Now that we have
become what the Human Rights Campaigncalls"two
Americas" when it comes to gay rights, could a gay and lesbian "brain
drain" away from states that ban same-sex marriage be far behind?
It was telling that
278 of America's top corporations and municipalities were so worried about
losing talented gay and lesbian workers that they filed briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court urging the
justices to take the action they did: throwing out California's Proposition 8
and gutting the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
Several of those
companies were concerned about losing LGBT workers with foreign-born partners,
prompting the companies to write a letter to Congress saying, "We cannot afford to lose
our most precious resource: talent."
And that talent is
apparently already being lost, due to an LGBT job flight that began even before
the Supreme Court's rulings.
The Michigan Civil
Rights Commission published a report earlier this year on the economic
impact of that state's law that bans domestic partnerships for state workers.
In a section of the
report titled, "Discrimination Impacts the Economy," the
commissioners found, "People are leaving the state … and seeking out jobs
with employers that have policies and environments inclusive of and favorable
toward LGBT employees."
Ironically,
Michigan's domestic partnership ban was just blocked by a judge who cited the new U.S.
Supreme Court DOMA ruling. The Michigan ban will now be challenged in a trial.
"I think the
concept of an LGBT brain drain is a possibility," says Joe McCormack,
managing partner of McCormack & Warren Executive Search Consultants, a
national job placement firm based in Palm Springs.
McCormack says his
gay and lesbian clients who are hot prospects now have clear choices when it
comes to legal protections.
"I would say one
of the first questions we get from any LGBT candidate is about corporate
benefits, and whether they are available to same-sex partners. If that answer
is no, that is a big red flag for them."
Bank of America was
already interviewed by the San Francisco Business Times about how it will
handle requests from gay and lesbian employees who want to transfer to more
friendly states. B-of-A said it was "too soon" to discuss
it, but, as the paper noted, the bank will not be the only company that has to
deal with LGBT transfer requests.
Certainly many gay
and lesbian professionals, managers, professors and members of the creative
class may simply vote with their feet and leave. In this mobile society, it's
too easy for a talented worker who is in demand to move to the other America.
One America is 30
percent of the country, now that California allows gay marriage. The other
America is 70 percent, with 37 states that don't allow gay marriage and all its
legal protections. And those protections are significant. Sunday's New York
Timesreported that legally married LGBT couples
could still lose Social Security and veterans' benefits if they live in states
that don't recognize their marriages.
About a dozen
additional states considering same-sex marriage are "in play," and if
they should all adopt it the states would be split right in half, 50/50.
But are smart gay and
lesbian workers going to wait for their states to come around, or are they
going to take their lives into their own hands?
Corporate headhunter
McCormack expects LGBT employees to be pro-active and move, and the same goes
for many of his straight clients.
"It's not just
because LGBT people may choose to work there," McCormack says about
gay-friendly states and companies, "It's a whole generation who have
grown-up accepting LGBT co-workers as equals who do not want to work for
companies that aren't progressive."
So if the next step
is, indeed, a brain drain by LGBT workers, it may not exactly be a gay version
of "Atlas Shrugged," but they will certainly leave behind states that
are much duller places.
Hank Plante covered
the Proposition 8 case for the CBS TV stations in San Francisco and Los
Angeles. This piece originally appeared in the Desert Sun.