Very, very, very out,” said Conley, CEO of microbiome biotech Federation Bio. “ne of the ways that I can be of service to the LGBT community is to be out in my life.
Others have been out every step of their career, like Emily Drabant Conley, Ph.D. "I think it’s important for people to know who we are, to be visible in the workplace, to not make apologies." “As soon as you start to back down from speaking your truth and maybe avoid those conversations, people may make assumptions about you that aren’t true,” said Gary Urban, a vice president at virtual trials provider Science 37, who has been out for decades. The most common piece of advice from the 20-plus executives? Be your true self. In interviews with Fierce Biotech, community leaders emphasized the need to have representation at the top, in the C-suite and in the boardroom the comfort that comes with knowing you’re not the only LGBTQ+ employee at your company the importance of showing up in numbers and the effect that open dialogue can have on dispelling assumptions. “We are so fortunate to have the kind of progressive protection in these major cities,” such as Boston and New York City, said MiNK Therapeutics CEO Jennifer Buell, Ph.D. "But that is not the case when we go across even the United States in many, many locations.” There’s a laundry list of barriers to doing so in the workplace: decadeslong perceptions about the need to be out at work (or not), geographic disparities, political implications, and even internal or environment-dictated situations. As a self-identifying group, LGBTQ+ individuals typically “come out” in stages and repeatedly to multiple people in various settings. ‘Speaking your truth’Ĭoming out can be an arduous process. Scientists are the “most open-minded group of people,” and the adversity they go through in failing before succeeding helps color their world, he said. “I’m a pharmacist I’m not a Ph.D., but I find that working in biotechnology, the smarter the people, the more this is a non-issue,” said Paul Hastings, chair of BIO and CEO of oncology biotech Nkarta. One data point, across all industries, shows that being out in the workplace is still relatively difficult: More than half of LGBTQ+ employees are not out to their co-workers, according to Out Leadership.īiopharma, which is heavily indexed toward Ph.D.- and M.D.-educated employees, places a strong emphasis on science and knowledge, making for a relatively welcoming environment, according to interviews with nearly two dozen out leaders. Leaders emphasized that it’s important for employees to come out on their own terms, when they’re ready. The industry sorely lacks data on LGBTQ+ people, painting a dreary outlook for advancing rights and making it difficult to know whether you're the only LGBTQ+ employee in the office or lab.īeing public about one's sexuality shouldn’t be a prerequisite for respect and a safe environment at work, though. It’s hard to know how many other biopharma leaders have gone through similar journeys. Stoke Therapeutics co-founder Isabel Aznarez,