics, comes out. He is the first openly gay former major league baseball player. “Prejudice drove me out of baseball sooner than I should have,” Burke tells The Times in a 1994 interview. “But I wasn’t changing. And no one can say I didn’t make it. I played in the World Series. I’m in the book, and they can’t take that away from me. Not ever.”

1992 Roy Simmons, a retired offensive lineman for the Washington Redskins and the New York Giants, comes out on “The Phil Donahue Show.” ”The N.F.L. has a reputation,” he later tells The Times. ”And it’s not even a verbal thing — it’s just known. You are gladiators; you are male; you kick butt.”

1994 Greg Louganis, a diver and four-time Olympic gold medalist, announces he is gay. “I was out to my friends and family,” he tells Outsports.com in July 2012. “It was just my policy not to discuss my sexuality to members of the media. I wanted my participation in the sport to be about the sport. I didn’t want it to be about being the ‘gay diver.’ ” Louganis’s best-selling 1995 memoir, “Breaking the Surface,” details his experiences coming out and being H.I.V.-positive.

1999 Billy Bean, a former major league baseball player, openly discusses his sexuality in a front-page article in The Times. He tells the reporter, ”I went to Hooters, laughed at the jokes, lied about dates because I loved baseball. I still do. I’d go back in a minute. I only wish I hadn’t felt so alone, that I could have told someone, and that I hadn’t always felt God was going to strike me dead.”

2002 Esera Tuaolo, a 300-pound, 6’3” nose guard who played in the N.F.L. for nearly a decade, comes out on HBO’s “Real Sports.” Speaking about his decision, he says, “I feel wonderful. I feel like a burden has been lifted. I feel like I’ve taken off the costume I’ve been wearing all my life.”

2005 Sheryl Swoopes, a Women’s National Basketball Association player and three-time M.V.P., says that she is gay. ”I was basically living a lie. For the last seven, eight years, I was waiting to exhale,” she later says in The Times. In 2011, Swoopes becomes engaged to marry a man.

Douglas C. Pizac/Associated PressJohn Amaechi

2007 John Amaechi, a former N.B.A. player, reveals that he is gay in his memoir, “Man in the Middle.” He is the first former N.B.A. player to come out. Soon after, Tim Hardaway, a retired Miami Heat player, says on a radio show, “I don’t like gay people and I don’t like to be around gay people.” He later apologizes for the remark, and Amaechi comments: “It is ridiculous, absurd, petty, bigoted and shows a lack of empathy that is gargantuan and unfathomable. But it is honest. And it illustrates the problem better than any of the fuzzy language other people have used so far.”

2009 Sherri Murrell, the coach of Portland State University’s women’s basketball team, becomes the first publicly out female Division 1 basketball coach. In the summer of 2009, she agrees to have a family photograph appear on the college athletics Web site. The image of Murrell — with her female partner and their toddler twins — gains national attention. “There are a lot of coaches out there that want to do this,” Murrell later tells the Oregonian. “But they’re just so afraid. I think I can kind of help say, ‘Hey, I’m successful. It has not affected my program whatsoever.’”

2011 Johnny Weir, three-time national champion figure skater, confirms that he is gay in his memoir, “Welcome to My World.” Referring to his sexuality, Weir tells the “Today” show, “I think the best way I can be an activist is to live my life, and not make that the main thing that is Johnny Weir. I’m much more than just a gay man.”

2011 Rick Welts, president and chief executive of the Phoenix Suns, publicly comes out in The Times at age 58. “This is one of the last industries where the subject is off limits,” he tells the reporter Dan Barry. In September 2011, he announces he will leave his job to be with his new partner — but he did not have to leave the N.B.A. He is now president and Chief Operating Officer of the Golden State Warriors basketball team.

2011 Will Sheridan, who played Division 1 college basketball at Villanova University, publicly reveals that he was openly gay while on the team from 2003 to 2007— and his teammates didn’t have a problem with it. In anESPN.com profile he says, “Look at me. I’m black. I’m gay. I’m like a quadruple minority, and I feel like a little piece of me resides in everybody.”

2012 Wade Davis, a retired N.F.L. cornerback, publicly opens up about being gay. Davis now works with lesbian, gay and transgender youth in New York City. In an interview with Outsports.com, he says, “It’s the first job since football that I wake up excited for work.”

2012 Megan Rapinoe, a midfielder on the U.S. women’s soccer team,confirms in July in Out magazine that she is a lesbian. “In female sports, if you’re gay, most likely your team knows it pretty quickly,” she tells Out. “It’s very open and widely supported. For males, it’s not that way at all. It’s sad.” Soon after, during the 2012 London Olympics, Rapinoe and her teammates capture the gold medal.

Interesting Article: From Anderson Cooper to Frank Ocean, the Closet Door Opens – But Where are the A List Gay Movie Stars?

By Brent Lang | The Wrap – 51 minutes ago

Are there no gay movie stars?From Anderson Cooper to Jim Parsons, gay celebrities have been gently pushing open the closet door with shockingly little fanfare over the past year.

Their statements have been so understated that a recent piece in Entertainment Weekly on the new politics of being publicly gay noted, “What was impossible 60 years ago and dangerous 40 years ago and difficult 20 years ago is now becoming no big deal.”

That may be true, but there is one big exception.

In the nearly a decade since Tom Cruise won his second of two “I’m not gay” lawsuits in 2003, Hollywood movie stars remain uniformly heterosexual even as American society and public perceptions of sexuality have visibly changed.

Also read: Anderson Cooper: ‘I’m Gay’

Despite the recent matter-of-fact statements from the likes of Cooper, Parsons and Zachary Quinto, no A-list star on the level of a Brad Pitt or Robert Downey Jr. has come out, even though statistically it seems highly improbable that no major actor is gay. Meanwhile, the rumors and lawsuits that have dogged such actors as John Travolta or Cruise may lead the public to their own conclusions.

Even emerging stars like Tom Hardy, who once implied that he had flirted with bisexuality, are quick to quash the rumors if they get out of hand.

“We don’t have a leading man who is out,” notes Howard Bragman, vice chairman of Reputation.com and a publicist who has guided stars through coming-out announcements. “We don’t have anybody in a major professional sport. There is plenty of room to get further along.”

Also read: Obama’s Gay Marriage Support a Hit in Hollywood, But Will It Help Fundraising?

It seems there are still enormous pressures for big-name stars — especially those tied to romantic or action careers — to remain guarded about their sexuality.

And there’s an added element: The international market is not as accepting as America is becoming.

The movie business is a globalized enterprise, one that is increasingly dependent on foreign audiences. The question is less about America’s changing attitudes towards gays and lesbians, than the views of places like China, a country that boasts a big population of moviegoers, but one that is not exactly progressive when it comes to same-sex relationships.

Also read: Dustin Lance Black Mulls Obama Fundraiser After Shift on Gay Marriage

For the film business, not much has changed since “My Best Friend’s Wedding” star Rupert Everett told the Daily Mail in 2009 about his coming out: “It just doesn’t work, and you’re going to hit a brick wall at some point.”

“The fact is that you could not be, and still cannot be, a 25-year-old homosexual trying to make it in the British film business or the American film business or even the Italian film business,” Everett said.

Although Anne Heche made waves when she went public as Ellen DeGeneres’ girlfriend in the mid-’90s, her career faded along with their relationship, and the major movie actors who are openly gay remain supporting actors like Ian McKellen and Quinto.

It is no coincidence that the majority of the household names who have come out publicly have been television stars. After all, from DeGeneres’ ground-breaking declaration that she was a lesbian 15 years ago up to the portrayal of a happily married gay couple on ABC’s “Modern Family,” the small screen has been one of the most open, accepting and barrier-shattering parts of Hollywood.

That may have to do with demographics. Television’s prize age group is viewers between 18 to 34 years old, and a recent Gallup poll shows that 66 percent of people in that age bracket believe gay marriage should be legal.

“Young people set the ad rates,” Bragman told TheWrap. “These were the kids that grew up with ‘Will and Grace’ and ‘Queer Eye.’ Well, you can’t watch ‘Will and Grace’ and ever be threatened by a gay person again.”

The same is not as true for the world of athletics, movies nor music genres like rap and country.

Also read: Hip-Hop Singer Frank Ocean Comes Out in Love Letter

Similarly, despite the public pronouncements of, say, Elton John and Michael Stipe, certain sectors of the music business remain stubbornly resistant to gay artists.

“There are pockets of acceptance that are more robust than others, but [coming out] is not a non-nonchalant thing,” Chely Wright, an openly gay country singer, told TheWrap.

Wright came out in 2010 to an onslaught of media attention, but also softer record sales, demonstrating that, at least in terms of country singers, there is commercial risk to being openly gay.

That makes Frank Ocean’s revelation this week that he is bisexual all the more extraordinary. Ocean is not only African-American, but he is a hip-hop singer — two constituencies that have historically been slower to accept, even openly hostile to gays and lesbians.

That may have been the reason for the unusual way in which Ocean choose to come out. Instead of issuing a statement or sitting for an interview, he wrote a lyrical blog post about his attraction to a male friend when he was 19. Wright argues that Ocean’s decision to provide such a personal look at his own sexual awakening had a lot to do with his audience.

“His constituents were a lot like mine,” Wright said. “Country and hip-hop are on the same latitudinal line on LGBT issues, so when you give the news to a fan base that might not understand, you have a responsibility to explain yourself and to explain what gay love is about. It’s not just who you have sex with, it’s who you go to a movie with or play Scrabble with.”

In contrast, Cooper, Parsons, Quinto and “White Collar”s’ Matt Bomer seemed to take pains to downplay the drama surrounding their announcements. That may have to do with the fact that being gay and a celebrity is no longer novel, but it may also be that many of them were, to borrow a phrase from Slate’s June Thomas, “openly closeted.”

That is partly attributable to the rise of snarky blogs like Gawker and Perez Hilton that both capture celebrities in private moments with loved ones and feel none of the compunction about speculating about stars’ sexual orientations that once constrained the press.

With the internet, any closet, it seems, is made out of glass.

“We live in a very transparent world,” Bragman said. “It used to be someone would say privately that they saw so-and-so in a gay bar or had sex with them, now we have text messages and emails, and that changes things.”

In turn, more traditional media outlets have abandoned the non-aggression pact when it comes to closeted celebrities. When OutWeek Magazine chronicled Malcolm Forbes’ gay lifestyle in 1990 shortly after the media baron’s death, it set off a wave of hand-wringing. But things have changed dramatically.

Media publications rushed to publish that Jodie Foster had come out of the closet when she thanked a female friend in a 2007 speech at The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment breakfast, even though she never said she was gay. Foster continues to keep her sexual orientation private.

Yet the growing ease with which stars of the small screen are opening up about their sexuality may eventually inspire some of their big screen brethren, as well.

“It wasn’t that long ago that playing a gay character was practically the kiss of death for an actor’s career,” Bil Browning, founder and publisher of the gay politics and culture blog The Bilerico Project, told TheWrap.

“[That was] a concern even as recently as ‘Brokeback Mountain’ where Mark Wahlberg turned down the lead because he was ‘a little creeped out’ by the gay theme and worried about his future career. Celebrities like Neil Patrick Harris, Anderson Cooper, Matt Bomer, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson are proving daily that LGBT people are simply a part of the fabric of life.”

Salon Article: Is It Time For Tom Cruise To Follow Anderson Cooper’s Example & Come Out Of The Closet?

BY GREG OLEAR,

This article originally appeared on The Weeklings.

Tom Cruise’s wife is leaving him.

A few days ago, Katie Holmes, the other half of TomKat, the mother of Tom’s only biological child, and the impetus of his notorious Oprah couch-jump, filed for divorce in New York. As Amy Argetsinger points out at the Washington Post, Holmes becomes the third Mrs. Cruise to jump ship at the age of 33 (which probably has some numerological-Scientological significance Beck would be able to explain).

About the only person surprised by this is Tom Cruise, who turns 50 today (he was born on the third of July).

Whatever went on behind closed doors, the Cruise-Holmes union seemed, to those of us following it obsessively at TMZ and Us Weekly, like a P.R. stunt. Holmes staggered through publicity appearances like a catatonic, while Cruise’s egregious and desperate determination to convince us that the relationship was legit comprised the worst performance of his acting career.

Let the record show that I’m a huge Tom Cruise fan. I love the guy. I became aware of him as an actor, as opposed to just a guy in the movies, when I went to see Interview with a Vampire. Anne Rice had been outspoken in her disappointment at the casting of Cruise as Lestat — and he wound up being the only thing in the movie worth watching. He killed in that flick. He kills in every flick. “Jerry Maguire,” “Eyes Wide Shut,” “Tropic Thunder,” “Magnolia,” “Collateral” — stand-out performances, all. Is he limited? Sure, but who isn’t? I may not like every movie he does (“Mission Impossible” is wretched, and “Vanilla Sky” is a train wreck), but I always like him. The guy is a movie star, plain and simple, and he’s been one for a staggeringly long period of time.

His personal life, however, is harder to get behind. It’s not so much what we know as what we don’t — or, rather, what we think we know. Yes, he’s a Scientologist … but what does that mean, exactly? Does he really believe all that stuff, or is Scientology just another high-profile acting job?

And then there’s the elephant in the room. The big, pink elephant.

The rumors have dogged him for decades now, since before he rocked out to Bob Seger in tighty-whities. That he wants to do it to for Johnny. That Mimi and Nicole and Katie were beautiful beards. That what he really desires is A Few Good Men.

If there is fire to be found in this great cloud of gay smoke, it would be remarkable. The guy’s been A-list famous since 1983, and there has been no public evidence at all, none, to support the rumors. Masseurs have not pressed charges against him; photographs of him kissing other men on the lips on a tarmac have not popped up on the Internet, unlike other movie-star Scientologists we can name. In this day and age, when so many celebrities rise and fall by virtue of a stray tweet, when everyone in greater Los Angeles has a camera phone and thus the capability to catch him in flagrante delicto, it’s almost inconceivable that he could be acting on these alleged homoerotic impulses. Either he’s straight, or he gives new meaning to the term Cruise control.

But if the rumors are true … if he does prefer the company of men … if his impossible mission is to be an openly gay action-movie star, his course of action now is clear: Tom Cruise needs to take a page from the Anderson Cooper playbook. He needs to come out, he needs to come out big-time, and when he gets hitched again, he should marry a guy.

It’s not like this sort of disclosure is unprecedented. Cary Grant confessed to bisexuality when he was an old man; so did Richard Burton. Why not Tom Cruise?

Yes, this would be incredibly brave — the sort of courage we come to expect from a man who so convincingly played Maverick and Ethan Hunt. It would also be admirable to the Nth degree. One press release would transform him from thrice-divorced Scientologist weirdo to civil rights hero and gay icon. He could live his life out in the open, and in so doing, make the world a better, more tolerant place. And instead of jumping on Oprah’s couch, he could jump on Ellen’s.

That’s if he’s gay. (Note to the attorneys for Mr. Cruise: I am merely repeating oft-repeated rumors, and this should not be read as an endorsement of them). If he’s not — if the real Tom Cruise is exactly what he’s shown us — then take note, Mila Kunis and Eliza Dushku and Amber Heard and every other hot Hollywood 20-something on the make: Mrs. Tom Cruise is a plum part, and auditions will be held soon.

BBC News: The Reality Is Regular Gay & Lesbians Still Have To Deal With Job Discrimination When Coming Out At Work.

By Kate DaileyBBC News Magazine

Should sexuality be water-cooler conversation?

One of the biggest names in US TV journalism, Anderson Cooper, has confirmed that he is gay. But should regular professionals come out to those they work with?

Long before Anderson Cooper confirmed it, evidence of his sexuality was apparent for anyone who cared to look. He was photographed on holiday with the owner of a popular New York City gay bar. In 2007, a man in a Cooper mask was featured on the cover of Out Magazine, which named Cooper as the second-most powerful gay man in America.

Indeed, in an era when the US president endorses gay marriage and the most popular TV chat show hostess in the US, Ellen Degeneres, is a lesbian, there seems to be little reason to make an official declaration of sexuality in a public forum.

So why does it matter that Cooper is now “officially” out?

“In a perfect world he should be able to go about his business and it not be an issue,” says Canadian broadcaster Rick Mercer, host of CBC’s The Rick Mercer Report.

“But there’s no doubt about it: him acknowledging that he is a gay person who is successful and happy and loved means an awful lot.”

Mercer made waves last year when he released a YouTube video calling on gay adults to come out as a way to fight back against bullying and provide a positive example for gay children.

“If you have a life that’s a public life, whether you choose it or not, or a position of responsibility, it makes a difference to be out at that level, whether you’re Anderson Cooper or the chief of police,” he says.

But in 2012 how easy is it for that chief of police – or even the assistant manager of a FootLocker or a call-centre worker – to come out?

‘Permissible discrimination’

In a survey of gay employees conducted in 2011, the Center for Talent and Innovation found that about half of respondents were closeted at work.

“The sad reality is that it’s still perfectly legal in the US to be fired for your sexual orientation in 29 states; [the] same is true in 34 states for gender identity,” says Michael Cole-Schwartz, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

“The laws give licence to discriminate and there are real risks for people’s careers and their livelihoods.”

Continue reading the main story

Anderson Cooper’s reveal

The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.

I have always been very open and honest about this part of my life with my friends, my family, and my colleagues. In a perfect world, I don’t think it’s anyone else’s business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted. I’m not an activist, but I am a human being and I don’t give that up by being a journalist.

Excerpt from Cooper’s email to Andrew Sullivan

In the UK, where employment discrimination based on sexual identity has been illegal since 2003, laws have not managed to eliminate homophobic behaviour in the workplace.

“Our survey found that 800,000 people in the workplace witnessed physical homophobic violence, and 6% of the UK workforce have witnessed homophobic bullying. It may be a comment like ‘I hope you go to hell and your children too’,” says Colleen Humphrey, director of workplace for Stonewall, a gay-rights organisation in the UK.

“People who work in fields with safety equipment tell me that the safety equipment has been tampered with.”

There are other hazards in the professional world: -a spokesman for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently resigned once his sexuality was made public, drawing vicious online taunts, and a lawyer in Virginia was denied a judicial position because legislatures worried he could not be impartial on issues like gay marriage.

But those were political casualties. Both Humphrey and Cole-Schwartz say that the corporate culture is shifting rapidly.

“Huge majorities of Fortune 500 companies forbid discrimination outside of what the laws require. On one hand you have permissible discrimination from a legal standpoint, but increasingly that kind of discrimination is not tolerated,” says Cole-Schwartz.

Some corporate fields are shifting faster than others.

“Anecdotally, the fields you think of that are not perhaps as accommodating for other diverse groups are similar for the LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] community,” says Karen Sumberg, executive vice president of the Center for Talent Innovation, singling out “heavy industry, engineering”.

“Finance is ahead of the game on this topic, but law is not,” she says.

Double lives

In explaining his silence on the issue, Cooper said he was at least partly more interested in reporting the news than reporting on his private life. Many LGBT employees feel the same. “A lot of people are private people,” says Mercer. “I understand the reluctance to discuss sexuality at work.”

But the pressure many people may feel to keep their private life extremely private can be detrimental both to employee and company.

“Instead of concentrating on having to switch switch pronouns, tell lies, and conceal details of their lives, they can concentrate on their professional lives,” says Sumberg. “For companies, there’s more trust and better talent retention.”

While the HRC and Stonewall emphasise the importance of companies creating safe environments for a diversity of employees, gay workers in some firms can face a Catch-22.

“Support for LGBT issues has such a strong correlation to whether not people know LGBT Americans,” says Cole-Schwartz. “I think that the more someone can be out, the more he or she is going to be able to influence the perceptions of the people around them.”

In some cases, though, that means being put in the position of office trailblazer, a role not everyone finds themselves comfortable with.

That dilemma may be a temporary one, with the current “Generation Y” workforce described as being more prominently out at work than their predecessors, according to Karen Sumberg.

As people come out at younger and younger ages, experts say they are more likely to enter the workforce out of the closet and less likely to go back in for professional appearances – which will create a more inclusive work environment for employees of all ages.

“Over a 20-year span it’s been an incredible change,” says Richard Ryan, a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester in New York. “It’s one of the most fast-lifting stigma that I can think of.”