Congratulations on bursting into print and online with this LGBT edition. Of course, by far and away most readers of Estates Gazette are heterosexual. And I bet that most people who work on it are also. So I would like to suggest that’s exactly what should make both the magazine and its readers so proud of this LGBT special.
It sends a signal that we all live in the same modern world. We live in the same Europe where the Irish people voted to support same-sex marriage,
and in the same country where a boxing promoter told the world he’d always felt deep down that he was a woman. What happened in the ultra-macho world he used to move in? He was shown support by most of those in the sport.
I think we can agree that, in 2015, it should be the same in the commercial property world.
So I think of the many straight people who drew up the pages of this week’s Estates Gazette, who sold the advertising, who helped get this edition going as an idea in the first place. I think of all the readers who don’t care about sexual orientation, but do care about profit about networking, and about business intelligence.
I think many gay people – like me – will feel you’ve all done a smashing thing here, whether by producing or reading this issue. You have done one small thing to show you know that personal life, like the business one too, comes in all shapes and sizes.
So that’s the warm, cosy bit out of the way.
This edition – and what it stands for – also makes great commercial sense.
Think of all your gay clients, colleagues, employees, and all of their families too. If you want to hire the most ambitious agent, if you want to sell to the busiest landlord, these people, I bet, woke up this morning not caring about the sexual orientation of the people who pay them.
There is one thing every commercial building has in common after a roof, and that is that people work beneath it.
Some of them are the early-adopters – featured in the following pages – who open up whole city blocks and streets. Others may be recipients of that email you’re sending hoping to unlock new work in the US.
Millions of your customers already care a lot less about all of this than we all did in the past. Thousands of them are gay or lesbian, bisexual or transgender, and you just did one small thing to celebrate that. Younger staff you want to hire want to work in a modern workplace that reflects all the people they know.
A few months ago, I interviewed Lord Browne, who used to run BP. He kept the fact that he was gay a secret all his professional life. He used to go to gay clubs terrified he’d be spotted. When he came out he was shown kindness and support from oil engineers he’d worked with as a young man. He told me that of course he’d been helped out by gay people in his life, but most of those who showed him friendship when he needed it most were the straight ones.
So there we are. In a way EG has come out of the closet too. Now back to business.
For more on Estates Gazette’s LGBT Special Edition click here.
Paddy O’Connell is a BBC presenter and Stonewall ambassador
