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Gay news: 'I cannot remember one client or staff member being uncomfortable with my sexuality'
Robert Taylor
Gay bank chief: Others should come out and 'move on'
The chief executive of one of the UK's largest private banks has said that more of his gay City colleagues should find the confidence to do as he did and be open about their sexuality at work.
Robert Taylor, who runs Kleinwort Benson, writes in the Evening Standard that he came out as gay at an early age and from the beginning of his career in finance "never felt any pressure to conform to some imaginary City code of straight conduct".
"I was determined to be open about my sexuality. I did not want to lie or be the subject of gossip. I never felt that telling my colleagues about it would be an invitation to bullying. In fact, it was the opposite: I didn't want anyone to embarrass themselves.
"The technique served me well: the area I worked in thrived off a group of chaps who loved to tease and joke with each other. While some would say the banter was offensive, I was able to give as good as I got."
Taylor notes that, as a successful banker, he was seen in a "purely capitalistic form" and that his bosses "didn't seem to care as much about my sexuality as the money I brought in."
By 2000, Taylor was running the front office of Coutts and in one year managed 94 client events, with his partner in attendance at most of them, but said: "I cannot remember one client or staff member being uncomfortable with my sexuality."
He said reading former BP chief Lord Browne's recent account of how his staying in the closet for decades had caused him sadness, but while not criticising colleagues who hadn't come out, wished that "these people had the confidence to get the whole sexuality issue off their chests and move on".
Taylor, who is standing for election to be chair of the Arts Council, added: "I work with some of the most intelligent people in the world: I can only say that most are sophisticated enough to have little problem with homosexuality."
