1) After the Delhi High Court decriminalized homosexuality, many gay employees openly celebrated at work, posing a dilemma for colleagues on how to respond. 2) Some workplaces like Verve magazine had very supportive responses from colleagues, congratulating gay employees. 3) Other gay employees are openly declaring their sexuality during the hiring process to be upfront with potential employers. 4) However, discrimination may continue and even increase as a backlash against the newly assertive gay community. Some companies, especially those led by conservative senior management, may quietly reject gay candidates.

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ET NOW’s tech
IBM’s Narasimham evangelist
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systematically doses of
Consultant’s Corner P Technoholik P fiery ginger
Don’t-ask-don’t-
tell days are
over as the gay
July 10, 2009 community
turns assertive
GETTY IMAGES
in the
workplace.
But is India Inc
ready to
re-write the rule
book, asks
Dibeyendu
Ganguly
@ WORK
DESIGN: SHUBHRADEY
LAST THURSDAY, GAY men and women across themselves. “This is such a morale booster,” says Sha- Fifteen years ago, when corporate India offered up no want to be able to bring their partners to office parties.
the country were going around their offices with a hani, who authored the book Gay Bombay: Globalisa- gay role models, Owais Khan was a pioneer when he They would definitely want their companies to pro-
Parmesh Shahani spring in their step and a grin on their faces. tion, Love and (Be)longing in Contemporary India last addressed a press conference along with well known vide them the concrete financial benefits that go to
They were constantly on the Net and on the year. “It quite often happens that everyone around activist Ashok Row Kavi. Khan then worked for their heterosexual counterparts, such as being able to
phone, typing endless messages and talking ex- you knows you’re gay but they’re just waiting for you Pertech Computers and recalls, “The papers carried include their partners in leave travel allowance and
citedly about parties. Some even parked them- to come out and tell them. Now the process has be- my photograph so prominently that even the security health insurance plans.
selves in front of the office TV, unabashedly come easier.” guards in my office congratulated me, though they Massive in its scope, the Delhi High judgement has
switching from business channels covering the One might say these things are always easier if probably didn’t know the context.” explicitly brought gays within the ambit of anti-dis-
Economic Survey to channels reporting on the you’re lucky enough to be working at a Khan’s colleagues at Pertech found crimination laws, which is likely to have wide ramifi-
Delhi High Court judgement de-criminalising fashion magazine, but Shahani actually out about his sexuality through the cations as it is tested in the courts in the years to come.
homosexuality.
All this surely posed a bit of a dilemma for
began his corporate career at staid old
Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) before Reality newspapers, but while being inter-
viewed for his next job at Compaq (now
Vikram, a 24 year old sales executive at the Taj group
of hotels, hopes that corporates might now introduce
their colleagues. Were congratulations in or-
der or should one just let the whole thing
Anuradha Mahindra whisked him away
to Verve. He still holds the post of head, vi-
CHECK Hewlett Packard), he made it a point to
raise the subject at the onset. “I was in
their own rules to protect their openly gay employees
from discrimination. “There’s a perception that the
pass? Did one have to be a close friend to con- sion & opportunities, at the parent com- the media quite often in those days, fea- glass ceiling that works against us might disappear af-
Harish Iyer gratulate someone on matters of sexuality? pany and says, “I’ve been out at M&M since I joined. turing in every other television programme on gays, ter this breakthrough judgement,” he says.
What exactly does one say under such circum- It’s a very warm, accepting group.” so it was important they should know. The HR head But history shows that when a minority becomes
stances anyway? While those in the closet ponder the possible just said they were an American company, so it was more assertive, there’s a backlash from the majority,
In some offices, however, there was no dilemma. process through which they could come out — start no big deal.” so discrimination may increase rather than decrease
When Parmesh Shahani, Editorial Director of Verve with the boss? Tell colleagues in the immediate team? Khan has since managed to live the middle class in the years to come. Sunit Mehra, managing partner
magazine, entered his office late in the morning, he was Spill the beans to the office gossip and wait for him or dream of retiring from corporate life while still in his of placement consulting firm Hunt Partners has al-
greeted with a big hurrah. “It was like India had won her to spread the news? — others are making things 40s and lives with his boyfriend in Bhopal, the city ready dealt with two cases where high grade candi-
the World Cup,” he says. “My straight colleagues were simpler for themselves by declaring their sexuality where he grew up. His last word on being gay in the dates were quietly eliminated when the company
as excited by the judgement as my gay colleagues. It be- during the recruitment process itself. When Harish workplace: “Indian companies don’t want to hear learnt they were gay. Interestingly, the recruiting
came a way for them to show their support.” Iyer, 30, joined Shobiz five years ago, he made it a about it. They have a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy. companies were MNCs. “The old timers in Indian
Never has it been harder to stay in the closet in In- point to scratch out the marital status options in the But as the new generation replaces the old, things companies are not a particularly enlightened lot,” he
dia. After Facebook, Dostana, pride parades and tele- event management company’s standard recruitment may change.” says. “The senior management quite often consists of
vision talk shows, the Delhi High Court judgement is form and write ‘gay.’ “It’s a very important part of who In the wake of the sweeping changes taking place Hindutva-types who don’t even like divorcees, let
Saleem Kidwai the latest in a recent se- I am and I wanted my boss to know right from the be- around the world, gay executives may be less willing alone gays.”
ries of opportunities ginning,” he says. to be discreet. They might want to be spared having to
for gay men and And then there’s always the option of com- participate in the usual office banter about attractive
women to declare ing out with a bang through the media. members of the opposite sex and they might possibly ON PAGE 2: PRIDE & PREJUDICE
are coming together and work con-
structively within that framework.
Secondly, CEOs need to make
the phrase ‘think global
and act local’ less of a
cliché and more a
part of operating
strategy. And CEOs
need to keep an open
mind so they can adapt to a
rapidly changing world. Finally,
Lineage Matters!
they need to bring an abundant dose of
good old emotional intelligence (EI) to
their job.
Though Nooyi’s advice is targeted
primarily at American CEOs, most af-
fected by the recession, it has found
resonance in India as well. Like the
Americans, Indian CEOs too were in
the grip of big time irrational exuber-
ance during the boom and some con-
tinued to stay in denial till the collapse
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environment and formulating strate-
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a micro level. “The margin of error has
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