Shortly before 35-year-old N.S. joined work in April, close to 30 employees at ThoughtWorks India ’s Bangalore office attended a session to sensitize them to her needs. Shubha Chacko of the Solidarity Foundation, a Bangalore-based non-governmental organization that works on livelihood issues of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons, who conducted the session, told them, “There is nothing special about her."

View Full Image Tina Vinod, Social initiatives lead, Thoughtworks.

Chacko told the team not to pry into the whys and hows of N.S.’ transition—“wait for her to share her own story"—and exhorted them to not reduce N.S. to a single aspect of her identity. “She’s just like you and me." The session lasted an hour and left Chacko satisfied. Tina Vinod, the social initiatives lead responsible for hiring N.S., says: “We had a lot of unlearning to do (about LGBT issues). All our employees have been very open to this."

This is good news for LGBT activism in a country still reeling under a Supreme Court verdict that recriminalized same-sex intercourse last year. Several companies that had begun to reach out to their LGBT employees after the Delhi high court decriminalized homosexuality in 2009 drew back, fearing that they would appear anti-state. But, contrary to all expectations, this hasn’t put a stop to LGBT activism in the workplace. If anything, it has only pushed office-going queer employees to create equitable workspaces for themselves.

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The changing perception of colleagues is an important first step. In June, 30-year-old Charles, a data analyst for an American information technology firm who wanted to be referred to by his first name, conducted a session with other white-collar professionals of a German software solutions firm to tell them about his life as a queer employee. Charles is part of a four-member, Bangalore-based group of LGBT professionals, PrideSpeak, all of whom belong to the same demographic as their audience—young, upwardly mobile, and invested in their careers. The idea, says writing coach Minal Hajratwala, who initiated the group in November, is to have the corporate world hear these issues first-hand. Many firms wanted the group to give talks in their offices, but put them on hold after the verdict, says Hajratwala.

Charles says sharing his story helped him too. “I told them how isolated I feel walking into office every day. When I go for office trips, everyone talks of their marriages or girlfriends, and I can’t participate in these conversations out of fear of backlash. Offices are second homes. Especially after the verdict, people can be mistreated and targeted, and they need to be made to feel secure."

All PrideSpeak members, also comprising IT professionals Dolly Koshy, Mayank Gupta and Rashmi (who wanted to be identified only by her first name), are trained to answer questions like, “Is homosexuality a Western import?" (“No, it isn’t. The Kama Sutra has enough instances of homosexual coupling, as do the sculptures in Khajuraho," explains Hajratwala) and “Why talk about sexuality at work?" (“Because not talking about it allows the perpetuation of false ideas and discrimination").

“The point we wish to drive home is just as how personal beliefs, like religious or gender difference, don’t affect the way we treat each other at work, so mustn’t sexuality," adds Hajratwala.

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A firm can be considered free and fair to its LGBT employees if it offers sexual orientation non-discrimination policies, gender identity non-discrimination policies, domestic partner beneﬁts and transgender-inclusive health beneﬁts. The workspace has emerged as a site of contention in a rapidly urbanizing India as diversity inclusion becomes the catchphrase of a globalized world. US economist Lee Badgett, who has done pioneering work using economic data to debunk myths about LGBT persons, recently submitted preliminary findings to the World Bank which pointed out that India lost between $2-31 billion (that is, around ₹ 12,200 crore to ₹ 1.9 trillion) worth workplace productivity connected with homophobia in 2012.

This isn’t surprising, as the country has only just started talking about homosexuality. The fight to claim equal rights won a victory in 2009—when the Delhi high court ruled that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalized all forms of intercourse that are not penile-vaginal, did not apply to consenting adults. Soon after, a few Indian companies began rolling out LGBT-friendly policies and networks.

Infosys Ltd formed its Gay Lesbian Employees and You (Iglu) network in 2011. Godrej amended its anti-discrimination policy to include sexual orientation and gender identity in 2011. Through the Godrej India Culture Lab, it held film screenings and panel discussions on LGBT issues. In May, the Godrej group partly sponsored the Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival.

Multinational firms such as IBM (which formed its Employee Alliance for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Empowerment network in 2008), Goldman Sachs, Google, Accenture and Amazon, among others, already have non-discrimination policies in place.

Community Business, a Hong Kong-based not-for-profit that provides training on corporate social responsibility, set up the India arm of its Diversity and Inclusion in Asia Network (Dian) in 2012 —this is a network of companies committed to bringing about diversity and inclusion in their organizational policies. LGBT 101 training in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore has been taking place regularly in the now 20-member network. “We looked to create a mindset change," says Kevin Burns, programme manager for Community Business’ LGBT discussions.

Then, in December, the Supreme Court overturned the high court verdict and reinstated Section 377. Gowthaman Ranganathan of the Bangalore-based non-profit Alternative Law Forum met executives from many corporations that were worried they would come across as abetting criminal activity if they supported LGBT-employee networks and activities. He explained that this was not the case. “The law doesn’t criminalize identity. Nor does it say that you can’t put in place policies that make the workplace equitable and inclusive," he told them.

Burns agrees that the verdict left a number of leading companies confused. “Some felt that promoting LGBT inclusion put them at a legal risk. Some companies that had started LGBT sensitization with their employees, decided to put these activities on hold."

The employees—many of whom were in senior positions in firms such as IBM, Dell and Google—decided to keep the conversations going. In January, they held a closed-door roundtable conference to discuss workplace conditions. “We decided to use this space to share knowledge, instead of working in silos within our own companies," says an attendee who doesn’t want to be identified. One initiative of the roundtable—which now meets every month—is to hold an innovation idea fest for employees to pitch LGBT-friendly policies on finance, tax and insurance.

While there is no law to deter them from doing this, the lack of strict anti-discrimination laws means theirs will be an uphill task.

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L.S.’ situation is a case in point. Ever since her global media firm allowed its Indian employees to nominate domestic partners (such as live-in and same-sex partners) for benefits under the company’s healthcare, life and retirement plans, the 36-year-old, Bangalore-based senior data analyst has been trying to convince her insurance company that her partner, 43-year-old M.H., is not out to cheat them. Her same-sex marriage licence from New York doesn’t work for the insurance company, which is, ironically, American. Instead, it wants them to prove that M.H. lives in the same house. This would mean submitting a utility bill in her name which, in turn, would mean supplying their utility provider proof of residence. But the home is in L.S.’ name. “It’s ridiculous," says an exasperated L.S. “No heterosexual couple in my company has been asked to do this."

Even as L.S. battles confusing policies, others like Charles have initiated networks in organizations where none existed. Charles recently helped set up a group for LGBT employees in his office—it’s the first in the Asia-Pacific region for his company—to provide a space to others who, like him, “feel there is no ray of hope after the Supreme Court verdict". The group will hold events during Pride marches, set up booths to spread awareness and hold workshops for other employees. It’s a good start. “When companies back people, then people have more courage to support other people in the community," he says.

This is a challenge that LGBT employees of corporate India are taking head on.

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