Todd Sears’ Post

For me, Pride is not just a time to celebrate, but it’s a time a reflect—I’ve often said it’s like New Year’s for the LGBTQ+ community. What’s happened in the last year, and what do we need to do in the year to come. And this Pride I’ve been reflecting a lot on one of my mentors, the incomparable Larry Kramer, and what he’d say to me about the world today. I only knew Larry for the last ten years of his life, but in that short time, I learned so much from him. You’d think that given how different our styles of activism are (he favored “die-ins” in the #nyc streets and covering Jesse Helm’s entire house with an inflatable condom, and I try to get CEOs and companies to use economic power to drive change), that we wouldn’t see eye to eye on much. But instead, he helped me understand that creating social change requires activists of all stripes and approaches, from loud protestors on the outside to strategic advocates on the inside. And to prove it, he agreed to speak at my @outleadership #OutNEXT emerging leader conference (the LAST place you’d assume to find Larry Kramer was on an investment bank’s stage surrounded by 220 young corporate leaders). And I’ll be forever grateful that he agreed, because those next gen #LGBTQ leaders got to hear from a Legend. I asked my buddy Kate Kendall to interview him, and the one question I asked her to ask him was, “Does it bother you that the vast majority of these young leaders may not know who you are and what you did for them?” And Larry had the most poignant (and Larry-like) answer. He said, “Todd, we fought for our health and our community so that they could just live their lives. The greatest gift that our generation can give to them is to not pass along our trauma, and to absorb it for them.” Larry died just ten months later. Our community owes leaders like Larry (and Urvashi Vaid, Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and countless others who are no longer with us) an enormous debt of gratitude for the world we now inhabit. And what would Larry say to me today? “Stop wasting time writing social media posts, you’ve got work to do!” I can literally hear him. And as usual, he’s right. #Pride #moreworktodo Out Leadership

Honored to be recognized again as one of Crain's New York Business Notable #LGBTQ Leaders, especially given how many of my friends like Sally Susman, Rob Smith, Jon Tilli, Joe Solmonese, Allyn L. Shaw, Andy Seibert, Keith Sherman,Erin M. Drinkwater, Brad Baumoel, Mitch Berlin, Marla Hassner. Eric Behl-Remijan are on this year's list. Congratulations to everyone on the 2024 List, and THANK YOU for being #outleaders, changing the world through business!! A very special congrats to my Out Leadership colleague Jane Barry-Moran for making the 2024 List--so well deserved! Happy Pride! #pride #leadership #nyc

Thank you USA TODAY for once again sharing the important data from the 2024 Out Leadership #LGBTQ Business Climate Index! #returnonequality

Friends and colleagues, join me at 1pm EST today on LinkedInLive where you’ll hear all about the Out Leadership LGBTQ Business Climate Index—-and from the amazing Govenor of New York, Kathy Hochul, the rockstar Governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, and the Governor of my home state, North Carolina, the great Ally Roy Cooper! Details to join are below! #pride #returnonequality

Today, to kick off 2024 Pride Month, Out Leadership launched the 6th Annual #LGBTQ State Business Climate Index, with our partner USA TODAY (on the cover of the Money/Business section!). As you may imagine, thanks to the efforts of anti-business, anti-science fear mongering by right wing legislatures (and Governors) across the country, which have resulted in over 1,000 anti-LGBTQ bills over the last 18 months—the overall score for the entire United States went DOWN for a SECOND year in a row, by 1.16%! Criminalizing #LGBTQ lives (and livelihoods) doesn’t protect our youth, it hurts them and their families. Leaders in these states need to ask themselves: How is making it harder for companies to attract and retain talent good for a state’s economy? It isn’t. There are direct economic (and of course, human) consequences to discrimination. I hope everyone checks out the 2024 Out Leadership Index, as well as all 50 CEO Business Briefs that we’ve built to explain it—and what we want leaders to DO here: https://lnkd.in/e-Zt5Ku6 Kudos to New York State for being the TOP state in the US for a 4th year in a row, and to Michigan for being jumping the most in this year’s Index (thanks to making the discredited practice of conversion therapy illegal, among other progress). Please share with your networks, your companies and your elected officials. #pride2024 #returnonequality

Proud that USA TODAY (the most read paper in the United States) has once again launched the Out Leadership State LGBTQ Business Climate Index this morning. For the second year in a row, the overall scores of the US have DECLINED, a dangerous trend for LGBTQ Americans, our families--AND for the business community. Where does your State rank?? #lgbtq #pride

BREAKING!! At 1pm EST TODAY, Out Leadership will announce the results of the 6th Annual State LGBTQ Business Climate Index! Members can join a private Zoom below, and everyone else can join the LinkedInLive tomorrow! Where does your State rank...?? #lgbtq

20 years ago this week, gay and lesbian Americans got the first chance to have their committed relationships officially recognized, with the legalization of same-sex marriage Massachusetts. In the years that followed, so many leaders like Evan Wolfson, Marc Solomon, Tim Gill, Mary Bonauto and organizations like Freedom to Marry, Lambda Legal & The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, The Gill Foundation GLAD, among others, fought with hard data, in the courts of law and of public opinion to ultimately win full equality for #LGBTQ Americans. The business community played a tremendous role as well, with hundreds of companies signing amicus briefs to the Supreme Court for both the Windsor & Obergefell cases arguing that marriage equality was good for talent and the bottom line. For many companies, it was the very first time they'd used their economic power to advocate for what some saw as a "social" issue. I'm proud that Out Leadership helped rally so many of our member firms, especially Wall Street for both amicus briefs (and our own research was quoted in the Windsor amicus brief). Back then, the arguments made against marriage equality were far ranging (degradation of straight marriage, bestiality, negative impact on children to name a few), and as we've now seen proved out over the last two decades, completely and totally without merit. Today, RAND released a landmark study with the most comprehensive evidence review evaluating the causal effects of changes in marriage policy across states with regard to marriage rates, divorce rates, and other outcomes in the general population, the report is a robust new reflection on 20 years of impact. Shocker: turns out marriage was GREAT for America, GREAT for the institution of marriage, GREAT for raising children, GREAT for the economy...the list goes on. We'll be discussing the report TONIGHT at the first event of the 2024 Out Leadership: US Summit, with the Executive Director of Williams Brad Sears (my sister) and my good friend Jim Obergefell (the plaintiff in Obergefell v. Hodges), Lauren Zimmerman, Esq., & Cam Campbell hosted by Selendy Gay PLLC & Wells Fargo. With recent comments by Justices Thomas & Alito signaling their interest in rolling back marriage, this data (and what each of us does with it!) is vital to protecting our hard-won civil rights. #returnonequality #marriageequality

SO proud to be speaking about the work of Out Leadership at the Global Milken Institute 2024 Summit this morning! This is my fourth time at this important gathering of leaders around the world, and I’m looking forward to discussing how they can use their platforms to push forward for #lgbtqprogress! I’ll also be sharing a special announcement…more to come! You can live stream my panel at 11:30am EST today! The link is below…#returnonequality