Posted on 04/19/2022 8:14:35 AM PDT by Beowulf9
This year’s Forbes Billionaires list featured 172 women – more than ever before – and unearthed 268 new ten-figure fortunes. At least one member of the world’s 50 richest people can be found on every continent except Antarctica. Yet just seven, or 0.4%, of the globe's 1,645 billionaires openly identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
In August 2013, Jennifer became the first and only transgender billionaire in the world when she announced she would be identifying herself as a woman for all business and personal undertakings. A retired army lieutenant colonel, she is CEO of private wealth management firm Tawani Enterprises in Chicago and has a personal net worth of $1.8 billion.
“This change will reflect the beliefs of her true identity that she has held privately and will now share publicly,” a statement in Crain’s Chicago Business explained.
Among the openly-gay hyper-wealthy are Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, the duo behind fashion power house Dolce & Gabbana. The retail-rich pair are joined by Michael Kors, who became a billionaire this year.
Some of these businessmen and women have used their fortunes to advocate for gay rights. Jon Stryker, heir to the Stryker Corp. medical equipment family fortune, is one of the world's most prolific donors to LGBT charities. Though Laura Rickets is not a member of the Forbes Billionaires list just yet, the lawyer daughter of Chicago Cubs billionaire Joe helped fund the Illinois Unites for Marriage coalition; her stake in the Cubs makes her the first openly-lesbian co-owner of a major-league franchise.
Of course, that’s not to say there aren’t LGBTQ billionaires whose sexuality is not public knowledge. A 2013 Gallup poll estimates that 3.5% of Americans identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender; statistically, 19 of America’s 492 billionaires should identify as such. As it stands, five of the world’s seven richest LGBT individuals are American.
Some U.S. billionaires have expressed their allegiance for their gay daughters and sons financially: hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer has given more than $10 million to support marriage equality – his gay son, Andrew, tied the knot – while Progressive insurance’s Peter Lewis, recently deceased, donated $250,000 to the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund in 2008, as my colleague Clare O’Connor noted. His son, Jonathan, is also gay.
Several Silicon Valley elite, including Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, supported marriage equality, while New York Mayor emeritus Michael Bloomberg has long donated to LGBT causes. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban sits on the advisory board of Athlete Ally, a nonprofit targeting homophobia in sports.
Of course, not all high net worth parents are as supportive. Hong Kong businessman Cecil Chao reportedly offered to double the $65 million reward he proposed in 2012 for the man who successfully seduces and marries his lesbian daughter, according to CNBC. His daughter Gigi, who married her long-term girlfriend in 2012, is an LGBT rights activist and charity worker in Hong Kong.
"I understand that he loves me, it's just he's from another time and it's difficult for him to understand the plight of the LGBT [community]," Gigi Chao told the South China Morning Post. Gigi remains an executive director at Chao’s Cheuk Nang property development company.
Being wealthy does not necessarily make it easier to publicly identify as gay. Thiel, who joined the Forbes Billionaires list in 2007 based on the returns of his hedge Clarium Capital and an investment in Facebook, only came out to his friends in 2003, according to The New Yorker. He would have been 35 at the time.
“Do you know how many people in the financial world are openly gay?” Thiel reportedly asked one friend, explaining that he didn’t want his sexual orientation to get in the way of his work, writes The New Yorker's George Packer.
According to our industry categorizations, 252 billionaires derived their wealth from finance or investments in 2014. By our reckoning, Thiel is the only one who is openly gay.
Of course, some countries are more equal than others in terms of gay rights, which might explain why nations with the second- and third-highest number of billionaires – China, 152, and Russia, 111 – do not list a single LGBT billionaire.
Yet just seven, or 0.4%, of the globe’s 1,645 billionaires openly identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
So what is the implication? That somehow it’s discriminatory against these “LGBT” that there aren’t enough in the billionaire group to make the writer of this article happy?
“Yet just seven, or 0.4%”
So, in the non-white-non-insane world, homos and any offshoot of that insanity isn’t very common, eh?
Millionaire, Bazillionaire, I don’t care how much they own, I will have nothing to do with a poofter.
Nothing.
“Forget it, Jake. It’s Forbes.”
Actually I was thinking it might be more. But that would be in the US, maybe most stupid white European countries.
What a ridiculous article.
It’s funny because most of the world is not insane enough to ignore common sense and go on “identifying” as something else, and that’s what makes the numbers so small.
However, no matter what, the US will be blamed as not tolerant, accepting and celebratory enough, and needs to be more indoctrinated.
Wow, I had no idea Peter Thiel is gay. He’s conservative with strong anti-government ideas.
If wealth and its pursuit are the only measures of your life, other aspects will be less than impressive.
“Repent, for the return of Christ is at hand!” is the thing people need to hear.
Instead of reporting about who’s gay and who isn’t, the author should be investigating why there aren’t any billionaires in Antarctica. Perhaps there is racial discrimination against the noble inhabitants of Antarctica.
Thiel initially supported Carly Fiorina’s campaign during the 2016 GOP presidential primary elections.[107] After Fiorina dropped out, Thiel supported Donald Trump and became one of the California delegates for Trump’s nomination. He was a headline speaker during the convention, during which he announced that he was “proud to be gay,” for which the assembled Republicans cheered.[108][109
wiki
“why there aren’t any billionaires in Antarctica.”
Because all their assets are frozen.
Meet your new masters.
Can’t take it with ya. Even better if you had it removed.
No you can't take it with you
No matter what you do
No, you can't take it with you
Not the place you're going to
I’m standing in the middle of an access canal on the dam.
“I don’t care!” Tommy Lee Jones.
Did you know he is Algore’s buddy?
5.56mm
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.