Gay men and women (lesbians) have always been a part of human society. Throughout history gay men and women have contributed in many ways. Gay people have been conquerors, emperors, kings and queens, presidents, governors, senators and congressmen/women, scientists, CEOs, artists, teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers, technicians, actors and musicians -to name just a few. While most history books do not mention the sexual orientation of many of our great historical figures, many of them were gay.

The invisible community

The gay community is often referred to as an "invisible community." Because gay men and women don't share any specific physical characteristics, such as skin color or other physical features, gay men and women are able to "hide" their sexual orientation. Because of social pressure and potential risk of losing their jobs, homes, families and safety, many gay men and women feel the need the hide their sexual orientation.

There are a few cities in America that contain "gay neighborhoods" that offer gays and lesbians a more comfortable place to be themselves: the Castro district of San Francisco, Hillcrest in San Diego, West Hollywood near Los Angeles; Greenwich Village and Chelsea in New York and the Andersonville and Lake View communities of Chicago are some of the better-known areas.

Gay and lesbian culture today

Despite the misconception there is one defining "gay lifestyle," there really isn't one description that properly describes the gay community today. The gay community is extremely diverse. Gay men and women work in all career fields; are members of all races and faiths; and some are parents. Some are coupled and some are single. Gay men and women come in all shapes and sizes, colors and personalities.

Symbols of the gay community

The rainbow flag has become the easily recognized colors of pride for the gay community. Use of the rainbow flag by the gay community began in 1978 when it first appeared in the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade. Borrowing symbolism from the hippie movement and black civil rights groups, San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker designed the rainbow flag in response to a need for a symbol that could be used year after year. Baker and 30 volunteers hand-stitched and hand-dyed two huge prototype flags for the parade. The flag has six stripes, each color representing a component of the community: red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sun, green for nature, indigo for harmony and violet for spirit.

This rainbow flag spread from San Francisco to other cities, and soon became the widely known symbol of gay pride and diversity it is today. The International Congress of Flag Makers even officially recognizes it. In 1994, a 30-foot-wide by one-mile-long rainbow flag was carried by 10,000 people in New York's Stonewall Parade.

The pink triangle is easily one of the more popular and widely recognized symbols for the gay community. The inverted pink triangle is rooted in World War II times, and reminds us of the tragedies of that era. Although homosexuals were only one of the many groups targeted for extermination by the Nazi regime, it is unfortunately one of the groups that history often excludes.

The history of the pink triangle begins before WWII, during Adolf Hitler's rise to power. In 1935, Hitler revised paragraph 175, a clause in German law prohibiting homosexual relations, to prohibit kissing, embracing, and gay fantasies as well as sexual acts. Convicted offenders -an estimated 25,000 just from 1937 to 1939- were sent to prison and then later to concentration camps.

Each prisoner in the concentration camps wore a colored inverted triangle to designate their reason for incarceration, and hence the designation also served to form a sort of social hierarchy among the prisoners. A green triangle marked its wearer as a regular criminal; a red triangle denoted a political prisoner. Two yellow triangles overlapping to form a Star of David designated a Jewish prisoner. The pink triangle was for homosexuals. A yellow Star of David under a pink triangle marked the lowest of all prisoners - a gay Jew.

In the 1970s, gay liberation groups resurrected the pink triangle as a popular symbol for the gay rights movement. Not only is the symbol easily recognized, but also it draws attention to oppression and persecution then and now. Today for many the pink triangle represents pride, solidarity, and a promise to never allow another Holocaust to happen again.

Other, less widely known, symbols include:

The lambda symbol seems to be one of the most controversial of symbols in regards to its meaning. The lambda was first chosen as a gay symbol when the New York Gay Activists Alliance adopted it in 1970. It became the symbol of their growing movement of gay liberation. In 1974, the International Gay Rights Congress adopted the lambda their symbol for lesbian and gay rights.

In the early 1970s the Los Angeles gay community created a flag with a lavender lambda on a simple white background. They hoped the flag would catch on elsewhere, but their hopes were not realized because some saw the lambda as a male symbol only.

The labrys is a double-sided hatchet or axe commonly used in ancient European, African and Asian matriarchal societies as both a weapon and a harvesting tool. Greek artwork depicts the Amazon armies of Europe wielding labrys weapons. Amazons ruled with a dual-queen system in which one queen was in charge of the army and battle, and the other queen stayed behind to administer the conquered cities. Amazons were known to be ferocious and merciless in battle, but once victorious they ruled with justice. Today, the labrys is a lesbian and feminist symbol of strength and self-sufficiency.

The color lavender is often used to denote homosexuality, although the origins of its use are not clear. It may be the result of combining the colors red and blue (representing female and male influences), thereby creating a fusion of genders. Lavender became popular in American lesbian circles in the 1930s.

MOTOROLA DIVERSITY POLICY

This policy addresses the rights of gays and lesbians to work in a non-hostile, non-discriminatory environment. The policy reads as follows:

At Motorola, we will not tolerate discrimination or harassment for any reason. We are committed to the full inclusion and participation of all people. With this commitment to diversity, we afford equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origins/ancestry/citizenship, age, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, veteran or any other legally protected class.

All employees are entitled to work in an environment free from unwelcome harassment, such as slurs, jokes and other verbal, graphic or physical conduct. Managers, supervisors, employees and non-employee third parties, such as vendors, visitors and guests of the company, are covered by this policy.

This policy includes recruitment, hiring, placement, promotion, compensation, benefits, transfers, layoffs, discipline, separations, training, social and recreational programs and any other terms and conditions of employment. All personnel decisions will be monitored to ensure they are bias-free and are based solely on job-related considerations.

GAYS AND LESBIANS MAY BE LEGALLY PROTECTED

A growing number of municipalities, counties and states now provide their GLBT citizens with legal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Cook County, Illinois, where Motorola is headquartered, for example, prohibits discrimination and sexual harassment in employment, public accommodations, housing, credit transactions and county services and contracting based on a variety of factors, including sexual orientation and gender identity. These protections are not widespread throughout the United States, however, and as of mid 2003, no federal protections exist.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION IS NOT A "LIFESTYLE CHOICE"

Sexual orientation (heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or asexual) is heavily influenced by genetics and hormones, with some unknown environmental co-factors. For most people, there is no memory of "choice" regarding the gender to which they're attracted and for most, there is no sense that we could change our orientation. Like our biological sex, our sexual orientation is a part of who we are.

DISCUSSING SEXUAL ORIENTATION IN THE WORKPLACE

Often, people argue that sexual orientation should not be discussed at work. What they don't realize is that sexual orientation is being discussed. It's simply that the accepted topic is heterosexual orientation. This is almost always invisible to straight people because it seems so normal to them.

Heterosexual people are usually unconscious of how strongly heterosexuality is reinforced day after day: in the way people speak, by the photos of spouses and family where people work, by the jokes told in the lunchroom.

GAY AND LESBIAN POPULATION

2000 Census*

Gay and lesbian families in United States: 601,209 (314% Increase from 1990)

*The U.S. Census Bureau identified only same-gender couples. The U.S. Census Bureau did not count single gay or lesbian people. In addition, it has been found that though there is a dramatic increase in the number of gay and lesbian families compared to the 1990 census, the total number still represents an undercount of the actual number of gay and lesbian coupled households in the country. It is estimated that there are approximately 10 million gay and lesbian people in the United States.

DISTRIBUTION OF GAY AND LESBIAN POPULATION

Homosexuality and bisexuality are distributed across the population. Women and men of every background, race, ethnicity, religion, class, etc. are homosexual and bisexual in roughly the same proportions. Gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals exist in every country and virtually every culture around the world and always have.

THIS IS A WORKPLACE ISSUE

Homophobia, the fear and hatred of homosexuality, causes both heterosexual and gay people to react in ways which are not productive or inclusive. In the workplace, homophobia negatively impacts employee productivity.

Often, homophobia forces gay people into the "corporate closet." At work, they go to great lengths to hide everything having to do with their sexual orientation: gay friends, lovers, long-term partners, community activities, and pride in who they are.

Heterosexuals experience the corporate closet when it is not safe for them to talk about gay, lesbian and bisexual relatives and friends while at work.

Many gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals are hiding in their closets right now at work.

They're worrying about what will happen to them if they come out. They're afraid of being ostracized, harassed or discriminated against. On a daily basis, the closeted gay person in the corporate world leaves behind who he or she is and what is important to him or her. Keeping that mask on requires a great deal of effort. It's hard work to dodge questions regarding what you did over the weekend, with whom you spend your personal time, etc.

The cost to Motorola is potentially enormous. The energy spent keeping these secrets is energy which could be expended on solutions and results for our business!

CONFLICTS WITH RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND VALUES

Motorola respects the religious and moral convictions of our employees. However, each employee is expected to support Motorola's diversity principles, values and behaviors.

In alignment with Motorola's key values, employees are expected to behave in a manner which is respectful of those who are different from them.

FAMOUS GAYS AND LESBIANS IN HISTORY

Sappho (600 B.C.) Greek poet

Socrates (470-399 B.C.) Greek teacher and philosopher

Plato (427-347 B.C.) Greek teacher and philosopher

Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) Macedonian king and military leader

Richard the Lion Hearted (1157-1199) English king and crusader

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Italian Renaissance artist, teacher, scientist and inventor

Michelangelo (1475-1564) Italian Renaissance artist and sculptor

leyasuTokugawa (1542-1616) Japanese Shogun and founder of the Edo Shogunate

Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) British statesman and writer

Christina (1626- 1689) Swedish Queen

Peter the Great (1672-1725) Russian Czar

Frederick the Great (1712-1786) Prussian king and military leader

Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) Danish poet and writer

Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) Euro-American writer and journalist

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) Euro-American philosopher, naturalist and peace activist

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) Euro-American poet

Herman Melville (1819-1891) Euro-American writer

Chief Crazy Horse (Tashunca Witco) (1849-1877) Cgiala Sioux Chief

Peter I. Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Russian composer

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish writer and dramatist

Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) British composer-writer and activist

Sergei Diaghileff (1872-1929) Russian ballet impresario

Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) British author and gay rights pioneer

Willa Cather (1873-1947) Euro-American writer critic

W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) British writer and dramatist

Alice B. Toklas (1877-1967) Euro-American writer and Gertrude Stein's domestic partner

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) Euro-American writer and art collector and Alice Toklas' domestic partner

Bessie Smith (1894-1937) African-American blues singer and entertainer

EM. Forster (1879-1970) British writer

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) British writer and publisher

T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) (1888-1935) British soldier

Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) French writer and filmmaker

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) British economist and Nobel Prize winner

Cole Porter (1893-1964) Euro-American composer

Bayard Ruskin (1910-87) African-American civil rights activist, labor rights and peace activist/leader

Alan Turing (1912-1954) British mathematician and computer scientist

James Baldwin (1924-1987) African-American writer and civil rights activist

Truman Capote (1924-1984) Euro-American author

Tennessee Williams (1914-1983) Euro-American dramatist

Federico Garcia Lorca (1894-1936) Spanish poet and dramatist

Audre Lorde (1934-1992) African-American writer and activist

Martina Navratilova (1956- ) Czechoslovakian-American tennis champion and activist

AndyWarhol (1930-1987) Euro-American pop artist

Frieda Kahlo (1907-1954) Mexican artist and activist

Gore Vidal (1925- ) Euro-American writer

Freddie Mercury (1946-1991) British singer/song writer/musician

Elton John (1947- ) British singer/song writer/musician

Jams Ian (1951 -) Euro-American singer/song writer/musician

Ellen Degeneres (1958 -) Euro-American comedian-actor

Melissa Etheridge (1961 -) Euro-American singer/song writer/musician

kd lang (1961 -) Canadian singer/song writer

Bob Paris (1959 -) Euro-American pro bodybuilder-author-activist

Rep. Barney Frank D-Massachusetts

State Rep. Steve May R-Arizona state representative

DOMESTIC PARTNER BENEFITS

A large number of Fortune 500 companies-including Motorola-now extend benefits they offer to married heterosexuals and their families to partners of gays and lesbians. These benefits typically include medical and health insurance, bereavement leave, family leave and more.

Requirements to be classified as a domestic partner vary slightly from organization to organization. Typically, to be eligible for such benefits, employees must affirm that they are in a committed partnership, are each other's sole domestic partners, share the common necessities of life, and are responsible for each other's welfare.

Many of Motorola's competitors, customers and suppliers offer full benefits to domestic partners of gay and lesbian employees

Adobe Systems Apple Computer Bell Northern Research

Centura Software Computer Graphics Eastman Kodak

Hewlett-Packard IBM Monsanto

Nevada Bell Novell PeopleSoft

SAS Institute Sun Microsystems Advanced Micro Devices

AT&T Bose Cisco Systems

Cray Egghead Software Intel

Lotus Development NCR NeXT Software

Oracle QualComm Seagate Technology

Supermac Technology Tele-Communications Qwest Communications

Warner Brother AOL Time Warner Dell