OutQUORUM 2026 · News Release
EMBARGOED UNTIL WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2026
Nearly nine in ten US companies that named LGBTQ+ people in their board diversity disclosures in 2024 have now stopped including them. Of those, 443 specifically dropped LGBTQ+ people while still naming gender and race or ethnicity.
−86% US companies naming LGBTQ+ people, 1,874 to 270
443 companies cut LGBTQ+ people but kept gender and race
148 → 23 Fortune 500 companies naming LGBTQ+ people
NEW YORK, October 21, 2026 — LGBTQ+ people are already rare in America’s boardrooms (approximately 1%). New research from Out Leadership shows that in just two years, corporate America has largely written them out of the story it tells shareholders about its boards. Without that record, employees, investors and the public have no reliable way to know whether LGBTQ+ people are reaching the top.
Out Leadership reviewed the public board documents of 3,599 US public companies, comparing their 2024 and 2025–26 disclosures. In 2024, 1,874 of them named LGBTQ+ people in their board diversity policies or composition reports. In the 2025–26 proxy season, the number dropped to 270, a net decline of 86%, according to Out Leadership’s OutQUORUM 2026 Global Board Diversity Report, Visibility Counts: The Rollback and the Road Ahead, the largest study of its kind since the OutQUORUM initiative began. The full report is available on its designated interactive website, outquorum.com.
Of the companies that named LGBTQ+ people in 2024, 1,619 stopped. 15 started. LGBTQ+ had the highest removal rate of the seven groups the study measures: LGBTQ+ people, gender, race, ethnicity, age, national origin and veteran status. Disclosure of gender also fell by half; race fell 59%.
The cut was often selective. 443 companies removed LGBTQ+ people while continuing to name both gender and race or ethnicity, and 202 removed LGBTQ+ people and no other group. Among the 443 are some of the best-known names in American business: companies that still name women and people of color in their board disclosures, but no longer LGBTQ+ people.
The findings arrive as nominating committees across corporate America decide who joins their boards next spring, and as shareholder proposals for 2027 annual meetings are being filed.
Why this is happening
Company filings don’t say why each company changed its disclosure, but the timing points to three pressures that arrived within about a year:
- The court. In December 2024, a federal appeals court struck down Nasdaq’s board diversity rule, which had required listed companies to publish a standard table in which directors could self-identify as LGBTQ+. Out Leadership was one of the rule’s leading advocates, and Nasdaq cited its research in the framework.
- Washington. In January 2025, the Trump administration issued an executive order targeting private-sector “DEI” programs.
- Activist shareholders. Activist shareholders filed proposals pressing companies to stop considering sexual orientation when choosing directors.
Most companies responded by saying less. Among Nasdaq companies, LGBTQ+ disclosure fell from 1,602 to 206. But the end of Nasdaq’s rule does not explain it all: among companies outside Nasdaq that had named LGBTQ+ people, 79% stopped too.
Worth noting: No court has imposed a general ban on voluntary LGBTQ+ board composition reporting: the Fifth Circuit ended Nasdaq’s requirement but did not prohibit voluntary disclosure. The legal risk attaches mainly to preferential mechanics such as quotas or reserved seats.
Why it matters
Counting is what moves the numbers. LGBTQ+ identity can’t be seen in a board photo. Unless directors self-identify and companies report it, the number is unknown. When Nasdaq’s board diversity rule gave directors a standard way to self-identify, LGBTQ+ directors grew from 0.2% to 1.0% of Russell 3000 board seats, Out Leadership’s 2024 OutQUORUM report found.
About 9% of American adults identify as LGBTQ+, and 23% of adults under 30, according to Gallup. They are a growing share of the workforce companies compete to hire and the customers they want to keep. What a company says about its boardroom tells them whether there is room for them at the top.
They are already reading the signal. Out Leadership’s Out to Succeed 2026 study of nearly 3,200 professionals found the first-ever decline in LGBTQ+ career confidence, and that 38.3% of Gen Z respondents change their appearance or mannerisms to downplay their identity at work.
Investors are losing sight, too. Across the Russell 3000, companies naming LGBTQ+ people fell from 1,206 to 178. The study counts companies, not directors: LGBTQ+ directors did not necessarily leave their boards, but shareholders can no longer see them. BlackRock’s 2026 US guidelines continue to name LGBTQ+ identity among backgrounds relevant to board oversight, and CalPERS and Glass Lewis still name it in their board guidance.
And retreat has not paid off. An August 2026 UC Berkeley study found that S&P 500 companies that kept broader diversity programs performed as well in stock returns and revenue as those that rolled them back.
“What isn’t measured doesn’t count. When the most powerful companies in America stop counting LGBTQ+ people at the top, every LGBTQ+ employee below them gets the message.”
— TODD SEARS, FOUNDER AND CEO, OUT LEADERSHIP
Some companies held their ground
One example is Colgate-Palmolive, one of America’s best-known consumer brands. Its board candidate policy still calls for directors with a range of backgrounds “including with respect to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and cultural background,” and this year Colgate opposed a shareholder proposal to drop that standard.
Colgate is one of 23 Fortune 500 companies that name LGBTQ+ people today, along with Cisco, TJX and Ulta Beauty, down from 148 in 2024. Jacobs Solutions added LGBTQ+ people in its latest proxy, and Corning added an LGBTQIA+ row to its board diversity table.
The sharpest retreat was in the United States. Canadian disclosure fell from 78 companies to 66 and British from 52 to 37, while Australian disclosure held at 24; elsewhere, LGBTQ+ board disclosure remains rare. That is a 15% drop in Canada and 29% in the UK, against 86% in the US.
A decade of progress, reversed in two years
When Out Leadership launched OutQUORUM in 2015, just two Fortune 500 companies named LGBTQ+ people in their board diversity policies. Companies said they needed policy language, reliable data and qualified candidates, and Out Leadership provided all three: board guidelines written with KPMG, research tracking what companies disclose, and BoardFit, a program that prepares LGBTQ+ executives for board service. It worked with CalPERS, CalSTRS and the New York City and New York State pension funds to include LGBTQ+ people in their investment expectations, supported Nasdaq’s board diversity proposal and made the business case to Congress in 2021. By 2024, 148 Fortune 500 companies named LGBTQ+ people in their board disclosures. Today, 23 do.
What Out Leadership recommends
Out Leadership’s recommendation to boards is simple: keep counting, through voluntary self-identification. Keep the search wide enough to reach qualified LGBTQ+ candidates, and choose on merit. And if a company changes its disclosure, it should tell shareholders why.
Find the full report at outquorum.com, including complete results for all seven groups, global comparisons across ten indices in seven markets, company-by-company lists, the full methodology and Out Leadership’s recommendations.
About OutQUORUM. Out Leadership launched OutQUORUM in 2015 to track LGBTQ+ inclusion in board policies and reporting and to prepare LGBTQ+ leaders for board service. The 2026 Global Board Diversity Report, Visibility Counts: The Rollback and the Road Ahead, compares board policy language and composition reporting in 2024 and 2025–26 across ten company lists and indices in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, Hong Kong, continental Europe and Japan. Research data was finalized Oct. 6, 2026.
About Out Leadership. Out Leadership is a global LGBTQ+ business advisory organization that harnesses the power of business to drive equality. Founded by Todd Sears, it convenes, connects and develops LGBTQ+ and ally leaders in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America, working with leading financial institutions and Fortune 500 companies. Its work rests on Return on Equality™: the fact that inclusion drives business performance. Out Leadership is the world’s first LGBTQ+ B Corporation. Learn more at outleadership.com.
Interviews: Todd Sears, founder and CEO of Out Leadership, is available for interviews or analysis.
MEDIA CONTACT
Manuel Gallegus, Director of Communications, Out Leadership
manuel.gallegus@outleadership.com · 213-369-2598
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