Corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives have undergone a significant shift over the past two years, and a new survey suggests that many LGBTQ professionals believe the workplace has changed along with them.
According to research released by Out Leadership, the share of LGBTQ employees who believe being openly gay or transgender helps advance their careers has fallen dramatically since 2023. While nearly four out of five respondents previously viewed openness about their identity as a professional advantage, that figure has now dropped below half.
At the same time, however, workplace comfort remains high.
The survey found that 88 percent of respondents said they feel comfortable being themselves at work, the highest level recorded by the organization.
For Todd Sears, founder and CEO of Out Leadership, that combination was the report’s most significant finding.
“To me, the most striking finding is the divergence, not just the decline,” Sears told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “People are not going back into the closet… they are questioning whether personal visibility and authenticity will translate into advancement.”
According to Sears, the trend appeared consistently across every geographic region surveyed—including the United States, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Australia and Oceania, and South America—as well as across every generation. Generation Z experienced the sharpest decline.
“That consistency tells us this is a structural story about how careers work inside companies, not a story about any one country or news cycle,” Sears said.
Out Leadership argues that previous workplace initiatives designed to encourage LGBTQ employees to be open about their identities benefited both workers and employers.
Sears said employees who feel compelled to hide part of themselves often devote energy to concealment rather than job performance. In his view, corporate efforts over the past decade sought to remove those barriers rather than provide special advantages.
He argued that businesses benefited through higher engagement, lower turnover, improved productivity, and stronger leadership pipelines.
Sears believes the recent decline stems less from changing employee attitudes than from changing corporate priorities.
“What’s changed in the last two years is not on the talent side of the equation, it’s on the demand side,” he said. He argued that many companies have reduced sponsorship programs, leadership development initiatives, and other efforts intended to recruit and promote employees from underrepresented groups.
“When companies stop signaling that difference is valued, leaders draw the rational conclusion that the qualities they bring… are no longer recognized as leadership assets,” Sears said.
Not everyone agrees with that assessment.
Greg Scott, executive vice president of the nonprofit 1792 Exchange, argues that the survey reflects companies moving away from politically charged workplace initiatives rather than abandoning talented employees.
“It’s interesting to see activist groups openly confess to exploiting sexual and gender identity to get ahead in the workplace,” Scott told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “But even more interesting is that the most radical ideologues are now admitting that the spell is wearing off.”
Scott said many businesses have concluded that taking public positions on divisive cultural issues creates more risk than benefit.
“Many companies have seen that taking sides in political battles presents few benefits and carries intolerable reputational risk,” he said. “Businesses are increasingly getting back to business and leaving the culture wars behind.”
He pointed to what he described as declining corporate participation in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index and reduced sponsorship of the organization’s events as evidence that companies are reassessing their involvement with advocacy initiatives.
Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, offered a similar interpretation.
“America’s companies spent years chasing woke agendas like DEI, transgender ideology, and climate activism instead of staying focused on their customers,” Hild said. He argued that businesses should prioritize producing goods and services rather than engaging in political or cultural debates.
Hild also cited the Trump administration’s criticism of certain diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, saying recent policy changes have encouraged companies to reevaluate those initiatives.
