The Glass Closet Quotes

“constant vigilance is needed to prevent reversion to the darkest part of history.”
― John Browne, The Glass Closet: Why Coming Out Is Good Business – A Former BP CEO's Inspirational Memoir on LGBT Professional Authenticity

“The freedom that so many LGBT people now enjoy is based on centuries of sacrifice and success. Enlightenment thinkers questioned why leaders criminalised sexual identity. Some psychologists fought to define homosexuality as a normal part of life rather than a mental illness. Activists, artists and politicians spoke out, even when faced with the risk of humiliation and violence. David Hockney treated homosexuality expressly in his paintings, and James Baldwin bravely shared the isolation of being gay in a heterosexual world. Drag queens at the Stonewall Inn said they would not accept oppression any longer, and defied policemen who carried clubs and guns. Harvey Milk campaigned for gay rights in San Francisco, and was murdered. Each of these people has honoured the memory of the LGBT people who came before them, usually in a world that was harsher and less accepting of difference. From the gay men burned at the stake during the Middle Ages to those eliminated by the Nazis and to the LGBT men and women living in oppression in parts of the world today, progress is never even or permanent.”
― John Browne, The Glass Closet: Why Coming Out Is Good Business – A Former BP CEO's Inspirational Memoir on LGBT Professional Authenticity

“it is only a matter of time before the openly gay employees of today can become the role model chief executives of tomorrow.”
― John Browne, The Glass Closet: Why Coming Out Is Good Business – A Former BP CEO's Inspirational Memoir on LGBT Professional Authenticity

“GENERATIONAL CHANGE IS solving much of the problem of LGBT inclusion. Opponents of gay rights are literally dying out. More and more young people are coming out, and at earlier ages, and that encourages their peers to do the same. They are stepping into the business world with a confidence unknown to previous generations.”
― John Browne, The Glass Closet: Why Coming Out Is Good Business – A Former BP CEO's Inspirational Memoir on LGBT Professional Authenticity

“Standing up to clients is not always easy, but there are examples of firms that do. Claudia Brind-Woody is determined that IBM will not put business above its values. ‘In the past, we’ve had clients who didn’t want black or female sales reps,’ she explains. ‘We said, “Well, fine. We won’t send any. In fact, we won’t send anybody because we don’t want you as a client.”
― John Browne, The Glass Closet: Why Coming Out Is Good Business – A Former BP CEO's Inspirational Memoir on LGBT Professional Authenticity