Browne: ‘Send gay employees to Russia to change attitudes’

Lord Browne has claimed that gay employees should be sent to Russia to change attitudes around homosexuality.

The former BP boss said that companies need to use their international presence to champion gay rights, adding that young gay people should come out in the workplace as soon as they can, the Telegraph reports.

Speaking at Hay Festival, he said: “What you need is attitude change and corporations so set norms of behaviour in other countries. By example they are slowly moving things forward.

“Should BP send gay people into Russia? I think yes you could do that. Provided that you are very aware you are sending them into a place of extreme risk.”

Lord Browne stepped down from his role at BP after a newspaper reported on his relationship with a rent boy.

Encouraging young gay people to speak about their sexuality, he added: “I think I would have been a less reserved person (if I had admitted to being gay earlier) and I think I would have been much happier earlier. And I wouldn’t have had to go through that extraordinary cataclysmic episode.”

The 66-year-old said that it is “statistically odd” that there are no “out gay CEOS” at any of the top 500 companies.

“We need to get gay CEOs around the place. And I hope to live long to see a gay Prime Minister because I think that should happen,” he concluded.

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