In retirement Routledge went to live in Bermondsey, where he became open about his homosexuality.
And as increasing numbers of gay employees became open about their sexuality, major corporations extended benefit programs to cover same-sex couples.
It is unlikely that large pharmaceuticals, biotech companies, energy providers and defense contractors are going to feel a moral obligation to "come clean" and become open about the research they conduct.
Some people have been more understanding than others, but that's natural, and up until very recently (around a month ago) I decided to become open about it, if people asked my I'd just tell them, I went to college without a wig on.
They both became open about their ethnic origins only after the liberation.
"It was liberating, and frightening as hell," Roberts said, recalling the period when he became open about being gay.
It was only years later, after I became open about my experiences, that I appreciated that none of us had actually been alone, we had just unfortunately all felt that way by virtue of keeping our pain to ourselves.
"I had to fight back and that's why I became open about my status, because I didn't want to have a secret to have power over me," she says.
If you're openly transsexual and also fall somewhere to the right of the Kinsey Scale, you would've told your parents the same time you became open about your gender identity?
After receiving a call from an executive recruiter, she said she became "open to thinking about returning to work".
