Georgia Tech is one of the top five public universities in the nation. And Georgia Tech alumni, particularly in the STEM field, are incredibly highly sought after when they graduate and enter the workforce.

Aby Parsons, Director of the LGBTQIA Resource Center at Georgia Tech, describes her graduating students as hungry, competitive, and eager to go where the good jobs are. But she says that, increasingly, they’re looking at company culture and LGBTQ-inclusion when making career decisions.

“Our students are becoming more and more concerned about what kind of workplace they’re going to enter when they graduate,” Aby says. “And I think our students are saying if I’m going to stick around with a company, it has to be inclusive, it has to have supportive policies, but more than that it has to have a visible culture or a welcoming culture.”

Aby tells the story of one lesbian student who had been out on campus. But when she accepted a job after graduating, she was placed at a branch in rural South Carolina that didn’t have that welcoming culture. She decided to go back in the closet and hide her sexual orientation to get the work experience—and planned from the outset that after two years, she’d leave.

“Some students like this one said, you know, I can do it for two years and get my foot in the door and get some work experience but then I’m going to need to move somewhere that I can really be out,” says Aby.

“Our students are becoming more and more concerned about what kind of workplace they’re going to enter when they graduate. And I think our students are saying if I’m going to stick around with a company, it has to be inclusive, it has to have supportive policies, but more than that it has to have a visible culture or a welcoming culture.” —Aby Parsons, Director of the LGBTQIA Resource Center at Georgia Tech

The fact is: More students are out about their sexual orientation and gender identity now than ever before. When Aby talks to LGBTQ Georgia Tech alumni from the 1980s and 1990s, most of them say that they simply were not out on campus. Now, many students come to Georgia Tech already out about being LGBTQ. The incoming transgender population has quadrupled in the past three years alone, according to Aby. She says many LGBTQ students have romantic relationships during college. Some of them engage in LGBTQ activism on campus.

In other words, students spend four, five, six years living out about being gay, or transgender, or queer. And very few are willing to go back in the closet afterward just to get a job—especially when they’re some of the most highly sought after graduates in the country.

The companies that lack a culture that accepts and policies that support LGBTQ staff members will have a hard time competing to recruit top talent and an even harder time retaining that top talent as Georgia Tech graduates increasingly seek careers with companies that are inclusive.

That’s why many businesses are prioritizing LGBTQ-inclusion—including many of the top 20 companies to which Georgia Tech serves as a feeder school, such as Accenture, AT&T, Deloitte, Google, Home Depot, IBM, Microsoft, and PWC (all of which are members of Georgia Prospers, the business coalition for a prosperous Georgia where business is open to everyone). Of Fortune 500 companies nationwide, 82% have LGBTQ non-discrimination policies on the books.

These businesses know that LGBTQ-inclusion isn’t just right—it’s good for the bottom line. But in a state like Georgia, leading companies can do everything right to make the workplace welcoming to all employees (regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity), and still the fact remains: The state lacks LGBTQ-inclusive non-discrimination laws.

That means that hardworking LGBTQ Georgians—even if they’re protected at work—when they leave the job they’re increasingly vulnerable to discrimination in public places, and even in their own homes.

If Georgia lawmakers want our state to remain a competitive and attractive place to live, work, settle down, and find a home then they’re going to need to follow the lead of America’s top employers and advance legislation to ensure that LGBTQ people are protected in all walks of life.

“Death ends a life, but it does not end a relationship, which struggles on in the survivor’s mind toward some resolution which it may never find.” – I Never Sang for My Father

***

Four years ago, Curtis’s middle child called him up and told him she had life-changing news to tell him.

They scheduled a time to talk. And in the intervening days, Curtis considered what the news could be.

“I suspected that they were going to tell me they were gay,” Curtis said.

At the time, Curtis didn’t know much about the LGBT community. All he knew was that he wanted the conversation to go well. So he met up with his neighbors Michael and Jack—a gay married couple—to ask for advice.

Michael, a retired ordained Baptist Minister had counseled many parents and families through a child’s coming out. And he asked Curtis: “What do you want to accomplish in all of this?”

Curtis had one objective: To make this as easy for his child as humanly possible. He knew that this was a major conversation that would likely live on in the mind of his child long past his own death, and he didn’t want it to leave scars—but to be testament to love.

“I said, ‘Kid, I love ya now, I’ll love you when you get through telling me what you’re gonna tell me.’”

Growing up, Curtis didn’t have much of a relationship with his own dad. He described him as “dictatorial”—always trying to control the lives of him, his siblings, and his mother. It wasn’t until his dad was in his 90s that Curtis heard him say, “I love you.” When Curtis had kids he vowed he would do things differently.

“My attitude in life was always, I’m not gonna tell them how to lead their lives. And I’m gonna tell’em constantly how important they are to me. That was just a decision I made when my children were little bitty,” Curtis said.

And when he sat down days later, face-to-face with his middle child, Curtis brought this same intention to the conversation: “I said, ‘Kid, I love ya now, I’ll love you when you get through telling me what you’re gonna tell me.’”

The news: “I’m transgender.”

At that moment, Curtis didn’t know much about what it meant to be transgender. But he realized he didn’t have to have the answers. Listening was enough.

Born his son, on that day Curtis met his daughter, Lilian. And as a father, it didn’t really matter to him what Lilian’s gender identity was. All that mattered was that he loved her, and that he wanted to support her—no matter what.

“I just said, ‘OK kid what do we do next?’” said Curtis.

Lilian lives in Seattle now, a far way from Blue Ridge Georgia, where Curtis has lived for the past 10 years.

He misses having her close by, but he knows that Lilian has found a community that is accepting and understanding of transgender people—and her happiness and wellbeing are ultimately what’s most important.

Curtis is now doing his part with the Blue Ridge PFLAG chapter to share his story in hopes of helping other parents navigate transitions with their children.

His message to transgender young people, and families who are transitioning: You are not alone. For Curtis, PFLAG has been an incredible resource for information about what it means to be transgender—and a strong network of support as he learned how to be the best parent he can be to his daughter Lilian. If you are LGBT or have a family member who is, and are looking for resources, information, and support, you can find you local PFLAG chapter here.

In addition to the peer-to-peer work he does with PFLAG, Curtis supports the work of Georgia Unites and our partners at Georgia Equality to advance non-discrimination laws that provide specific protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Right now, his focus is to build public understanding of who transgender people are—and why they deserve to be treated with respect and equality under the law.

“That’s the real issue. [People] are making a big mountain out of a mole hill [with] the bathroom part—but it’s a side issue. The real issue is about respect for other people and how they lead their lives.”

Two years ago, LGBT people in Georgia and across the country celebrated one of the most consequential civil rights and moral victories for our community: Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court decision that brought marriage equality to every state in our nation.

Today, we’re taking a moment to celebrate this landmark victory by sharing the stories of LGBT married couples. And we’re looking ahead, to the work that still needs to be done—most importantly, securing civil rights protections for LGBT people and their families.

***

Marisa & Andrea

Marisa and Andrea DeRossett are thankful that, for the last two years, their marriage has been recognized in their home state of Georgia. And this legal recognition isn’t just important to them—it’s most important for their three children.

But, they say, the fight for equal rights didn’t end for them or other LGBT people on June 26th, 2015. Until state or federal law is updated to recognize their civil rights, LGBT people, including married couples, can still face discrimination in employment, housing and public places.

“Until there is comprehensive civil rights legislation in Georgia that protects us and our family from blatant and insidious discrimination, we must continue to fight for our rights as a couple, as a family and as members of the LGBTQ community.” —Marisa DeRossett

“Until there is comprehensive civil rights legislation in Georgia that protects us and our family from blatant and insidious discrimination,” Marisa says, “We must continue to fight for our rights as a couple, as a family and as members of the LGBTQ community.”

***

Nancy & Stephanie

Nancy and Stephanie have experienced this kind of discrimination firsthand. After their marriage, Nancy and Stephanie wanted to update their wills to ensure the other would be protected from hardship if anything unexpected happened.

They were matched with a lawyer through Nancy’s employer, which she figured would be best since her employer is very supportive of its LGBT employees. So she was shocked when she called the lawyer, and he refused to work with her.

“He responded that he could not work with me as it was against his religious principles,” she says. “I was stunned. This is Atlanta in 2017!”

“He responded that he could not work with me as it was against his religious principles. I was stunned … this is Atlanta in 2017! So while we celebrate the SCOTUS marriage anniversary and all that means, I’m aware that additional protections still need to be in place for families like mine.” —Nancy Kropf

It was a rude awakening for Nancy that even though her and Stephanie have the legal protections of a married couple, they don’t yet have the full protection from discrimination that other Georgia residents enjoy.

“So while we celebrate the SCOTUS marriage anniversary and all that means,” Nancy says, “I’m aware that additional protections still need to be in place for families like mine.”

***

Beth & Krista

The Obergefell ruling had an immediate effect on Beth and Krista Wurz. Though the two had been married since October 12, 2010—the ceremony took place in New Hampshire, where marriage equality had been implemented that January—the couple still lacked protections since Georgia did not recognize same-sex marriages.

That changed in 2015. After Obergefell, Krista and Beth could access most of the same rights and privileges of other married couples in Georgia. The immediate impact was on their health insurance: Krista and the couple’s children became eligible to access it through Beth’s employer, and Beth says her employer moved swiftly to comply.

However, the law is still murky in some areas, most notably regarding explicit civil rights protections for LGBT Georgians—which don’t exist—and family law. Krista and Beth have technically needed to adopt their children individually as “single” parents, even though they are married. That’s cost them $12,000, a financial hardship that’s greater than what opposite-sex married couples face.

“LGBT parents who have biological children can list both parents’ names on the newborn’s birth certificate, but attorneys are still advising LGBT parents to complete second-parent adoptions. This is a step that heterosexual married couples are not required to take.” —Beth Wurz

“LGBT parents who have biological children can list both parents’ names on the newborn’s birth certificate, but attorneys are still advising LGBT parents to complete second-parent adoptions,” Beth says. “This is a step that heterosexual married couples are not required to take.”

And Beth says the lack of legal clarity has left attorneys hesitant to file their second-parent adoptions in court.

“It’s two years later, and our family is still split down the middle,” she says. “We desperately need comprehensive LGBT civil rights protections in Georgia.”