Former BP CEO John Browne says gay marriage is good business and of strategic importance
By Steve LeVine
Former BP CEO John Browne was so private about his homosexuality that he resigned when an estranged lover divulged their relationship to a tabloid. Now he is carrying his new openness into politics. Browne, a member of Great Britain’s House of Lords, came out forcefully today in favor of a proposed law making gay marriage legal in the country.
Browne first spoke openly about his sexuality in a 2010 book called Beyond Business. But his political push, made in an eloquent piece in today’s Financial Times, is the first such forceful defense of gay rights by a major figure in the global oil industry, in which a homophobic environment persists. On May 29, ExxonMobil shareholders rejected an explicit company ban on discrimination against gays, the sixteenth such vote at the oil company’s annual meetings.
In his FT piece, Browne writes that he kept his sexuality secret for decades “out of fear” that disclosure could damage his career and the company. He was regarded as his country’s greatest businessman, but he hid his personal life as a grave threat that could bring everything down.
It all went back to growing up in a different time, in which “homosexuality was illegal. Men went to prison, boys were expelled and individuals would disappear, leaving hushed speculation,” Browne says.
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http://qz.com/90288/former-bp-ceo-john-browne-says-gay-marriage-is-good-business-and-of-strategic-importance/
