‘Being gay feels like a liability again’: More LGBTQ+ workers are staying in the closet

For much of the last decade, corporate America told a tidy story about progress: Pride logos, employee resource groups, executives marching in parades. The implication was that the workplace closet—the quiet calculation LGBTQ+ employees make about how much of themselves to reveal at work—was slowly disappearing. Talk to enough queer professionals today, though, and a different picture emerges. Corporate America is still tricky to navigate. And, after years of people leaving, the closet is starting to fill up again: In January, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) reported that nearly half of LGBTQ+ adults are now less open about their identity than a year ago.   Katy, who requested to go by a pseudonym to protect her anonymity in the office, has been married to her wife for ten years. They share two children. She’s publicly gay. Yet at work, she doesn’t share pictures or mention her family. Sean, who similarly requested his first name be changed, is a mid-30s gay man who’s been ou