Lead With Purpose: Advance Global LGBTIQ Rights Through Corporate Partnership

About OutRight

Around the world, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) and allied advocates continue to face enormous challenges and risks to their own personal safety to call out abuses of the human rights of LGBTIQ people, and force changes to laws that discriminate against them.

OutRight works at the international, regional and national levels to research, document, defend, and advance human rights for LGBTIQ people globally.

We partner directly with human rights defenders, allies and organizations to produce reliable data on the experiences of LGBTIQ people around the world and support research-based advocacy and capacity-building for LGBTIQ rights. OutRight is:

• The only US-based LGBTIQ organization holding consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
• The Secretariat of the LGBTI Core Group, a coalition of United Nations member states dedicated to advancing equality and ensuring human rights of LGBTIQ people
• One of two founding non-governmental organizations advising companies in the Partnership for Global LGBTI Equality, a World Economic Forum Lighthouse Project, and a coalition of businesses committed to leveraging their individual and collective advocacy to accelerate LGBTI equality and inclusion globally

OutRight prioritizes work with corporate leaders to advance LGBTIQ human rights globally.

Our partnerships reflect a company’s core values, help guide decision-making and drive measurable value.

By educating and engaging senior leaders and managers across a company, we help build CSR, DEI and core business competence, enhancing competitiveness to deliver positive societal impact. 

OutRageous: Unequal Treatment

Fewer than 1/2 of the United Nations’ 193 Member States ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. At least 67 countries still have national laws criminalizing same-sex relations between consenting adults.

Hundreds of millions of people are living in countries where identifying as gay could lead to imprisonment, corporal punishment or even death.

On a range of social and economic indicators, LGBTIQ people tend to fare poorly compared with the general population – studies in multiple countries have found rates of poverty, food insecurity, barriers to competent health care and joblessness to be elevated in the LGBTIQ community.

Discrimination, COVID-19 and the global economic recession are exacerbating and compounding these disparities. The human toll of LGBTIQ discrimination is unquantifiable.

There is also an economic cost to homophobia and transphobia that hurts everyone – and the numbers are staggering: worldwide, losses likely exceed USD $119 billion of GDP.

Beyond the moral imperative, advancing inclusive and diverse societies promotes equality, open societies, stronger economic environments and greater opportunity for everyone.

Business & the Human Rights of LGBTIQ People

OutRight engages with a wide array of corporate partners from diverse industries to advance our work, opening up companies to an ever-growing population of LGBTIQ stakeholders and improving our global communities every step along the way.

OutRight understands the inherent value of creating strategic partnerships with like-minded companies.

Collaboration strengthens OutRight and our partners, providing unique opportunities to link social impact with positive outcomes for business.

OutRight teams up with companies in a variety of ways.

Our value proposition includes:

By collaborating with OutRight, benefits to our corporate partners can include:

• Gaining access to data, knowledge and networks to inform strategy and business decisions.
• Gaining an advantage over competitors by leading on best practices.
• Improving risk management with regard to the material risk of doing business in hostile environments.
• Protecting the image and reputation of your company against the perception of insufficient action.
• Propelling innovation by exploring solutions, including collectively with other businesses, which positions your company to capitalize on emerging opportunities.
• Advancing financial performance – an authentic commitment to inclusion delivers a clear ROI, while longer-term, combating discrimination opens markets.
• Generating customer loyalty, as consumers care and want to do business with companies that demonstrably share their values.
• Enhancing employee advocacy and talent recruitment, because employees prioritize companies committed to leavening no one behind, and that empower them to make a social impact.