Editor’s Note: This article is part of a series exploring diversity and inclusion in the workplace to be published over the next few months. If you have a story idea about diversity and inclusion in the workplace, please send leads to WRAL TechWire’s Chantal Allam at cabitbol@gmail.com.

WASHINGTON, DC — Back in the 1980s, when Joni Madison was starting out as a senior broadcasting producer at one of the Triangle’s premier ad agencies, McKinney, she felt like she couldn’t be out as gay.

“It was unacceptable. You just kept this to yourself,” she told WRAL TechWire. “If you did come out, or you were outed, you knew there was a lot on the line.”

But that didn’t keep her down. Eventually, years later, she did come out and climbed her way to the top, becoming chief of operations – one of only 13 women at the time to hold that position with a national agency. Over the next decade, she led the charge to create an inclusive culture, ensuring LGBTQ and other minority groups were protected under the company’s policies.

Ultimately, after years of volunteering with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) on the side, she decided to make activism her full-time job, trading in the glossy offices of advertising for the halls of the DC-based HRC, becoming its chief operating officer and chief of staff in 2016.

However, just as she was packing up to leave McKinney, North Carolina’s controversial HB2 was passed. The bill, which has since been partially repealed, barred people from using the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity.

For Madison, 56, it’s an “ugly mark” on NC’s history. But it only strengthened her resolve: “Ultimately, I felt I could help LGBTQ people more from DC, than I could in my own state.”

Championing diversity

Before she left, her colleagues honored her with a scholarship in her name – the Joni Madison Mtern Diversity Scholarship, which helps students from underrepresented minority groups and the LGBTQ community learn from working as interns at the agency. (Mtern is short for McKinney and intern.)

The firm recently announced its latest recipients: Nijah McKinney, a native of High Point and recent graduate from North Carolina Central University; and Jacob Hege, a Durham native and recent graduate of Davidson College.

In an industry that is predominantly white, such an initiative is essential to bring about much-needed change, said McKinney’s Chief Talent Officer Sue Roche.

“It takes a certain amount of courage and fearlessness to stand up for who you are. That is what we are hoping to bring to life in these scholars,” she says. “If it wasn’t for Joni, it probably wouldn’t have been a priority.”

More than half still closeted at work, says new study

According to a new report released by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, more than half (53 percent) of LGBTQ employees remained closeted at work.

Despite a changing social and legal landscape – including the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision embracing marriage equality — that rate has stood largely unchanged over the past decade.

“While LGBTQ-inclusive corporate policies are becoming the norm, LGBTQ workers too often face a climate of bias in their workplace,” say Deena Fidas, director of HRC’s Workplace Equality Program.

“LGBTQ employees are still avoiding making personal and professional connections at work because they fear coming out — and that hurts not only that employee, but the company as a whole. Even the best-of-the-best private sector employers with top-rated policies and practices must do more to nurture a climate of inclusion for all.”

Good times at McKinney’s Triangle Corporate Battle of the Bands … McKinney’s former COO Joni Madison with the firm’s Director of Content Production Regina Brizzolara.

A preacher’s kid “in the best way”

Let’s rewind to Asheville, North Carolina in the 1970s. It was there that Madison grew up, the daughter of a Methodist minister and a stay-at-home mother.

At 13, her parents divorced. “Back in those days, it was a pretty big deal, especially in a church community,” she recalls, by then living with her single mother, who was clawing her way back into the workforce midlife: “It was a great example.”

Around aged 16, Madison knew she was gay but didn’t tell anyone because it was “socially unacceptable”. Eventually, she confided in a teacher who told her that there was nothing wrong with her.

“She was way ahead of her time,” Madison reflects. “It was such a gift to me. It made a big difference.”

She felt judged

Nevertheless, she kept her secret from her family and work colleagues, forging ahead with her career. Like many women trying to make it in the male-dominated ad industry in the early 1980s, she experienced her fair share of sexual harassment, regardless of her sexual orientation.

“Women in the workplace had to absorb a lot. People trying to pick you up, trying push things with you sexually. Not only was I in the closet, but I was dealing with that,” she laughs.

Interestingly, as a high-flying ad exec shooting commercials in New York and abroad, she felt judged for her “southern twang”: “I always knew I was being underestimated just because of that, but I also knew that it could be an advantage.”

Finally, she’d been at McKinney long enough to feel comfortable enough to be honest about her sexuality. One year, she brought her girlfriend to the company’s Christmas party, and that sealed it: “We danced on the floor, and that was my big coming out at McKinney. It was a great and joyous evening.” (Eventually, she and her girlfriend, Gina Kilpatrick, would become among the first same-sex couples to get married in Orange County when North Carolina’s gay marriage ban was struck down in 2014.)

Fighting for LGBTQ rights … McKinney’s former chief operating officer and the Human Right’s Commission current chief operating officer and chief of staff Joni Madison.

Over the years, she admits, there have been a few periods when management changed and she felt her sexual orientation might come into play. But overall, she felt supported.

“I was never threatened or harassed at work because of my sexual orientation. I was in the closet until I was 32,” she says. “I was also fortunate to work in a creative agency and industry that embraced LGBTQ employees more readily than other industries.”

Ultimately, her drive won out: “I’m willing to work circles around anybody to get it right. I’m resilient and tenacious about most things. It really paid off for me.”

Staying the course

From her office in DC, Madison is now fighting the good fight for LGBQT rights, both in North Carolina and around the country.

While she wouldn’t say whether she has campaigned to discourage companies like Apple from moving to the Triangle because of HB2, she is actively pushing for a full repeal of the law and the passage of non-discrimination protections.

“That’s what we need if we are going to finally move past the economic damage and harm to LGBTQ citizens of the state,” she says.

And in a charged political climate, she wants to make sure young people back home, many living on the margins in rural areas, don’t give up hope.

“We’re not going to back off an inch. The stakes have gotten even higher,” she said. “We’re going to work every single day to make sure that your lives are getting better, that you are seen and your stories are heard.”

And don’t worry. She promises to bring the fight back to The Old North State one day. “Y’all haven’t gotten rid of me yet,” she smiles.