Progress driven by Pride
A few days ago, 2019 came to an end. What do we remember about the year when we look back at it? I think of my impressive trip through Peru, the wonderful people I got to know and my new professional challenge as an e-sports community manager at Porsche.
But I especially like to remember New York.
In June 2019, millions of people celebrated the World Pride Parade in Manhattan. They paid tribute to the courage of the men and women who took to the streets 50 years ago on 28 June 1969 for the freedom and rights of the LGBT*IQ community after a raid on New York’s Stonewall Inn, especially the drag queens. A journey that even today, 50 years later, is far from over.
Courage changes everything
Why does this subject move me? True to our Porsche motto “Courage changes everything”, I founded the Proud@Porsche Community in 2017.
Firstly, to promote the visibility of the LGBT*IQ workforce in our company. But above all, to create a protected space for open, supportive exchange. The community is aimed at all colleagues* who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, intersexual, queer, colorful or whatever. We believe in the diversity of people. We believe in the potential that arises from freedom and diverse perspectives, regardless of individual character.
Numerous personalities have stood up for this freedom over the past decades. Here I would like to tell the stories of ten courageous people from the LGBT*IQ community, who not only stand for change and the development in social discourse, but who also inspired me personally in the past year.
1. Anderson Cooper — a fact, not breaking news
Anderson Cooper is an American reporter icon who has been awarded numerous Emmys — and he’s gay. It is also thanks to him that sexual identity is no longer breaking news.
The 52-year-old is not making himself into a story, he is providing facts for a society in which the media are increasingly having to fight against doubt. For years he reported from the crisis regions of the world — including countries where men are still persecuted when they love another man.
In 2012, Cooper wrote a public email: “The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be.” A fact, however, which does not make his stories disappear in the 21st century. I especially find his eloquence and people-oriented approach very enriching.
2. Rachel Maddow — the Anchor Woman
Anderson Cooper provides the facts — Rachel Maddow shows attitude. The 46-year-old is the liberal dissenting voice for Fox News, an anchor woman among anchor men. Her greatest strength is that she is critical without being disrespectful. She defends her position without punishing opposing ones. “With an agenda, without hysteria,” — that’s how the magazine Hollywood Reporter characterized her in 2011.
MSNBC has been broadcasting Maddow’s show since 2008, when she became one of the first known primetime news presenters* from the LGBT*IQ spectrum. She is also a voice for many people who suffer from depression. She speaks publicly about her illness and shares her experience. That’s what inspires me about her: When we are open about who and what we are, we show others that they are not alone.
3. Margarete Voll — ahead of her time
In 1998, Margarete Voll founded the “Wirtschaftsweiber”, Germany’s most important network for lesbian professionals and managers. She herself was head of department at Allianz for many years and knows from her own experience how difficult it is to come out in working life. A manager in particular risks losing the trust of his or her employees and colleagues if he or she does this later in their career.
When we met, I was only in my early twenties. I was fascinated by the size of the network at that time, how everything could grow from the vision of a single woman. I understood for the first time how important networks and mentoring are in my job. I have supported “Wirtschaftsweiber”, [D1] together we have extended the reach and enabled networking via the Internet so that women can support each other across borders.
After many years in which we had lost sight of each other, we met again last year. I told her that from her story I had the confidence to start my own company network. In her smile I saw that I could hardly have given her greater pleasure.
4. Albert Kehrer — the Networker²
Albert Kehrer is co-founder and chairman of the board of the “Prout at Work” foundation. Since 2013, the foundation has been working for an LGBT*IQ-friendly work culture, where nobody should be afraid of coming out. The “t” in Prout is not a typo. Prout is composed of Proud and “Out” for outed. Companies can apply as “Prout Employer”, a label that points out particularly sensitized and LGBT*IQ-open companies. Albert supports and advises companies dealing with sustainable diversity management solutions. With “Prout at Work”, together with Jean-Luc Vey, he has succeeded in establishing a kind of umbrella organisation for German-speaking LGBT*IQ company networks.
What fascinates me about Albert is how he has brought the topic of diversity and LGBT*IQ out of a shadowy existence and into the limelight. He has succeeded in establishing an overarching community with a common goal from many lone fighters. A community that can achieve more in the business environment than any one of us can do alone.
5. Daniela Kobel — successful in a male domain
Daniela Kobel is a Bavarian creator with an incredibly likeable sense of humour and, like me, a passionate IT person. These were probably the best prerequisites when I stumbled across her name in my search for supporters within the Volkswagen Group. We met personally last October at the “Prout at Work” conference. The conference brings together representatives of the LGBT*IQ communities of different companies.
Without Daniela there would be no queer@audi, the LGBT*IQ network for Audi employees. The community was founded in December 2017 and is strongly supported by diversity management, for example by the top manager and patron Stephan Meier. More than 100 men and women are organized in the network, and they take part in the annual Christopher Street Day parades in Munich and Ingolstadt. Even more important, however, is the work within the company, such as support for the Diversity Days at Audi, network meetings and activities in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm, and cooperation with “Prout at Work” and the Diversity Charter. Recently Daniela won the 2nd place at the PANDA-Automotive & IT-Leadership-Contest. Daniela shows me that change is possible even in a supposedly difficult environment like the automotive industry.
6. RuPaul — Drag Queen and Social Warrior
For three years I have been fascinated by RuPaul’s career and his vision. He is America’s most famous drag queen and creator of the show RuPaul’s Drag Race. In each season of his show, 15 drag queens compete in challenges. Finally, in the finale of each episode, two “RuGirls” duel with each other and sing to advance to the next episode, or, as RuPaul calls it, “Lipsync for your Life”. I love it and those who know me better know that I have a lot in common with drag queens. ;-)
RuPaul, at 59-years-old, shows what diversity means. He brings to the surface what for a long time only took place away from the mainstream. This raises many new questions, and there is also criticism of the programme. But I consider it a great achievement, as evidenced by its overwhelming success and 23 Emmy nominations to date. RuPaul’s Drag Race has made playing with gender identities a prime-time success story. It was first and foremost the drag queens who fought back against the police in front of the Stonewall Inn. RuPaul helps your art to gain more visibility and recognition. The most important message: how will you love someone else if you do not love yourself?
7. Nikita Baranov — the Bold One
Nikita Baranov calls himself an innovation enthusiast and LGBT+ preacher. His work for the METRO Pride Group last year made him runner-up in the “Germany’s Top 20 Future Leaders 2019” award. This award is presented every year by the “Prout at Work” foundation to outstanding young professionals who are particularly committed to LGBT*IQ issues. Nikita thinks beyond its own community and has set itself the goal of bringing together the company networks nationwide. With the Rhine-Ruhr LGBT+ network, he connects the communities of companies such as Bayer, Bertelsmann, Commerzbank, Metro, Henkel, Thyssenkrupp, Vodafone and many others. His idea inspired me to create a similar association in the south-west.
With his campaign “Too gay to donate blood” he also draws attention to the practice in Germany of openly excluding gay men, or all men who had sex with a man twelve months before donating blood. Nikita inspires me because he never simply accepts the status quo.
8. Alan Turing — late appreciation
As a computer scientist, this person is a particularly inspiring personality for me. Alan Turing, born in Britain in 1912, was ahead of his time, too far in some ways. Turing became a tragic pioneer of digital progress. In the Second World War, the brilliant mathematician helped crack the Enigma code, basically making him a pioneer of modern computer science at that time. Even today, the Turing test is still used on the Internet to distinguish between bots and humans.
In 1952, Turing was sentenced to chemical castration by a British court because of his sexual orientation. Two years later he committed suicide. Queen Elizabeth II did not bless him until 2013, and the British government will soon erect a monument in recognition of his work. From 2021, Alan Turing will become the face of the British 50 pound note. My personal favorite anecdote: he wrote a chess program for which the hardware was powerful enough long after his death. Turing had the imagination to think beyond the possible and known.
9. Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir — the State Woman
Some 60 years after British judges pronounced the verdict against Turing, Icelanders elected Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir as their country’s prime minister in 2009. A country that experienced the biggest crisis in its history — the financial crisis — confided in it. Sigurðardóttir, now 77-years-old, was elected the first head of state of the LGBT*IQ community in the western world, while Forbes magazine put her on the list of the 100 most powerful women in the world.
Sigurðardóttir also made progress in her private life: in 2010 she married the author Jónína Leósdóttir, her partner of many years. They entered into the first same-sex marriage in Iceland, seven years before marriage became possible for everyone in Germany — #LoveIsLove.
10. Miriam Meckel — The clever universal talent
The communication scientist Miriam Meckel is politically, economically and socially committed. In 2016, she married Anne Will. The two had kept their relationship secret for a long time and their registered civil partnership was a public issue in Germany at the time. Meckel’s book Letter to My Life helped to initiate an open dialogue about burn-out in our society.
From March 2017 onwards, she was editor-in-chief of Wirtschaftswoche for two and a half years — the first woman ever to do so. She used her prominent position to, among other things, campaign for statutory quotas for women in management positions. Since January 2019, she has been the founding publisher of the quarterly magazine ada. There, authors consistently use gender-sensitive formulations in all contributions and articles and use the syllable “*innen”. This way, they sensitize readers to the power of language. What inspires me about Miriam Meckel is her energy and commitment to the issues of our time, such as the question of the social consequences of artificial intelligence.
Why did I decide to write this article here on the Porsche blog? Well, I want to show how complex and diverse the LGBT*IQ community is! Not all of the people mentioned here are world-famous personalities, but they have all stood up for their cause. They have all taken a risk, made themselves vulnerable and vulnerable to change things. They inspire me with their courage and they all made this world a little better.
What do you think?
And that is also my resolution for the New Year 2020: let us make life more colourful, open and diverse. I look forward to your feedback — who from the LGBT*IQ community inspires you? Who did I leave off my list?
Claudia Feiner is Esports Community-Manager at Porsche and founder of the Proud@Porsche Community.
About this publication: Where innovation meets tradition. There’s more to Porsche than sports cars — we’re tackling new challenges, develop digital products and think digital with focus on the customer. On our Medium blog, we tell these stories. It´s about our #nextvisions, smart technologies and the people that drive our digital journey. Please follow us on Twitter (Porsche Digital, Next Visions), Instagram (Porsche Digital, Next Visions, Porsche Newsroom) and LinkedIn (Porsche AG, Porsche Digital) for more.
