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Diversity Scorecard: Gay Attorneys
LGBT lawyers still have a way to go for full acceptance
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article from the January 26, 2009 edition of the Daily Business review
by: Alana Roberts
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Coral Gables appellate attorney Rosemary Wilder came out as a lesbian 15 years ago but is afraid a new generation of attorneys has lost sight of the importance of being open about their sexual orientation in the workplace.
She raised the point at a Florida Bar seminar at the University of Miami last October celebrating the 30-year anniversary of the Florida Supreme Court decision finding gay attorneys are morally fit to practice law.
“I asked one of the attorneys in my firm, ‘Do you consider yourself out in the law firm?’ ‘Absolutely not.’ ‘Why not?’ ‘Because it doesn’t make any difference. I do what I do. It’s not related to my job. I ” she said at the seminar. “While we do my job well. It’s a non-issue,’ think it’s OK and really cool to be gay ,and we’re much more accepted than we used to be in the old days, we have a long way to go.”
Wilder, a member at Marlow Connell Abrams Adler Newman & Lewis in Coral Gables, gave another example at the session.
When Holland & Knight first offered domestic partnership benefits to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender attorneys in the mid-1990s, attorneys who worked there at the time said they weren’t comfortable enough to sign up for the benefits because they weren’t open about their sexual orientation at work — despite Holland & Knight’s reputation for being one of the most welcoming places for diverse attorneys.
“If you can’t be out at Holland & Knight, where could you possibly be out?” Wilder asked. “They still believe there’s a stigma attached to being a gay attorney. The problem hasn’t gone away. It’s still there. So if people say to you ‘Are you out?’ I would hope the answer is yes.”
She told the audience that LGBT lawyers don’t have federal or state protections against discrimination in the workplace and still have a way to go before they’re fully accepted and embraced. She said one way to ensure progress is to resist the temptation to become complacent.
Despite the legal industry’s reputation for being conservative, Wilder said law firms stand out as some of the most gay-friendly workplaces, according to the Human Rights Campaign’s annual corporate equality index.
But Gregory Baldwin — an openly gay litigation partner at Holland & Knight’s Miami office who was instrumental in getting the domestic partnership program started at the firm — said there’s only so much law firms can do to make themselves welcoming for LGBT attorneys.
At some point, it’s up to LGBT attorneys to become comfortable enough with themselves to stop hiding that aspect of their private lives from their colleagues, he said.
“I’m sure there are lesbian, gay, bisexual lawyers in Holland & Knight that are not out,” he said in a phone interview. “I don’t think it says anything about the firm. I think it says more about the person than the firm.”
Wilder said in an interview that it’s important for LGBT attorneys to be open, but she understands it’s a personal choice.
“While I can go on and on about why I think that doesn’t benefit the world overall, I have to respect” their wishes, she said.
Michael Gongora, a partner in Becker & Poliakoff’s Coral Gables office and a former Miami Beach city commissioner who is openly gay, said he’s never had a problem in his career with being out in the workplace, but he knows other attorneys have run into problems.
“I know one gay lawyer that got employed at a law firm, and on his first week, he was taken out to lunch with several of the partners, and they were making jokes about gay people,” Gongora said about an incident that took place in the ’90s. “This guy is masculine. He’s not obviously gay. That sends a message that you’d better stay in the closet. He was miserable for about a year and then found another job.”
Gongora, who was outed by his city commission opponent on a radio show during the 2006 campaign, said he has gay friends at other firms who don’t feel comfortable being open in the workplace. The Cuban-American partner who has been at Becker & Poliakoff in Coral Gables for three years, said the environment at his own firm is markedly different.
“The people have been encouraging,” he said. “The partners above me have helped me move forward with my career. Nothing about my personal life has been a deterrent to that.”
The legal industry has been increasingly supportive of events like the annual Lavender Law Career Fair organized by the National LGBT Bar Association, said Miami Beach attorney Elizabeth Schwartz, president of the newly revived Gay and Lesbian Lawyers Association in South Florida. The 21st annual career fair attracted more than 150 firms last year.
“Frequently, diversity doesn’t include gender identity and sexual orientation,” Schwartz said. “How wonderful that they’re [firms] coming to the LGBT conference. What a clear marker that is of the progress we’ve made.”
Some minority groups haven’t fully embraced the LGBT community as a part of the diversity movement, she said.
She compared the election of the nation’s first black president with votes on the same ballots rejecting gay marriage in Florida, California and Arizona.
“It felt like a real stab in the back for a lot of members of the LGBT community,” Schwartz said. “To have the first African-American president and have the African-American community vote against us on this issue, that’s a very bittersweet reality for us.”
Alana Roberts can be reached at (305) 347-6648.
Rosemary Wilder photo by A.M. Holt
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