When Lord Browne left his role as BP chief executive, amid rumours about his sexuality, he said it “was simply unacceptable to be gay in business”.
当布朗勋爵(Lord Browne)因个人性取向的传言而辞去英国石油(BP)首席执行官职位时，他表示，“同性恋是肯定不会被商界接纳的”。
The remark was made in 2007. But is the workplace of 2012 any more gay friendly?
他说这番话的时间是2007年。但是，2012年的职场对同性恋者是否更宽容一些呢？
Attitudes do seem to be changing in the corporate world, with 86 per cent of Fortune 500 firms now banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. In the UK, leading companies are included among the 2012 Workplace Equality Index of Britain’s most gay friendly employers produced by Stonewall, the campaigning organisation.
商界的态度看来确实已开始变化，现在86%的《财富》500强公司禁止以性取向为由的歧视行为。在英国，在同性恋维权组织“石墙”(Stonewall)制作的2012年“工作场所平等指数”(Workplace Equality Index)中，一些顶级公司进入了英国最宽容同性恋的雇主榜单。
There is a legal imperative too: the 2010 Equality Act brought existing equalities legislation together and introduced “the public sector equality duty”, requiring public bodies to deal with inequalities experienced by staff and customers.
态度转变也是法律的要求。英国2010年《平等法》(Equality Act)统合了现有的平等法规，并规定了“公共部门平等责任”，要求公共机构处理员工和顾客遭遇的不平等经历。
According to Colleen Humphrey, Stonewall’s director of workplace diversity: “It’s hard to believe but 10 years ago it was perfectly legal for an employer to dismiss gay staff just because of their sexual orientation. That only changed in 2003, when Stonewall helped secure protection for gay people in law.
“石墙”工作场所多元化总监科琳•汉弗莱(Colleen Humphrey)表示：“很难相信，就在10年之前，雇主纯粹以性取向为由解雇同性恋员工还是完全合法的。这一状况直到2003年才开始改变，当时“石墙”帮助把保护同性恋员工的内容写进了法律。
“Stonewall later established the Diversity Champions programme – Britain’s employers’ forum on sexual orientation. We know from working with more than 600 diversity champions in every sector that people perform better when they can be themselves...Today, a fifth of the UK’s workforce is employed by diversity champions.”
“后来，‘石墙’启动了多元化冠军项目，这是英国雇主的性取向论坛。我们从自己与各行各业600多家多元化冠军公司的合作中发现，当员工能够做真实的自己时，他们的表现会更好。如今，多元化冠军公司雇佣的员工人数占英国劳动力队伍的五分之一。”
However, recent comments by Lord Browne reveal there is still much more to be done for business to accommodate the needs of Britain’s 1.7m lesbian, gay and bisexual employees. Speaking at the launch of a lesbian and gay, bisexual and transgender network set up by Arup, he said business is still less tolerant than other areas of life and called for “concrete targets” to measure progress.
然而，布朗勋爵近来的话表明，商界还应采取更多的措施，照顾英国170万女同性恋、男同性恋和双性恋员工的需求。在工程顾问公司奥雅纳(Arup)设立的LGBT（女同性恋者、男同性恋者、双性恋者与跨性别者）网络的发起仪式上，布朗表示，商界的宽容度仍比不上其他社会领域，并呼吁设定衡量进展的“具体目标”。