>> Meet The World’s LGBT Billionaires
Dans son classement mondial des milliardaires, publié la semaine dernière, le magazine américain Forbes en a recensé seulement “7” sur 1.645 qui sont LGBT : Six gays, une transsexuelle. Aucun français. Ils n’auront sans doute pas estimé utile de faire leur coming out 🙂
Le premier, 227e pourtant sur la liste, est le célèbre producteur américain David Geffen, fondateur des compagnies “Asylum” et “Geffen Records”, l’un des créateurs des célèbres studios “DreamWorks SKG“, spécialisée dans le cinéma, la musique et les programmes télévisés, avec quelques participations dans la marque Apple. Il est à 71 ans à la tête d’une fortune estimée à plus de 6 milliards de dollars. Un bon parti en effet.
Au second rang, le cofondateur de PayPal, Peter Thiel, 46 ans. Depuis le rachat du service de paiement en ligne par la société eBay en 2002, soit deux ans après sa création, et pour 1,5 milliard de dollars US, et des placements dans Facebook, Peter Thiel cumule quelques 2,2 milliards de dollars. Une fantaisie 😉
A la troisième place, et à la tête d’un fond d’investissements, Jennifer Natalya Pritzker, qui faisait déjà son apparition dans le magazine comme “l’une des 48 femmes” du classement 2013.
Précédemment connue comme le “lieutenant-colonel James Pritzker”, de la 82ème division aéroportée de l’armée des Etats-Unis, issue d’une richissime famille juive de l’Illinois, et héritière des hôtels de grand luxe de la chaîne internationale Hyatt, Jennifer est la première “transsexuelle milliardaire” avec 1,8 milliard de dollars. Respect !
Pour le couple de stylistes italien, Domenico Dolce, 56 ans, et Stefano Gabbana, 51 ans, propriétaires de la célèbre griffe milanaise spécialisée dans la mode de luxe, qui suivent dans la liste, le magazine annonce le chiffre “ridiculement désirable” de 1,65 milliard de dollars, pour chacun.
En 2005, leur chiffre d’affaires atteignait les 597 millions d’euros alors qu’ils annonçaient leur séparation amoureuse. Vie privée et professionnelle ne font pas bon ménage ? Bien sage aura donc été la décision de ne pas mettre un terme à leur collaboration artistique.
Michael Kors, véritable ponte également de la mode, et patron de la marque américaine de prêt-à-porter féminin du même nom, figure aussi dans le classement avec une fortune estimée à 1 milliard. Bien que décrié par son équivalent italien, “Roberto Cavalli“, qui l’a accusé de plagiat il y a quelques semaines, le très apprécié designer américain, milite pour une mode qui fait la part belle à la diversité. Et, plus de trois décennies après la fondation de sa société, dont il est toujours lui-même l’égérie, Kors est une véritable icône du mode de vie jet-set, élevé au rang de vedette.
Enfin, le 6e sur cette très prestigieuse liste, l’équipementier médical, Jon Stryker. Petit-fils d’Homère Hartmen Stryker, chirurgien, inventeur du lit d’hôpital mobile, et fondateur de la société “Stryker Corporation “, la fortune de Jon Stryker est évaluée à 1,6 milliard de dollars. C’est l’un des plus importants donateurs pour les associations de lutte en faveur des droits des LGBT, et un activiste forcené de la cause environnementale aux États-Unis.
A qui le tour ? 🙂
Terrence Katchadourian
@stop_homophobie
>> 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.
With a combined net worth of nearly $16 billion, the select group of LGBT ten-figure fortunes includes media mogul David Geffen, PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel and Hyatt hotel beneficiary Jennifer Pritzker, one of the Pritzker family’s 11 billionaires.
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.
