On Wall Street, It Pays to Come Out of the Closet

According to a study conducted by the Center for Work-Life Policy, openly gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender finance employees are more satisfied with their careers than those who hide their sexual preference (or gender).

The study surveyed 2,800 LGBT employees and found that half of them identified themselves as being out of the closet; of those, two thirds said they were satisfied with their careers, while just a third of closeted finance employees said they were satisfied.

The results of the survey were released yesterday at the inaugural Out on the Street LGBT Leadership Summit, held at Deutsche Bank's New York headquarters and co-sponsored by DB, BofA, Barclays, Citi, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs (which ranked as the most gay-friendly firm in last year's Vault Banking Rankings).

It's commonly thought that the key to improving diversity with respect to LGBT employees (or any underrepresented group) lies with mentoring. And, to that end, during a panel discussion at the Out on the Street event, "Walter Schubert, the first openly gay member of the New York Stock Exchange, said there's a moral imperative for gay senior executives to make themselves available to younger employees, both gay and straight, to answer questions."

Overall, the results of the study are extremely encouraging and hopefully will lead to further diversity inside (at the very least) the co-sponsoring banks, which are commonly thought to be (and rightly so) some of the most conservative institutions in America.

(FINS: Openly Gay Workers Have Better Careers)

(Related: The 20 Most Gay-Friendly Firms on Wall Street)

(Related: Wall Street Hearts Gay Marriage)