国外可是伊甸园? 同性恋员工在海外

In 2009, Nadeem Shamim left London to work for Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong. Although eager to make his mark in a new role, his enthusiasm was tempered by sadness. Unable to obtain the necessary visa to accompany him, his partner Peter, a web-marketing professional, was staying behind in Britain.

2009年，纳迪姆•沙米姆(Nadeem Shamim)离开伦敦到香港的渣打银行(Standard Chartered Bank)工作。虽然渴望在新岗位上做出成绩，但他的热情却被悲伤冲淡了。他的配偶、网络营销专家彼得(Peter)无法获得伴随沙米姆驻香港所需的签证，只能留在英国。

The couple spent the next two years shuttling between Asia and Europe, working one week in every six from each other’s location. Despite the diary juggling, the jet-lag and separations, Mr Shamim counts himself fortunate that he had a considerate boss who encouraged him to work flexibly. “Without [regular] contact, I think the relationship would have ended. It was tough . . . but we managed.”

在接下来的两年里，这对情侣来回穿梭于亚洲和欧洲之间，每六周飞往彼此的所在地工作一周。尽管要在日程安排上费些心思，还要忍受调整时差和两地分居之苦，但沙米姆仍认为自己算是幸运的，因为他有一位善解人意的老板，支持他的弹性工作方式。“少了（定期的）联络，我原本以为这段恋情会结束。那段时间很难熬……但我们撑下来了。”

Run-ins with visa authorities are one of a number of vexations familiar to gay and lesbian executives who work internationally. While many global corporations say they treat all employees equally, the countries in which they do business often differ hugely in their acceptance of same-sex relationships, making company-wide equality pledges hard to fulfil.

对跨国工作的同性恋高管来说，与签证当局的口舌之争是他们不感到陌生的众多烦恼之一。虽然许多跨国公司声称自己对所有员工一视同仁，但它们的业务所在国对同性恋情的接受度却常常有着巨大差异，这使得它们难以兑现公司所有员工一律平等的承诺。

Although the number of states that recognise same-sex unions and marriages is growing, most still do not. Consequently, employees who are married or civilly partnered in one jurisdiction may find that immigration authorities elsewhere do not recognise their union, refuse their partner a visa, and may dispute their parental relationship with any children. Some countries, including with­in the EU, have passed equality laws protecting against discrimination and homophobic bullying. But in 78 countries it is homosexuality that is criminalised, with punishments ranging from fines to imprisonment, hard labour and even death.

尽管有越来越多的国家承认同性结合和同性婚姻，但大多数国家对此却仍不认可。因此，在某一司法管辖区内结婚或民事结合(civilly partnered)的员工可能会发现，其他地方的移民当局不承认他们的结合，拒绝给他们的配偶发放签证，并且可能会质疑他们与任何孩子的亲子关系。包括欧盟(EU)国家在内的一些国家已通过涉及平等的法律，保护同性恋者不受歧视和“恐同”欺凌。但在78个国家里，同性恋是犯罪行为，惩罚包括罚款、监禁、劳役、甚至死刑。

So what to do in a world where employers encourage staff to “bring their whole self to work” − yet still expect top executives to have worked in a mix of markets, some of which may be unwelcoming to gay employees, or even unsafe?

雇主们鼓励员工“把整个自我溶于工作”，而且希望高管在各种市场历练过——其中一些市场可能不欢迎同性恋员工，甚至对他们来说是不安全的。在这样的一个世界里，到底应该怎么做？

Matching gay and lesbian executives to socially progressive destinations might seem to solve the conundrum. However, executives sometimes worry that if they avoid strategically important markets because of anti-gay laws, for example in some Asian, African and Middle Eastern countries, their career will stall – even if their employer assures them it will not.

把同性恋高管刻意安排到社会文化进步的目的地看似可以解决这个难题。然而，高管们有时担心，如果他们因某些地方——比如部分亚洲、非洲和中东国家——存在的反同性恋法而避开具有战略重要性的市场，他们的职业生涯将会停滞——即便他们的雇主担保不会发生这种事。

Rather than prejudge situations, Simon Feeke, who leads the workplace programme at Stonewall, the lobby group for lesbian, gay and bisexual people, recommends offering a choice of destinations and allowing individuals to decide what is right for them. “For the right opportunity, a minority of gay people would be prepared to travel to a country where there’s a severe penalty for being gay,” he says.

同性恋与双性恋人群游说组织“石墙”(Stonewall)的职场项目主管西蒙•菲克(Simon Feeke)建议，不要预判情况，而是列出若干目的地供员工选择，让他们自己决定哪个目的地适合自己。他说：“如果机会确实难得，少数同性恋者愿意前往对同性恋有严重惩罚的国家。”

According to Stonewall, about a quarter of gay employees hide their orientation from colleagues. This can create difficulties if an employee feels forced to accept a posting to a country with homophobic laws. They worry that if they say no, their employer will press for a reason. To mitigate the problem, the law firm Simmons & Simmons revised its policies to allow its lawyers to request an alternative to an offered destination, without saying why. “We realised people were opting out of secondments altogether, because of not wanting to be sent to particular countries,” says David Stone, who co-chairs the firm’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender network.

“石墙”的数据显示，约四分之一的同性恋员工对同事隐瞒自己的性取向。如果员工觉得不得不接受调派到一个有“恐同”法律的国家工作，这个问题可能会对他造成困扰。员工担心，如果他们拒绝接受借调，雇主会逼问他们理由。为了在一定程度上解决这个问题，西盟斯律师事务所(Simmons & Simmons)修改了公司政策，允许旗下律师要求公司给出指派目的地之外的另一选择，而且无需向公司说明理由。该事务所女同性恋者、男同性恋者、双性恋者与跨性别者(LGBT)网络联席主管戴维•斯通(David Stone)说：“我们意识到，员工一口回绝借调的原因是，他们不想被派到特定的国家。”

Employers will sometimes go to un­usual lengths to make secondments do-able for gay executives whom they would struggle to replace. From 2005 to 2012, Steve Wardlaw headed the Moscow office of the law firm Baker Botts, on secondment from London, accompanied by his partner Ian, who was taking a career break. When in 2008 Russia tightened its visa rules, Baker Botts created a job for Ian, en­abling him to remain in Russia as an employee of the firm. “If we had been unable to fix it, I would have come back to London,” Mr Wardlaw says.

为了让一些难以取代的同性恋高管的借调具有可行性，雇主有时会尽其所能。2005年到2012年，史蒂夫•沃德洛(Steve Wardlaw)从伦敦的贝克博茨律师事务所(Baker Botts)借调到该事务所在莫斯科的办事处当主管。他的配偶伊恩(Ian)当时正处于职业暂休期，就陪他去了莫斯科。当俄罗斯在2008年收紧签证规定时，该事务所为伊恩创造了一个职位，让他能以事务所员工的身份留在俄罗斯。沃德洛说：“如果我们当时无法解决这个问题，我恐怕就回伦敦了。”

Employers are rarely so accommodating to junior employees sent abroad for professional development. However, relocation packages design­ed with the needs of traditional couples uppermost can sometimes be tweaked to better suit same-sex couples. Simmons & Simmons used to pay for the spouses of lawyers who went on unaccompanied secondments to visit them during the posting. Now, the spouse’s visits can be converted into trips home for the seconded employee, which same-sex couples often prefer when the host country is unwelcoming to gay people.

雇主们很少会对出于职业发展目的派往海外的初级员工这么通融。然而，企业有时可以调整主要针对传统伴侣需求设计的搬迁福利，使它更适用于同性伴侣。西盟斯律师事务所过去曾为单身赴任的律师支付他们借调期内配偶的探亲费用。现在，配偶的探亲之旅可以转为借调员工的回家之旅——当派驻国不欢迎同性恋者时，同性伴侣往往更喜欢现在的安排。

Secondees sometimes have opportunities to shift how colleagues from socially conservative cultures perceive gay people. But it is advisable to tread carefully, cautions Mr Wardlaw. When managing Russian colleagues who were baffled by same-sex partnerships and gay adoption, his response was to invite them to ask him anything and to do his best, over Friday night drinks, “to dispel myths” about gay lifestyles. “Once or twice the debates became fairly heated, but usually because people were struggling with an idea [that challenged their assumptions].”

有时候，借调员工有机会改变那些来自保守社会文化的同事对同性恋者的看法。但沃德洛警告说，最好谨慎行事。面对对同性伴侣关系和同性恋收养感到困惑的俄罗斯同事，他的回应是，在周五晚上邀请他们来喝杯酒，让他们想问他什么就问什么，并尽自己所能驱散关于同性恋者生活方式的“神话”。“有一两次，争论变得相当激烈，但通常是因为人们当时正纠结于一个想法 （而这个想法挑战了他们想当然的东西）。”

Suki Sandhu, founder of OUTstanding, a professional network for lesbian and gay executives and their supporters, urges corporations to use their investment leverage to influence governments to repeal anti-gay laws: “If companies want to develop and nurture all of their talent, it’s important they make it as practical as possible for LGBT employees to work overseas.”

OUTstanding是一个面向同性恋高管及其支持者的专业网络，它的创始人苏基•桑德胡(Suki Sandhu)敦促企业利用它们的投资影响力去推动政府废除反同性恋法律：“如果企业想培养和培育它们的全部人才，它们就应当尽可能地让LGBT员工到海外工作变得更具可行性。”

In the absence of widespread tolerance, however, gay employees need up-to-date intelligence to make in­formed decisions on where to work and how to stay safe. At Simmons & Simmons, returning secondees produce guides on destination cities. These give information on local laws regarding homosexuality and whether local people and law enforcers are more or less accepting of same-sex relationships than might be inferred from the statute book.

然而，在不被广泛接纳的情况下，同性恋员工需要最新的情报，以便做出该在哪里工作和该如何保证安全的明智决定。西盟斯律师事务所的回国借调员工制作了目的地城市指南。这些指南提供的信息包括：当地关于同性恋的法律，以及与从当地法律中推断出的情况相比，当地居民和执法者是更能还是更不能接受同性恋情。

For some, secondments are an opportunity to live openly. After years of concealment in Russia and east Africa, Svetlana Omelchenko asked her then employer for a transfer to Britain and came out. Now employed by Coty in Paris, she has decided to work only in countries where she and her partner can live openly. In the digitally connected world, she notes, it is increasingly difficult to be out in some markets and not in others. “In London, I knew people who were out only to [trusted] gay colleagues, because they didn’t want word to get back to their home country.”

对一些同性恋者来说，借调是一个能以自己真实身份生活的机会。经历了在俄罗斯和东非多年“躲在柜中”的生活后，斯韦特兰娜•奥梅利琴科(Svetlana Omelchenko)要求她当时的雇主将她调派到英国，并在那里“出柜”了。现在，奥梅利琴科受雇于巴黎的科蒂集团(Coty)，她已决定，只在她和她的配偶能以真实身份生活的国家工作。她指出，在数码连接起来的世界中，只在某些市场公开身份是越来越难了。“在伦敦，我知道有些人只向（可信任的）同性恋同事公开身份，因为他们不想让消息传回自己的祖国。”

Mr Shamim, now returned to London, plans to start a network connecting gay employees seconded abroad with people back home in whom they can confide. Although in Hong Kong he lived openly, he remembers from his early career the painfulness of concealing his sexuality. “For individuals [posted to markets with anti-gay cultures] who go back into the closet, having someone with whom they can talk difficulties through can be a huge support.”

沙米姆现在已经回到了伦敦。他计划创办一个网络，让借调海外的同性恋员工能与他们在家乡充分信赖的人相互联系。虽然他在香港是以真实身份生活，但他还记得在他职业生涯早期隐瞒自己性取向时的痛苦。“对那些（借调到拥有反同性恋文化的市场）‘回到柜中’的人来说，有人能与他们讨论困难会是一个巨大的支持。”