Jim Huberty, chair of Out & Equal Chicagoland met with business leaders and community advocates on April 5 about the organization’s upcoming Citywide Pride season. The organization works with area companies and groups to promote LGBT workplace equality.
Out & Equal Chicagoland consults on LGBT diversity issues and helps organize equality-focused workplace events, according to Huberty. He said workplace advocacy is especially important at a time when businesses provide opposition to anti-LGBT laws.
“I came out in 1979, when there were no benefits or protections,” Huberty noted. “I wanted people to respect me for who I am… It’s in the workplace where people come together for different reasons and meet with people they wouldn’t normally interact with. So then they go back to their communities and say that it’s not so bad, and they don’t want colleagues discriminated against.”