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He created the G.L.S.A. Audiotext Hotline, "an automated service designed for people of all sexual orientations: straight, gay, bisexual and unsure." You dial up the G.L.S.A. computer (617-495-6100) and, in total anonymity, choose from a menu of more than 100 brief prerecorded messages -- everything from "What causes people to be gay?" and "Can a gay person be changed into a heterosexual?" to your choice of 12 "Common myths about homosexuality," a directory of counseling services and the policies of 11 different religious denominations toward gay issues. (Now don't all call at once.)
Last semester Rotenberg and his cohort distributed a pamphlet to everyone on campus. "There's something a bunch of your classmates would like to tell you," read the front cover, continuing inside, "It's not easy being gay at Harvard Business School." The pamphlet acknowledged that "sexual orientation is a topic that makes many people uncomfortable" -- an understatement on a par with original estimates for bailing out the savings and loan industry. Yet Rotenberg says his classmates and colleagues have been almost uniformly positive, both before and after his appearance in FORTUNE. His hot line (not mentioned in FORTUNE) has logged more than 1,100 calls.
To those who are astonished that Liberace was gay (or Alexander the Great or Leonardo da Vinci or numerous current power people whose right to privacy should be respected), as to those who wonder whether Ed Bradley of CBS's 60 Minutes is black (this was actually a question some years ago in Parade: "My husband and I can't agree: Is Ed Bradley of CBS's 60 Minutes black?" Yes, dear, he is), these must be strange and frightening times.
But it looks as if yet another scaffold of prejudice is in the early stages of dismantlement, and that's likely in the long run to make America stronger and more competitive. If the best man for a particular job happens to be a woman -- or gay, or Catholic, or black -- why waste that talent? It's inefficient. A nation whose citizens respect and get along with one another has an advantage. Good for Harvard Business School.