My July Adventure Home from Colorado

Originally written on July 7th, 2020. This sequence of events, in my opinion, led to my immune system weakening and getting COVID-19.


As I begin writing this, it is 7:30 AM eastern time on July 7, 2020. I haven’t slept since 5:30 AM eastern time on July 6, 2020 a total of 26 hours. My 12 PM mountain time (2 PM eastern) flight from Denver on July 6th took off on time. Somewhere near South Bend, Indiana (according to the captain’s announcement) the captain told us that due to severe thunderstorms, Newark is at a ground stop, this means that no flights are taking off and none are landing. He stated that we will be in a holding pattern over Pittsburgh, but due to fuel concerns as well as the number of hours the crew can work, we may have to divert the flight. At this point we were looking, at best, an arrival at 6:30 PM (flight was supposed to land at 5:35). After about an hour the captain announces that the conditions at Newark are not improving and we are diverting to Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia. At this point we have several upset passengers who will be missing their connecting flight at Newark (if Newark lifts the ground stop).

We land at Dulles at around 6 PM. We are told that unless you need to speak to a customer service representative, we should stay on the plane as the ground stop can lift as we refuel. About an hour later (7PM) we are told to de-plane but to stay near the gate as they are still waiting for news from Newark. At around 8 PM there is an announcement that the crew has reached their mandatory hours and needs to be replaced and they are trying to find a replacement crew otherwise the flight will be cancelled and we would be put up in a hotel overnight as there were no more flights to Newark that evening.

At around 9:30 PM they announced that they obtained a new crew and created a new flight and we are to go to another gate in another but connected terminal (terminal D to C) to be rebooked. The new flight was consolidating three flights into one. This flight was scheduled to take off at 11 PM as the ground stop was lifted. I stood in line and got a new ticket for this flight from Dulles to Newark. Around 10:30 PM (keep in mind this is already 8.5 hours after I left Denver) there was an announcement that they are waiting for a flight attendant to arrive, ironically from Denver and once they have the full crew compliment, we can then board and get to Newark. At this point I was looking at a 1:40 AM arrival time. I figured, this isn’t great, but if I get home by 2:45 I might get a short nap in.

The flight attendant arrived a little after midnight and it was discovered, unbeknownst to the gate agents, that this person was over their allowable hours and this “new” flight has been cancelled and we will get hotel accommodations and be booked on the 10:30 AM flight out of Dulles today (the 7th). This was shortly before 12:30 AM.

Since I have work today, this was not something I could do, nor it would be silly to sleep overnight just to fly from VA to NJ. I went to the main terminal and found the Hertz shuttle. He wouldn’t take me to Hertz unless I had a reservation. I quickly pulled up the web site and booked myself a Hyundai sedan. He then was able to drive me over. I go into the office area, give them my credit card and license and rent a car for about $100 and begin my 250-mile drive from Dulles International Airport to Newark Liberty International Airport (whose route takes me past my house). The biggest issue I had is that in VA and MD there were no toll-takers and you either had to have exact change or an EZ Pass. For one toll in VA I had enough change to be able to pay it, but not for the others. I know this is no big deal as I will get a bill in the mail at some point. Luckily in Delaware and NJ they had toll takers, so I was able to pay using bills. Since the agreement obligated me to refuel, I refueled in NJ in Hamilton on the Turnpike. I arrive at the airport a little before 5 AM and slowly navigate the craziness of Newark (remember, at this point I’ve been awake for nearly 23 hours) to find where to drop the car off. I finally find it (it wasn’t easy) but there was no one for which to return the car. I park it, leave the key in the car and take my stuff. I go into what I think is the terminal (it’s not) and find someone to “return” the car to.

At around 5:15 AM I took the AirTrain (first time for me at Newark) to Terminal A. I call the off-site parking people to pick me up and there was no answer. So now I am stuck at Newark less than 2 miles from my car. I try calling again and someone sleepily answers the phone and tells me they are on their way and where to meet them. I go to the spot and they were there within two minutes. I get taken over to the lot and I easily found my car within 2-3 minutes. I was never so happy to see my own car! I scan my reservation QR code (naturally charged for an extra day) and get on the NJ Turnpike in the opposite direction I came 30 minutes earlier. At this point the sun has risen, so without sleeping I saw it set in Virginia and rise in NJ.

No sooner do I go to the Turnpike, I see all the vehicles are diverted to the car lane as there was a crash in the truck lane (a bad one). Normally I take 1 & 9 home, but I figured this was going to be faster. I was stuck in traffic for about 10 minutes (luckily it was early) and I got home at around 6:40 AM. So, when Dad called at 7, I was home for not five minutes, but twenty, however, I hadn’t eaten in 24 hours by then and had work at 7:30 so I had to run out and get something before work started.

Out & Equal 2013 Trip Report

October 27-November 1 Minneapolis, MN (Workshops October 29-October 31)


I attended the Out & Equal Workplace Advocates Summit which took place at the Minneapolis convention center in Minneapolis, Minnesota during the week of October 27th, 2013.  Approximately 2,000 people from 41 states and 27 countries attended.  I was one of 15 people from the Merck Rainbow Alliance Employee Business Resource Group (EBRG) to attend.

On October 28th the MRA had its opening dinner at the Skywater Restaurant.  Members of the MRA which came from all divisions of the corporation, including field sales introduced themselves and explained what their job is with the company.  For the first time we had representatives from Corporate Recruiting who participated in staffing the booth we had in the exposition hall.

On October 29th, the summit opened with the first plenary.  First to speak was Selisse Berry, the founder and CEO of the Out & Equal Workplace Advocates.  Her remarks focused on encouraging equality in the workplace for LGBT employees in all companies as well as passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).  Following her remarks, Robert Hanson, the CEO of American Eagle Outfitters discussed his coming out experience both personally and professionally.  The third speaker at the plenary was Janet Mock, the editor-in-chief of the online version of People Magazine.  She discussed what it was like to be a transgender person in the corporate world.  The plenary’s entertainment was from Steve Grand who performed his hit, “All American Boy.”

After the plenary I attended a screening of “Out of The Shadows,” a documentary produced in 1970 by KNBC.  The workshop was sponsored by NBC Universal corporate parent, Comcast.  The workshop started with a brief video about being gay at Comcast/NBC Universal.  The video highlighted some of the shows and movies with LGBT themes as well as other groundbreaking shows featuring diversity (e.g. Nat King Cole special in the 1960s).  It also highlighted shows from Friends, The Office, etc. that had firsts when it came to portraying aspects of LGBT life (e.g. “Friends” was the first program to show a same-sex wedding).  It also showed members from NBC Universal and Comcast’s EBRGs, Out@Comcast and Out@NBCUniversal.  The panel explained that NBC Universal was the first major media company to provide domestic partner benefits and Employment non-discrimination in 1992.  They then showed a trailer for their upcoming movie, “Dallas Buyers Club” starring Matthew McConaughey which is about an HIV+ individual who smuggled non-FDA approved drugs in to the US to help people with HIV/AIDS (based on a true story).  The one hour documentary examined the gay subculture in 1970’s Los Angeles.  Topics included gay marriage (as a farce of hetero marriage).  It contained profiles of both male and female same-sex couples in committed relationships.  The documentary covered the many gay bars that existed at the time in Los Angeles and how LA was the “capitol” of the gay community.  Regarding the transgender community it explained how the laws were changed in the early 70’s to allow men to dress as women provided that no other laws were broken.  The discussion afterwards focused on the difference in attitudes of the 1970’s, the inaccuracies and some of the prejudices that existed in the documentary.

The second workshop I attended was part of a global series sponsored by the presenting sponsors (IBM, Disney and Thomson Reuters).  The workshop was called, “Virtual ERGs–Connect Your Global Membership Using Social Media.”  The session started with a video of employees from Thomson Reuters discussing what being part of their EBRG (called Pride At Work) means to them.  The panel consisted of members of the organization from around the world.  One member is the Intranet lead whose role is to make sure members are using all of the IT tools to engage the membership worldwide.  They explained the evolution of their corporate portal and the missteps they made along the way.  The Corporate portal started with a site called “The Link” in which Pride At Work was a sub-site.  The portal was a link farm, similar to MyMerck.  It was very hard to find content and the search was too broad.  It was also very difficult to add content to the site.  The ability to update content was restricted to a small number of people and information was outdated quickly.  Also the information tended to be very specific to region of the editors who created the content.  To address some of these issues a newsletter was created alongside “The Link.”  The newsletter improved discoverability but everyone was a publisher and lead to information overload and people didn’t read it.  To address these issues, like Merck, Yammer was used.   The problem with Yammer is it is text based and has limited features.  An additional concern with Yammer is concern over control of the content and off-loading it to someone else’s server.   The replacement to all of this was something called “The Hub.”  With “The Hub” you have a group (similar to a Team Space).  The Hub consists of blog posts from various members.  Anyone can post stories to the site.  Readers can “like” the posts similar to Facebook as well as add comments, similar to Merck’s communities.  Posting comments lets you tag other individuals, similar like you can do in Facebook comments.  The technology allows you to share photos and videos.  You can create streams to follow different groups in The Hub.  New features planned for The Hub–push notifications and something called “gamification.”  Gamification is rewarding people for participation with things like badges for a person’s profile (similar to Foursquare).  Winning a badge could be for getting a lot of likes for a post or for participation.  People can even earn badges for being members of EBRGs.  If a thread gets a lot of hits on a sub-part of the hub, it gets auto-promoted to the home page of the corporate portal.  This allows for awareness of the EBRG and the topics and permits greater employee engagement and membership in the EBRG.  As a result of these “engagement enablers,” the content was updated daily and their group has seen year over year membership growth of 23%.  The Hub platform is powered by a system called Jive and the team is around 5 people.  The Intranet team is part of Corporate Communications.

October 30th’s session began with a workshop titled, “Executive Sponsors – Use ’em or Lose ’em.”  The panel consisted of the executive sponsor and chair/president of the LGBT EBRG from Ernst & Young, PepsiCo, Raytheon, and Thomson Reuters as well as a moderator.  The format was that the moderator would ask questions of both the sponsor as well as the EBRG head.  The first question was how did you become the executive sponsor?  In all instances it was a voluntary position, except with E&Y they went through a formal interview process.  Other questions asked were, what your job is for the ERG? What is the most useful strategy in leveraging your sponsors? What are the unique challenges sponsoring a LGBT organization? What is the most rewarding aspect?  The answers to these questions from the respective organizations can be provided if requested.

Following this workshop, we had our plenary power lunch, sponsored by Disney.  It opened with Selisse Berry discussing how we can be married in 14 states, but we can still be fired in 29 states, simply for being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.  After Selisse, the mayor of Minneapolis, RT Rybak gave same opening remarks.  The first keynote speaker of the session was Elaine Kaplan who is the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management for the US Government (a Presidential appointment).  After her, was television personality Tabitha Coffey, host of “Tabitha Takes Over” on Bravo who discussed her show as well as her coming out experience which she expected to be easy due to being surrounded by LGBT people growing up but was shocked and surprised by her mother’s reaction when told.

After the plenary I attended, “Getting It Done – Microsoft GLEAM At 20 Years.”  The presenter was Brian Murphy from the Windows Research Group.  His role within Microsoft’s LGBT group, GLEAM, is focused on policy.  He gave a brief history of GLEAM.  In 1993 it became part of Microsoft’s “diversity infrastructure.”  He then discussed the strategy used for a successful EBRG:
Focus on outcomes:  MSFT typically got caught up on the process of implementation without focusing on the end result.  An example of this was implementing benefits for transgender employees.
Be appropriately provocative:  What are the limits of advocacy for change.  Avoid the breaking point where you end up hurting your case.
Sidebar feelings:  Keep emotion out of the discussion.  Focus on the facts when making the case for change.
Don’t get attached:  To an argument, to a strategy, or even to being the driver on an issue.  If you are the person advocating the change but can’t get it to the final step to the finish line, you need to let go and let others complete the accomplishment.
Starting Small is still starting:  Accept less than you hoped since it is at least a beginning.
Bring others along:  What’s good for us is good for others.  Be principled and it will happen naturally.

There were also many lessons learned over the 20 years that the EBRG has been in existence.  There’s no single right answer.  Build organizational intelligence–understand how your organization is structured and how that helps or hurts you in achieving the outcomes you want.  Competitors are allies (e.g. Google)–other organizations in your industry are your best tools to drive change in your organization.  Use disruptive change–opportunities come with disruption, so be ready to use it to your advantage.  It doesn’t stop with success–getting a policy or benefit change is just the beginning.  Once implemented you have to look at the results and course correct where necessary.  Change can be a long game–anything worthwhile takes time so get comfortable, you could be doing this a while; focus on the war, not the battle.

October 31st began with a workshop that was very important to me called “Breaking Down Barriers – Creating A Thriving Workplace For Employees With HIV.”  The panel consisted of Bonnie Rossow (Minnesota AIDS Project), Sarah Fryberger (Project for Pride In Living) and Robert Menk, who is a volunteer HIV educator.  The workshop discussed some key facts regarding HIV.  According to the Center For Disease Control, 20% of the people with HIV do not know that they have it.  HIV can only be transmitted through blood, semen, vaginal fluid and breast milk.  It cannot be transmitted from saliva or casual contact with the above fluids if they are outside of the body.  HIV dies outside of the body within two minutes.  The three most common ways of getting infected are sharing needles (syringe type only), unprotected sex, and mother-to-child transmission.  With mother-to-child there is only a 25% chance of transmission.  It is a less than 1% chance of transmission if the mother is taking treatment.  The presentation continued with a series of quiz questions.  Such as, “true or false:  People with HIV can live long and productive lives.”  This of course is true, studies show that if someone is on medication, they have a life span of 40 years after infection.  Being adherent to HIV medications can reduce the risk of transmitting HIV to others, provided that they are 95% adherent to their treatment (1-2 missed doses per month).  When someone is adherent, they are 96% less likely to transmit the virus to another person.  There are two medications that can prevent HIV infection.  Truvada is one of them and is part of Pre Exposure Prophylaxis.  The other is called Post Exposure Prophylaxis which contains a one month HIV treatment regimen.  This information was presented by Rossow and Fryberger.  The discussion concluded with Robert Menk’s story in which there are a couple of parallels to my own.  Like myself, his career is in Information Technology (as a project manager).  He was diagnosed in October 2011 (I was diagnosed one month earlier). Robert may have been infected for over five years.  He was in a monogamous relationship and was safe 99% of the time, the lesson is to be tested.  In his case, the cause of infection was a blood clot.  His lowest T-cell count was 31 at time of diagnosis (mine was much higher).  Typical range is 800-1500 for a healthy person.  His peak viral load was at 800,000 per cubic ML (mine was at around 20,000).  Uninfected person should have 0.  As a result of getting HIV, either directly or indirectly he lost his job at finance company.  He took a year off and teamed up with the MN AIDS Project.  After 14 months he got a job as a project manager in the healthcare field just as his unemployment insurance and COBRA were running out.

The final workshop was part of the Global Series, this one sponsored by IBM entitled, “From Russia, With or Without Love.”  This workshop focused on the conditions in Russia regarding legalized discrimination as well as how those laws can affect the upcoming Winter Olympics.  The discussion began with a brief history of modern, post-Soviet Russia.  Under pressure from the US, Boris Yeltsin de-criminalized same-sex relationships.  Subsequently Putin overturned those laws via the anti-propaganda bill.  One presenter was the former US Ambassador to Romania (2001-2004).  He discussed his concern about the vagueness of the anti-LGBT laws in Russia and how that will affect LGBT athletes at the Olympics. The US Olympic committee is working with the International Olympic Committee to make sure LGBT athletes are protected in Russia during the games in Sochi.  He believes the IOC has dropped the ball when addressing the anti-LGBT laws in Russia.  He feels that the IOC is tarnishing the charter, particularly article 6 banning discrimination.  As a diplomat, he feels that boycotting does not resolve anything and serves no purpose.  The focus goes beyond the games and there is added focus from the U.S. government to pressure Russia to remove these anti-LGBT laws.  Russia’s contention is that the laws have to do with propaganda to children, however, that the law vs. the actual implementation is very different.  In September in St. Petersburg there was a “Queer Festival.”  The organizers got a permit, the police looked and then left and the festival was able to continue.

The summit concluded with its final plenary, the gala dinner.  Comedian Kate Clinton was the M.C. for the event and was as funny as ever.  As part of O & E’s fundraising activities there was an auction that consisted of such things as a one of a kind rainbow mixer from Whirlpool and cruises from Disney.  R&B singer Thelma Houston performed “Don’t Leave Me” and other classic hits.  The highlight of the evening was the keynote speech by comedic actress, Kathy Najimy, which was videotaped by me.  I also made a 91 second trailer of video and pictures from the Merck rainbow Alliance which can be viewed via this link.

In conclusion, I found the summit both entertaining and insightful.  For me, the workshop that had the most personal impact was the one regarding HIV in the workplace.  The one that had the most professional impact was the social networking one since it identified some of the challenges Merck currently faces with its own social networking strategy.

 

Out & Equal 2012 Trip Report

October 29-November 2, 2012

    From October 29-November 2 I attended the Out & Equal Workplace Summit in Baltimore, Maryland at the Baltimore convention center. Despite hurricane Sandy the summit proceeded with a modified schedule. Approximately 2,000 people were able to attend under these circumstances.

    On October 29th I attended Merck Safe Space “train the trainer” training conducted by Reese Levine. The training covered the history of the Merck Safe Space program and what it is about as well as how to provide training and education on Merck’s Safe Space program to other organizations within Merck.

    Day 1 of the Summit on October 30th was modified due to the weather. We had an opening plenary lunch. The keynote speaker of that day was Harry van Dorenmalen who is the Chairman of IBM Europe. The main point in his speech is that every moment is a moment to speak out for equality and said that we should consider that “good policy isn’t just paying lip service; culture is something you do when no one is looking.” After the plenary in lieu of the regularly scheduled workshops they had moderated discussions. I attended an Employee Resource Group (ERG) discussion that discussed the strengths and weaknesses of individual ERGs at various companies. With the MRA one of our strengths is community engagement (AIDS Walk, Garden State Equality, etc.) where one of our opportunities for improvement is in the area of membership engagement.

    Wednesday’s first workshop was entitled, “A Rainbow of Generations: Career Strategies for Different GLBT Generations.” The workshop focused on overcoming the differences between generations and the typical stereotype each generation (baby boomer, generation x, generation y, millennial). The panel of speakers was from Dow Chemical and Ernst & Young. The speakers first covered the topics of how the different generations work. The “older” generations (baby boomer, x) usually pick up the phone while the “younger” generations use texting, e-mail and IM, even if the person they were conversing with is sitting right next to them. Additionally, the younger generation does not understand the value of meetings and further explanation or discussion may need to take place to understand the point of the meeting. Additionally they sometimes fail to understand what should and should not be shared outside of their company. The panel then covered what expectations of the employer about an employee’s sexual orientation. With the baby boomers and generation X, there is a fear of a negative impact on your career. With the younger generations it was never thought of so drastically. The panel then explained that you typically have a lower employee turnover rate in more inclusive companies.

The Wednesday lunch plenary featured an interview of Beth Brooke, who is the Global Vice Chair of Public Policy at Ernst & Young by Cris Crespo, who is the Director of Inclusiveness at Ernst & Young. Beth has been on the Forbes World’s 100 Most Powerful Women list for the past five years. She discussed how coming out has had no impact on her career or being on the list. Ben Jealous, president/CEO of the NAACP spoke about equality for the GLBT community. He discussed that all communities seeking equality must work together to achieve our goal of equal rights, regardless of gender, orientation, ethnicity or race.

After the plenary, I attended a workshop titled, “From Basement To Boardroom: The Evolution of a Fortune 100 ERG.” This workshop focused on how MassMutual created their ERG and how they tie it to the business. Every year they develop metrics to measure their performance based on enrollment, community involvement and employee participation. One thing that they do is develop an annual report that is similar to a typical annual report you would get from a company where you own stock. They also develop a business plan in which a formal document is created in conjunction with their Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) office.

    On Thursday, the first workshop I went to was entitled, “Intersections of Ability, Orientation and Identity.” Nadine Vogel, Brian McNaught, Cris Crespo and Merck’s Chief Diversity Officer, Deb Dagit, conducted this panel discussion.

Figure 1: Nadine Vogel, Brian McNaught, Cris Crespo and Merck’s Deb Dagit

The panel members first discussed their backgrounds. Nadine Vogel has an “invisible disability” in that she has a foot deformity that has on two occasions confined her to a wheelchair. In Deb’s case, she had a cousin who came out as gay and was thrown out of the house. He later died from AIDS at age 29 before it was a treatable disease. Also as part of Deb’s background she explained that she did not adopt in the US because there have been a lot of instances where the adoptive parents took the kids back because they didn’t want them raised by people with disabilities. Deb adopted her three kids from Russia but the issues persisted there as well where the parents spit on Deb and her husband. The judge asked Deb and her husband why they wanted to adopt “freaks” (the children are differently abled). They explained that awareness training at an early age is important to educate people to not use terms such as “that’s retarded” or “that’s so gay” and likewise any other words that would seem insensitive to those with disabilities because there can be those with hidden disabilities. People with disabilities may have a lot of legal protections but there is still a stigma when it comes to social circles. People are ok with a GLBT friend but may not feel comfortable with someone with a disability. The GLBT community needs to share their experience with pride with the differently abled community so that they can gain the same level of acceptance.

The final workshop I attended was titled, “International Corporations: The Invisible Benefits for GLBT Employees.” Maryland has some employer protections for GLBT employees, while VA doesn’t. GLBT rights can vary depending on location, even when locations are very close to one another. For example, DC has marriage equality, MD may depending on voter approval and in VA does not. In VA same-sex marriage and civil unions are both unconstitutional. DC & MD has discrimination laws covering sexual orientation. VA does not, which is why it is important for corporations to have policies covering sexual orientation discrimination. In 2012, 190 businesses achieved a top score of 100 percent on the HRC index. There are two types of benefits: visible and invisible. A visible benefit would be something like healthcare. Invisible benefits: professional networking, relocation, community, social networking, adoption assistance, etc. HRC’s Corporate Equality Index shows that 69% of employers polled have benefit parity. International companies often allow for employees to voluntarily transfer internationally between offices–Individual employees seeking larger GLBT communities for example. Israel recognizes gay marriage and is one country where people in a civil union/marriage can go to if they need to relocate. This is key for bi-national same-sex couples where one has a US visa with an expiration date. Relocation benefits: Many companies support employee relocation by assisting opposite-sex and same-sex couples and their families during the transfer period. This includes visa and work permit assistance for employees and dependent family, relocation expense and reimbursement as well as buying/selling a home.

The summit concluded with a gala dinner. The dinner, as has in the past, had comedian Kate Clinton as the Master of Ceremonies. The keynote speaker was Brigadier General Dr. Tammy Smith, who is the highest-ranking openly gay member of the U.S. military.

Out & Equal 2011

I didn’t want this blog to turn into a “Mike’s illness” blog, so I figure I’d post the trip report I had sent to my management from this year’s Out & Equal 2011 Workplace Summit.  The trip report is below this video album I created (a very talented member of the Merck Rainbow Alliance took the photos) featuring some of my fellow attendees from the MRA, plenary speakers and one or two from Eli Lilly (mostly because they had Merck alumnus, Kar-Chan “Casey” Choong) are included as well.  If you want to find out more about employee diversity at Merck, check out this link.



Out & Equal 2011 Trip Report
October 24-28, 2011

From October 24, 2011-October 28, 2011 I attended the Out & Equal Workplace Summit in Dallas, TX at the Hilton Anatole.  There were over 2,600 attendees representing the majority of the Fortune 100 companies.  Merck had its largest representation yet with 23 members, including two from the sales force and one from TeleRX.  While there, I attended several workshops such as, “Coming out in Faith:  Four generations’ Experiences”, “The Impact of Healthcare Reform On The LGBT Community”, “Who is LGBT? and how do we measure the closet?”, “LGBT Support in the fight against HIV/AIDS”, “Identifying, building and developing an LGBT pipeline of rising stars” and “Understanding the New Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) Coming to the Internet, Including .Gay.”  This year, our executive sponsor, Mike Thien (SVP Global Science) attended the last two days of the conference.

On October 25th, the opening plenary featured Kathy Martinez, Assistant Secretary for Disability Employment Policy who discussed President Obama’s policy advances for not only the LGBTQ community, but for those with disabilities.  After Ms. Martinez, Sander van’t Noordende who is the Group Chief Executive of Accenture spoke about coming out at work.  One takeaway from his speech is to find a mentor to connect with, take a risk at least once a week, but go at your own pace.  He also reminded everyone that diversity and equality go together.  Next Andy Cohen who does the programming at Bravo TV discussed the growing number of characters who are LGBTQ as well as the many actors who are comfortable with whom they are.  Andy then interviewed Candis Cayne, one of the first transgender actors to come out and discuss her transition.  She then sang I Am A Woman (I recorded a small snippet found at http://youtu.be/Q-bA_NCpLKg).  I then attended a workshop, “Coming out in Faith:  Four generations’ Experiences” conducted by Dr. Susan Gore.  The workshop examined how different generations dealt with coming out as LGBTQ or as an Ally.  Participants from the four generations (Baby Boomer, Generation X, Generation Y and Millennial) discussed their experience.  Dr. Gore also discussed the “movable middle” which may initially be against the idea of equality and rights for LGBTQ until better educated on the issue.  The next seminar I attended was, “The Impact of Healthcare Reform On The LGBT Community.”  This seminar basically reviewed the national healthcare plan and briefly discussed that it is still legal in twenty-nine states to fire someone because of their sexual orientation.  They also mentioned that due to a reluctance to answer research questions about same-sex sexual behavior, it is hard to get an understanding of the health needs of the LGBTQ population.  That evening Merck, Pfizer, Genentech and Bristol-Meyers Squibb sponsored a well-attended pharmaceutical networking event at the Radisson.  This event allowed for a cross-pollination of how the different pharmaceuticals operate their ERGs (Employee Resource Groups) in an informal setting.

October 26th, the plenary featured Rick Welts, who is the president of the Golden State Warriors.  Rick discussed what it was like to come out in a field that is generally hostile to those who are LGBTQ.  He explained that he was very surprised at the positive response he got from his co-workers before the story broke in the New York Times.  After Rick’s speech, actress Meredith Baxter (from “Family Ties”) spoke.  She discussed what it was like to come out on national television on the Today Show.  After the plenary I attended two seminars.  The first, entitled, “Who is LGBT? And how do we measure the closet?”  This was a panel discussion featuring Masen Davis from the Transgender Law Center, Gary Gates who is a Williams Distinguished Scholar and Brian McNaught who is an author and corporate diversity trainer focusing on LGBTQ issues.  The panel discussed that we will never really know the true percentage of LGBTQ people because there are a lot of places such as Iran who would never feel comfortable coming forth to tell.  Based on surveys and other research, the general consensus is that between 5-10% of the population is LGBTQ, however, the average American thinks that 25% of the population is LGBTQ.  The estimated population is somewhere between 9-26 million Americans.  Age eleven is the mean age of recognition for sexual orientation awareness.  Orientation, behavior, and identity are the three components of sexuality.  Homosexuality exists in every species of mammal.  The panel then proceeded to go over a lot of other statistics based on surveys and research.  I then attended, “LGBT Support in the fight against HIV/AIDS” which was conducted by four people in which two of them were from Merck (Mike Perillo, HR Leader, Finance and Kevin Fannin, Manager, Portfolio Management MRL).  The panel discussed the “four pillars” which are perspective, power, purpose, and people.  This was an interactive workshop in which statements were put up on the walls and you picked one and explained how the four pillars affected you.  The one I picked had to do with that HIV/AIDS was no longer a concern since it’s not in the news.  With my recent diagnosis, I explained how my perspective has changed as recently as a few weeks ago.  This workshop was probably the one I got the most out of and led me to post a very personal entry on my personal blog and Facebook (using the pillar of audience “power”), which can be classified under the “purpose and people” pillars in the hopes that it changes the perspective of others (you can find the posting at http://starthan.net/blog/index.php/2011/10/28/how-we-have-progressed/).  I wrote this post while still at Out & Equal.

October 27th began with our seminar sessions.  The first seminar I attended was, “Identifying, building and developing an LGBT pipeline of rising stars” which discussed recruiting diverse employees into your organization.  One point made is that you want to have a social environment to attract members, but it has to be a good mix, not just centered on bars and drinking.  You should have family friendly events so that you can have more inclusive events.  Another suggestion was that coming out day could also be about coming out as an ally. One thing that can be done is passing out cards in coffee rooms and break rooms about coming out as an ally.  With support and sustainability, you have to understand the culture and needs of the individual, business and ERGs. Rewards should be optimized in all of their forms.  Another thing to keep in mind is that not everyone is out in every circumstance.  You may be out at work, but not necessarily with a client.  The final seminar I attended was, “Understanding the New Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) Coming to the Internet, Including .Gay.”  The discussion focused on the many new TLDs that are being created (an example of a TLD is .com or .edu) and .gay is in the review process by ICANN.  There are approximately 300-500 new TLDs coming in the next few months.  The company who will own the .gay domain, is a for-profit company, however, 67% of the profits will go back to the GLBT community.  One of the hurdles in getting the domain is religious groups objecting.  As part of the “objection” process, there is a fee of $15,000 for both the objector and the defendant.  There will be clear guidelines as far as who can use the .gay domain.  For example, anti-gay groups will not be allowed to use it nor will adult sites.  The idea behind the domain is to give the community a unified voice on the internet.  Large corporations would also benefit from the domain because they can use it for targeted web sites and marketing that would be focused on the community (think crixivan.merck.gay), which can allow for more accurate metrics for the products or message that they are trying to convey.  The domains themselves would be inexpensive at $100 a year.  The afternoon plenary featured the outgoing chairman of JC Penney who discussed the importance of diversity within his organization.  Following him, Donna Brazille, who is one of the leaders of the Democratic party, spoke on how things have changed but how you need to continue to defend those changes since there are those who wish to turn back the clock on change.  On the evening of the 27th was the gala awards dinner.  It started off with a fashion show from JC Penney.  The dinner’s Master of Ceremonies was comedienne Kate Clinton.  Among the speakers that evening was Wes Bush, the CEO of Northrop Grumman and Ft. Worth City Councilman, Joel Burns.  Prior to dinner, a highlight video, which featured some Merck people, was played on the big convention monitors (video can be found at the following link and I can be found at 0:19 and 0:22–http://youtu.be/OcwADtdeffQ).  Following dinner, comedienne Margaret Cho performed as did actor Wilson Cruz.

Our final day in Dallas, October 28th featured a morning MRA meeting on the 27th floor of the Hilton.  In attendance was Mike Thien, our executive sponsor.  Topics discussed were our “It Gets Better” video, how the Steering Committee can better engage its membership and how our executive sponsor can be a better liaison between the ERG and the company as well as be a voice in the business justification of the MRA.

Like last year, I found the convention to be both educational and enlightening.  What I enjoyed the most was talking to individuals from other companies and getting their viewpoints and how their ERGs operate.  Since this year I was fortunate to meet some individuals from our sales force, it allowed me to further develop a greater non-IT network of Merck people, plus catch up with people whom I may have not spoken to in over a year.

Indiana, Our Indiana

Spending the first weekend of November visiting my best friend in Indiana. I have been having a great time. We went to The Comedy Attic on Friday and saw some great comedians. Yesterday I went to my first IU football game. Unfortunately Iowa beat IU in a nail biter of a game, but it wasn’t a blowout like everyone feared. Right now I am unsure what we’re going to do today, but just spending time with my best friend is all I can ask for.

On another note, I added a Google Latitude widget to my sidebar. Anyone reading this on Facebook should go to my blog at www.starthan.net to know what I am talking about.

Mexico City

I went to Mexico City for global help desk harmonization where Merck took over IT support for the former Schering-Plough Corporation.  Here’s a video I made sightseeing Mexico City the day after I got there.  It was the only opportunity I had to take any video, just too darn busy!  For those seeing this post on Facebook, please go to http://www.starthan.net


Las Vegas: The Sequel

My long awaited second trip (this year) to Las Vegas was last week (November 30-December 3).  The flights to/from Las Vegas were surprisingly on time (considering Newark Airport was involved).  I got there about 20 minutes before Derek (aka “Kared”) and by the time I got off the plane he had landed.  We met at the Westjet carousel and took the short taxi ride to the Excalibur Hotel.  Once we got settled in, we started walking.  With the complex array of crosswalks to keep pedestrians off of Las Vegas Boulevard (aka “The Strip”) it was like walking through a giant maze (and we were the rats).  We lost track of time and before we knew it, it was dark and we had walked from one end of the strip to the other and caught the Mirage Volcano show.

On Tuesday we went to a nearby Outlet mall.  The mall is owned by the same company that owns the Flemington and Jackson outlets in NJ.  Derek was very excited because of the deep discounts on clothes (Nevada sales tax is low and the USA does not have a VAT).  Discounts were as high as 70% off.  Afterwards we went back to the strip and had a good evening that involved some drinks, bars and music.

Wednesday we took it kind of easy (Derek was a bit hung over, I was fine).  That night we saw Cirque De Soleil’s “O” at the Bellagio.  What an amazing show.  It was 90 minutes of amazing acrobatics, dance, water effects and acrobatics.  Afterwards we did some more walking around and some window shopping and checked out the Apple Store.

On our final day we took it easy.  Walked through the shops at the Venetian and did some shopping at the Coke and M & M store.  As the rodeo was coming into town we headed out.  Around 5:30 Derek & I said our goodbyes and went our separate ways at McCarran.  I know I had a great time and I’m pretty sure Derek did too.  For me, the best part was meeting someone in person who I’ve known online for almost 6 years.  Derek is as nice a guy in person as he is online.  I’m sure I’ll get to meet up with him and hopefully get to meet his wife Lori at some time in the future.

Here is the video I made of my trip to Las Vegas.  Enjoy.

Trip To Sandy Hook

Thanks to getting a few extra days this year and having a lot of dates where I couldn’t take vacation, for most of November I have been on vacation.  The date of this posting happens to be one of the few days where I am actually working.  On November 9th my friend Rick and I decided to take a trip to Sandy Hook, NJ.  In a month not unknown for snowstorms, we had a bright, sunny 71 degree day for our trip.  It took us about an hour to get to Sandy Hook and we spent a few hours taking pictures and video of the shoreline, Nike missiles and the Sandy Hook Lighthouse.  Afterwards we went to Olive Garden for lunch.  Below are two videos.  The first is the video I took of Sandy Hook, the second is an animated slideshow from the pictures taken with my Rebel XTi.  You can find the actual pictures via my Picasa photo album.

Woohoo! November!

We’ve come to November already and things are happening.  Thanks to a combination of only using a few days and working for Merck for a decade as an employee, I have a ton of vacation days to use.  Since I couldn’t really take vacation in March-May and again in October, I have them all squished into November and early December.  I was supposed to be off this entire week (11-2-11/6 and the following Monday) but something is happening that will preclude me from getting the whole week off.  As referenced, there are some big things happening that should make this month exciting.  In addition to the former, I will be ordering a new computer for my parents.  There is Thanksgiving later this month and at the end is a trip to Las Vegas!  Stay tuned to this blog for my experience with the “Big Event.”

Here are the specifications on the Mac Pro I will be configuring for my parents:

•    One 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
•    8GB (4x2GB)
•    1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
•    ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
•    One 18x SuperDrive
•    Apple LED Cinema Display (24″ flat panel)
•    Apple Magic Mouse
•    Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad (English) and User’s Guide
•    Final Cut Express preinstalled
•    HP Photosmart Premium Wireless Fax All-in-One Printer, Scanner, Copier
•    AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro (w/or w/o Display) – Auto-enroll

Map picture
Map picture