AT&T March 1975: the first major company to protect its gay employees starts a trend. (Rebels & Pioneers).

In 1975 the Bell System was the largest nongovernment employer in the United States, with mere than a million employees, So it was an earthshaking moment when, in March of that year, Bell parent company AT&T--under the leadership of chairman John deButts--became the first major corporation to adopt a policy prohibiting discrimination against employees based on sexual orientation.

"From what I understand, [DeButts] made the decision all on his own," remembers John Klenert, an AT&T manager at the time. "He just said, `OK, so let it he written, so let it be done.'" IBM soon followed, and the domino effect began.

"I fully believe that the seeds planted in 1975 are now growing," as evidenced by the success of out executives throughout American big business, says Klenert, who went on to lead AT&T's gay employees' group in the mid 1990s. "This smashing of the lavender ceiling has corporate America showing our fellow citizens that government has only to catch up to what has already occurred in our workplaces."