Next week IBM will host an “LGBT Executive Forum” in Bangalore, India. Discussions at the event will revolve around what business is doing, and can do, to further LGBT diversity both in the workplace and the country at-large.
In a statement to Gay Star News, IBM Global Leader of Workplace Diversity and Markets Anthony Tenicela said, “Given the breadth of IBM’s business across 170 countries, diversity is a competitive differentiator that enables IBM to reflect the global diversity of our customers.” The company currently is working to further its domestic partnership offerings in India, where homosexuality is outlawed under Section 377.
In November IBM sponsored a similar forum in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. That event was attended by representatives from, among others, KPMG and McKenzie. U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Ted Osius, who is openly gay, spoke at the Hanoi event.