The case for LGBTQ+ inclusion in the boardroom has never been so well articulated. Companies increasingly share this belief: in 2023, Alphabet and Starbucks added LGBTQ+ Directors, embracing the idea that a diverse workforce is vital to their business.

Our survey helped confirm the barriers to LGBTQ+ representation in the Boardroom. The combination of a lost generation, gendered industries, and a network gap has created a vicious cycle of underrepresentation. However, this cycle can be broken.

The Association of LGBTQ+ Corporate Directors leads with talent. Whether through the tally of LGBTQ+ people in publicly listed and private Boardrooms or through its annual survey, the LGBTQ+ Boardroom Barometer Survey, the Association aims to understand better the mechanisms of exclusion and explore ways to improve LGBTQ+ representation in the U.S. boardrooms.

The Governance world must also play its role. Boards. Recruiters and other stakeholders must also do some soul-searching when they perpetuate the invisibility of LGBTQ+ people in candidate slates, initiatives, or reports: are they prolonging an underrepresentation that is the legacy of injustice? Are they depriving shareholders of valuable contributions by perpetuating the status quo?

Looking beyond the U.S., LGBTQ+ diversity lags in most regions. The lack of self-identification, due to restrictions in some areas on collecting information related to sexual orientation and gender identity, has rendered LGBTQ+ people in the Boardroom, along with systemic forms of discrimination, invisible. Similarly, a recent Financial Conduct Authority decision in the UK not to include LGBTQ+ minorities in its Board-diversity rule was at odds with the Nasdaq led-progress in the US. Canada created a similar initiative to the Association this year. We hope it becomes the case in many other markets.

Read our report here!