Not long ago, a company that wasn’t actively hostile to its gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered (GLBT) employees was considered pretty liberal. Things are better now. Not wonderful, perhaps, but undoubtedly much better.

Over the past ten years many employers have put in policies that protect GLBT workers from discrimination, added GLBT networks to their employee affinity groups, and implemented domestic partner benefits. Sexual orientation is included in standard diversity training programs, and some companies contribute to organizations and events of concern to GLBT people.

The business world has realized the untapped marketing potential of the GLBT community, and companies strapped for good technical workers are now happy to hire GLBT folks.

Better by survey
In its Corporate Equality Index 2002, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC, www.hrc.org) surveyed 319 employers, more than 200 of them Fortune 500 companies. They were scored on issues important to the GLBT community. Almost all these companies include sexual orientation in their nondiscrimination policies. Health insurance for domestic partners, once the cutting edge of GLBT issues, is now offered by 69 percent of employers, and 40 percent of companies have a GLBT employee resource group.

While the median score for all 319 companies in the HRC index was 57 percent, the median score for the companies we interviewed for this article was 86 percent. Many of these corporations have been leaders in diversity issues for years and have made meaningful contributions to the advancement of the GLBT community and other minorities as well. The successful GLBT engineers we interview here attest to this.

Scottie Ginn, standard products VP: at IBM it’s culture, climate – and also marketing.

How IBM attracts and retains GLBT folks
EE Scottie Ginn is VP of standard products at the Essex Junction, VT microelectronics division of IBM (Armonk, NY), and a lesbian. She’s also executive co-chair of the GLBT Constituency Group, one of eight diversity task groups in the company.

The task groups were kicked off in 1995 by IBM chairman Lou Gerstner. They were established with three aims, Ginn says: to make diverse employees feel more valued and welcomed at IBM, to attract and retain talented people from diverse communities to work at IBM, and to tell the company how it can more effectively market its products to the communities.

Besides the GLBT Constituency Group, there’s also an IBM employee group called Employee Alliance for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Empowerment (EAGLE).

Ginn notes that IBM efforts in GLBT rights go way back. The company added sexual orientation to its nondiscrimination policy in 1984, and brought in a domestic partner benefits package in 1996.

There’s an interesting sidelight to the benefits package, Ginn says. Because GLBT couples can’t legally marry in most states, the benefits cover unmarried same-sex couples, although they don’t cover unmarried heterosexual couples. But Vermont allows same-sex marriages, “So GLBT couples who work for IBM in Vermont have to marry in order to get the benefits,” Ginn says.

There are very few big items left to push for at IBM. “Now it’s more culture and climate,” says Ginn – and also marketing. “As a company, we’re trying to become more effective at identifying the decision-makers in the GLBT community to get them to purchase IBM equipment.”

Dr Jeffrey Welser, IBM CMOS PM: no real issues from a corporate standpoint.

Dr Jeffrey Welser: comfort level at IBM
While being gay has little to do with his career, Dr Jeffrey Welser feels it gives him an edge in managing others. “I’m much more aware of diversity issues than I might be otherwise,” he says.

There really aren’t any issues at IBM from a corporate standpoint, Welser affirms, “but on a one-to-one level some people are less accepting. So I try to make sure everyone in a group is comfortable, whatever type of diversity they represent.”

Welser is a PhD in EE and a project manager for high performance complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) device design at IBM’s microelectronics division (Hopewell Junction, NY). “Since moving from the research lab, my focus has shifted to working on the next generation of CMOS design,” he explains. The work involves transistor design for silicon-on-insulator (SOI) chips.

Welser attends a lot of meetings, about half dealing with technical problems and the rest customer and strategy related. “Then several times a year we meet to discuss overall strategy, looking out five, ten, even fifteen years.” Welser is the main technical contact for both internal and OEM customers for the SOI technology for custom IC chips.

With fourteen patents and a lot more pending, Welser is a highly valued contributor at IBM. He received a 1988 BSEE, a 1989 MSEE and his 1994 PhD in EE from Stanford University.

After he got his MS he worked for a year as a pre-doctoral researcher at IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center (Yorktown Heights, NY), doing high-powered work in gallium arsenide (GaAs) based heterostructures. While working on his PhD he was a research assistant in Stanford’s solid state electronics lab. Then the new Dr Welser returned to Watson as a staff member investigating exploratory memory, silicon devices and circuits. By 1999 he was a manager at the center.

In 2000 he did a stretch as executive assistant to the IBM Technology Group’s senior VP – a frequent springboard for techies that IBM expects to go far. “That gave me a broad view of the technology group, which covers both the storage division and microelectronics,” he says. After a year he moved into his project manager position.

The technical challenges posed by Welser’s work are the stuff of basic physics. “As physical limits are discovered, we look to new materials, such as strained silicon, to get around the problems. SOI and strained silicon have both improved speed, and now we’ll be adding strained silicon on top of SOI.”

Strained silicon, he explains, involves stretching silicon atoms slightly so the electrons can move faster. “This was something I was researching for my PhD, so it’s very exciting that I’m getting to see it implemented,” Welser says.

Ed McCanless, senior engineer: IBM’s masters program gave him the time to come out. His status as a gay man, he says, is simply a non-issue with the company.

Ed McCanless: full support from IBM
Ed McCanless also feels that being gay contributes to his job performance. “As a gay man you have to tear down a lot of what you believe in order to reassemble yourself. You go through that and you begin to question assumptions. When I come into work I do that every day.”

McCanless joined IBM in 1978 after he received his BSIE from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He began as a junior engineer in facilities support for distribution, moved into facility planning, became a manager, then moved on to magnetic read/write head manufacturing, where he led a group of IEs. When the technology changed he helped create a new manufacturing flow for thin-film wafers, then went into new product planning.

But 1989 was a crisis year for McCanless. “I grew up as a Catholic in South Carolina where you couldn’t tell the neighbors you were Catholic, let alone gay.” Besides, he notes, “I didn’t even know there were other gay people back then. In 1989 I came out, to myself as well as to the world at large, and I thought I needed a break.”

McCanless decided to go for an MS in manufacturing systems at Stanford University, and IBM gave him its full support. “IBM’s masters program provided me with a chance to walk away from the day-to-day job. It paid my salary while I attended school full time.” It also gave him the time to come totally out.

He completed his MS in a year and returned to IBM and a job analyzing disk media. When he came back to IBM as an openly gay man, he says, “My work really improved because I didn’t have so much energy tied up in hiding my real identity.”

In 1995 he was asked to help set up an OEM media business. “We improved the supply chain and went from a double-digit million dollar business to a triple-digit million dollar business in eighteen months.” He went on to manage overall capacity, planning and plant location for HDD head stack assemblies.

Right now McCanless is a senior engineer in an IBM facility in San Jose, CA. He’s in the intellectual property department for the storage systems group, working on selling IBM technology and patents to customers. The job lets him work with many areas of the business.

“We’ve gotten phenomenal results in supply chain management and control,” he says. “I sit down with procurement people and industrial engineers at a site and understand what they’ve done, try to improve it and see how it would be applicable to outside customers.

“I’ve had some marketing and extensive industrial engineering experience, so this position is a good fit, and a very broad use of my skills. And it requires me to question a lot of assumptions, something that being gay has really taught me how to do.”

His career, McCanless reflects, has been a series of ventures into and out of technology. IBM has supported him and allowed him to optimize his abilities in IE and other areas. His status as a gay man is simply a non-issue with the company.

Lourdes Coronado, IT manager: SBC is aggressive in promoting an open environment.

Maria de Lourdes Coronado: an open environment at SBC
Maria de Lourdes Coronado is manager for billing solutions design at telecom company SBC (San Antonio, TX). She’s also the treasurer and financial subcommittee chair for Hacemos, the SBC Hispanic employee group, and a member of Spectrum, the company’s GLBT organization. But, “I don’t really separate myself as belonging to one group. I have goals for myself and I don’t need to define myself. I’m a woman, I’m Hispanic, and I’m gay, and that offers a lot to those who meet me,” she declares.

The open atmosphere at SBC supports her. “I’ve never had a boss who has made me feel singled out.”

Coronado grew up in Texas, the fifth of six children. All but one of them went to the University of Texas-Austin, where Coronado received her bachelors in math in 1975.

She was hired as a traffic assistant at the Corpus Christi office of SBC, which was then called Southwestern Bell. As she mastered the technology she moved to a variety of jobs: manager of network design at San Antonio HQ, area manager of network design in Saint Louis, MO, and managerial jobs in trunk engineering and routing.

She also completed an MS in telecom in 1995 and an MS in information management in 1996, both from Washington University (Saint Louis, MO). She became a member of technical staff at SBC Technology Resources, Inc (TRI), then senior member of tech staff at the Austin, TX TRI facility. She received seven patents while working for SBC TRI.

Now she’s managing billing solutions design in Saint Louis. Her team of fifteen engineers provides tech support for new billing services. “We’re the front-end group. We define the requirements so IT can actually program them into the system,” she explains.

The work is challenging. “A lot of vendors are feeling the crunch. Sometimes software changes are made and we won’t be notified about them. Now more than ever we have to keep on top of everything.”

Coranado is well pleased with her career at SBC. “The company offered a tremendous amount of training and great opportunities,” she says. Her math background gave her the ability to see things in logical sequence, and, “I learned a lot of engineering principles on the job.

“SBC has been very aggressive in recent years in promoting an open environment to attract talent,” Coronado concludes. “I have my partner’s picture on my desk. I’ve been with her two years now, and we recently celebrated our union ceremony. I receive company benefits for her.”

Lucent promotes a safe space
At telecom equipment provider Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, NJ), Randy Bartell is a distinguished member of tech staff and co-chair of Equal, the GLBT organization at the company. Bartell says the commitment to diversity goes back to the company’s founding.

When Lucent spun off from AT&T in 1996, it took with it many of the policies of the parent company. Equal was spun off from League, AT&T’s GLBT affinity group.

Equal serves as a go-between for GLBT employees and Lucent management, and also focuses on educating straight employees about GLBT concerns. The organization sponsors special events during June, Gay Pride month, and plans professional development seminars open to the whole Lucent community. Many Equal chapters join in AIDS walks, donate time to AIDS patients and are involved in many causes, both gay and straight.

“Lucent is highly regarded in the GLBT community,” Bartell says. It offers a full package of domestic benefits, including life and health insurance and relocation packages, and was “one of the first companies to include gender identity in its nondiscrimination statement.”

Lucent has continued the Safe Space program, which started at AT&T. A Safe Space logo on someone’s workspace signifies that the occupant is GLBT-friendly.

“Safe Space is one of the things about Lucent that I’m really proud of,” says Bartell. “It started at AT&T, but Equal trade-marked it because the employee who started the whole thing came to Lucent after the spin-off.”

Randy Bartell, senior tech staff: Lucent is highly regarded in the GLBT community.

Randy Bartell: software generalist at Lucent
Bartell has been with Lucent and its AT&T parent for seventeen years. He received a BS in math from the State University of New York-Fredonia in 1982 and went on to an MSCS from Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY) in 1984. He was starting on the PhD track, but broke off the next year to become a member of tech staff at AT&T.

Most of Bartell’s work has been on software design and general development for a broad range of projects. “I’m a software engineer with very generic skills,” he explains. “I program in C, C++, Java, and Ada, the Department of Defense language.”

Now, as a distinguished member of tech staff, his current project is Softswitch, which bridges the gap between older switched systems and the newer packet-switched networks used on the Internet. “I do a lot of support tools and testing of tools for the switch,” he says.

Some of the code has already been written. “I have to maintain it and continue from there,” he explains. “You definitely learn a lot this way – you get to explore other options and it expands your repertoire.”

Microsoft designer Keenan Whittaker: an amazing work environment where discrimination is simply not tolerated.

Keenan Whittaker: “amazing work environment” at Microsoft
Keenan Whittaker is a software design engineer, working on the wildly popular Office software suite for Microsoft (Redmond, WA).

He was attracted to the company by its unique corporate culture. “Microsoft provides an amazing work environment where discrimination is simply not tolerated and diversity is encouraged,” he says. “The caliber of people here is amazing. Creativity and innovation are rewarded. And it’s a very relaxed, open atmosphere, with flexible hours and great benefits!”

Whittaker is one of the main developers for the office.microsoft.com website. He often finds himself dealing with urgent issues that are occurring live on the website, which logs more than 10 million hits a month.

Clearly, his job entails a lot more than simply writing code. “I work with program managers and write application programming interfaces to ensure that Office is consistent and accessible to every user, including those who are blind. I work with software testers and interact with other internal teams to guarantee that the overall Office experience is a good one in terms of consistency, security, performance and accessibility.”

Whittaker, a Canadian, graduated from the University of Waterloo (Waterloo, ONT) in 2000 with the degree of bachelor of math in honors CS with a cognitive science option. He did several internships in college, including four months with Microsoft in the summer of 1999. After he graduated he came to the U.S. to work for Microsoft full time.

It’s a challenging job. “I’m working on a live site spanning multiple servers that gets hits from millions of people each month in over thirty languages. I have to make sure that any changes I make to the code or configuration are beneficial for the users, with zero downtime, good performance and no inconsistencies.

“It’s a really great feeling to know that I’m helping millions of people worldwide. There can’t be many roles where you can have such a wide impact.”

Whittaker is an enthusiastic member of Gay and Lesbian Employees at Microsoft (GLEAM). He’s its lunch coordinator, in charge of organizing a weekly Friday get-together where gay and gay-friendly employees, contractors and friends can meet in a comfortable environment.

Wendy Stresau: assimilated at Dell
Wendy Stresau is a senior engineering manager in the enterprise software development group of Dell Computer (Round Rock, TX). She joined the company because “Dell was excelling in the PC industry and I wanted to be with the winning company.”

Her other reason, equally strong, was the comfort level and benefits that Dell would offer. “As a gay person, I found the company policies very attractive. Dell benefits are available to all employees, and Dell supported me and my partner as a family when we moved from Houston to Austin. I would rather be assimilated than different, so this makes me feel more comfortable.”

Stresau’s group delivers both the hardware and software that help customers remotely manage Dell servers. As a senior manager, she is also involved in strategic planning for her product area.

Stresau didn’t train for the software field: her 1979 BS from the University of Wisconsin is in geology and geophysics. She developed software skills as an ancillary to her first job, and took programming courses at U Texas-Dallas to add to the ones she already had. “But a lot of my skill was acquired on the job over the twenty-five years I spent in software development.”

When she got out of college she took a job in the geophysical division of Texas Instruments (Dallas, TX). “At that time oil exploration was a hot area, and it looked like a great career opportunity. I was very successful at TI because I was able to write software that allowed us to be more efficient.”

In 1987, when Haliburton (Dallas, TX) acquired her division of Texas Instruments, she continued doing software development as part of her management role. “Then came the oil industry bust and my interest and skill in software development provided me with a new career opportunity.”

In 1994 Stresau became engineering manager of software development at Compaq (Houston, TX) and worked there until 1999 when she moved to Dell.

Stresau is a member of Pride, the GLBT networking group at Dell, and active on its education committee. “The companies I’ve worked for have all had liberal GLBT policies,” she remarks. “There was a point in my career when it would have been beneficial to move to another company. But my partner and I weren’t comfortable with disclosing our situation to that company’s management, so I passed up the opportunity.”

Software engineer George Salem: “Sun values employees and respects our differences.”

George Salem: a good balance at Sun
George Salem is a software staff engineer at Sun Microsystems (Santa Clara, CA), which develops systems and software for network system computers. Like others we interviewed, Salem has no complaints at all about his company and finds himself perfectly comfortable there. “Sun really values employees and understands that we have lives outside of work. It respects our differences,” he says.

Salem is a product program manager, currently leading an effort for Sun’s new X86 line of edge servers, machines that work on the periphery of a large network. “Basically I’m responsible for getting the operating system and applications released and running. There are thirteen engineers and eighteen testers on the team and we’re just finishing up the first X86 server.”

Salem received his BSEE from Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) in 1985 and an MSCS from Harvard in 1990. After he completed the BS he worked in ASIC and hardware areas for Prime Computer (Framingham, MA), Gerber Scientific (Belmont, MA) and Picturetel Corp (Peabody, MA).

In 1993 Salem moved west to work as a hardware engineer for SuperMac (Sunnyvale, CA), which made Macintosh peripherals. And in 1994 he moved to Sun as a hardware/software engineer.

Since then, Salem has worked in engineering and engineering management. He prefers managing projects, as he’s doing now, to managing personnel: “I like getting products out the door,” he says.

Sun, declares Salem, “is a good match for my abilities and my expectations. I’ve been able to maintain a good balance of work and home life here. I have my weekends and evenings, and I get to take a vacation without checking voicemail all the time.”

Salem, who has been out since he was twenty-three, feels that being gay has given him a unique perspective. “I’m a white man, and it could have been really easy not to see the struggles of others. My having taken a different path allows me to appreciate other people who do that.”

Salem received harassing e-mails at one of his early jobs, but was able to confront the sender and resolve the situation. He persuaded that company to add sexual orientation to its non-harassment policy. But when he discovered that he was paid less because he was single and childless, “The fairness wasn’t there, so I left,” he says. “It makes me appreciate a place like Sun, where you get compensated based on what you do, not on how many kids you have.”

It’s not yet a perfect world, but these eight technical pros have found successful niches in companies that value their work and protect their right to do it in peace. As SBC’s Lourdes Coronado proudly proclaims, “I don’t deny being gay.” But, she notes, “It’s easier now to be a part of the GLBT community.”

D/C

– Laurel McKee Ranger is a freelance business writer headquartered in Randolph, NJ.