For all these reasons, just as management should make a commitment to policies that ensure equality for gay and lesbian lawyers, it should also make a commitment to ensuring that the work environment is one in which gay and lesbian lawyers are treated with respect and are comfortable being themselves and talking with colleagues about their everyday activities and the persons with whom they share their lives in the same way that heterosexuals do. Achievement of this overall goal will be assisted by implementation of the following recommendations:

1. Prohibit derogatory comments about gays and lesbians and discipline those who make them

The survey results and the narrative comments indicate that, despite the social disapprobation that generally applies to racial, ethnic and gender slurs, it is still acceptable in a number of legal workplaces to make disparaging remarks about gays and lesbians. Management should actively discourage such behavior by confronting and disciplining those who engage in it, by making it clear to all lawyers and staff that such behavior is unacceptable, and by not engaging in such behavior themselves.47
2. Decline to countenance refusals to work with gay and lesbian lawyers that are based on their sexual orientation

The survey results and the narrative comments indicate that clients, lawyers and staff sometimes refuse to work with a lawyer because he or she is lesbian or gay. See discussion at II.B.2, above. Legal employers should not countenance such refusals, just as they (presumably) would not remove a lawyer from a matter because of a client or lawyer's desire not to work with an African-American, Jewish or female lawyer. If need be, the employer should inform the client or remind its own lawyers and staff that it is the employer's policy (and, if applicable, a legal requirement) not to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. 48
3. Encourage partners of gay and lesbian lawyers to attend firm and office functions

It will obviously create an atmosphere more welcoming to gay and lesbian lawyers if their domestic partners and dates are explicitly made welcome to attend firm and office functions to which spouses, partners and dates of heterosexual lawyers are invited. To help make clear that guests at such functions are not limited to married spouses, and that the partners of gay and lesbian lawyers are welcome and encouraged to attend, invitations should use neutral terms such as “guest” or “partner” in lieu of, or in addition to, “spouse.”
4. Include the subject of sexual orientation in diversity training

A number of legal employers use human relations workshops and other training programs to educate and sensitize lawyers and staff about the differences between individuals and to help foster a healthy work environment for all employees. Such diversity training generally includes discussion of race, gender and ethnicity, but, as both Surveys demonstrate, often does not extend to sexual orientation. See discussion at III.D.3, above. Legal employers that provide diversity training should ensure that discussion of sexual orientation is included as well.
5. Engage in pro bono work on behalf of gay and lesbian causes and concerns and publicize that work on the same terms as other pro bono efforts

A private legal employer can show its support for gay and lesbian lawyers by engaging in pro bono work on behalf of gay/lesbian causes and concerns. Such pro bono opportunities may include representation of lesbians and gays who are being forced out of the military; have experienced discrimination in housing, health care or the workplace; or are seeking to immigrate to the United States because of persecution in their homelands based on sexual orientation. There are also many local and national nonprofit organizations that seek to ensure equal rights for gays and lesbians and that are in need of pro bono assistance. These include, but are not limited to, local organizations such as the D.C. Chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL), and Whitman-Walker Clinic Legal Services Department and national organizations such as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, the Gay and Lesbian Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum, the National Black Gay and Lesbian Leadership Forum, the Latino/a Lesbian and Gay Organization (LLEGO), the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, People For the American Way Foundation, and the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
6. Include same-sex partners in any firm or organization literature or roster that includes heterosexual spouses, and announce achievements and events affecting gay and lesbian lawyers in firm or organization literature in the same manner as achievements and events affecting heterosexual lawyers

Legal employers should include the names of partners of gay and lesbian lawyers in rosters, directories and the like in the same manner that they list partners and spouses of heterosexual lawyers, for instance, in “face” books or “spouse” lists that are made available in-house and/or to clients. Any forms the employer routinely uses, including but not limited to employment applications, new hire information sheets, insurance enrollment forms, firm rosters and the like should ask for the names of the employee's “spouse or partner,” rather than his or her “spouse,” so that it is clear that gay and lesbian lawyers are welcome to identify their partners. In addition, if a law firm or other employer has an internal newsletter that reports achievements, honors and events pertaining to heterosexual lawyers (e.g., marriages, births, election to office in voluntary bar associations), it should do the same for gay and lesbian lawyers (e.g., commitment ceremonies, the birth or adoption of a child by the gay or lesbian lawyer and his or her partner, election to office in gay or lesbian professional groups).