James Costos – US
Ambassador to Spain
Video Transcript
Juan Pedro Moreno: Good
afternoon everyone. Thank you for
coming. As part of your session in
Madrid to recognise the LGBT group
here, I’m very proud to introduce to
you our honour guest, Ambassador
Costos, from the US. For this group,
I think this is particularly relevant
because Ambassador Costos
represents, as a member of the
LGBT group as well, a career which
is very remarkable and I think it
could be very telling for all of you
that, as part of the LGBT group of
Accenture, and as part, more
importantly, of our more promising
leaders within Accenture, you could
see that both things are absolutely
compatible in an organisation like
us, like in the case of Ambassador
Costos. So I’m absolutely delighted
and very proud to have the
opportunity to have here
Ambassador Costos. I mean, his
friendship with Accenture and
personally with me is something for
which I need to thank you, Mr
Costos, and also on behalf of
Accenture, I really welcome you.
This is the first and hopefully not the
last time you join us.
Around 50 or 60 people are coming
from different parts of Europe, Latin
America and Africa. They are part of
our LGBT group and, as I said, are
part of our most promising
professionals within Accenture. So,
the fun is yours. Thank you very
much.
James Costos: Muchas gracias. I
want, Juan Pedro, to thank you for
the invitation to be here today. It’s a
huge honour to be here in front of all
of you to talk about my experiences,
in the most humble way, but it’s an
honour to be at one of the world’s
most diverse, inclusive and
innovative companies to speak with
you today. So you should all be so
proud, I’m sure you are, but
welcome to Madrid. Those of you
that are visiting, you’re in a great
place. So make sure you get out of
this office and go see what’s going
on because it’s incredibly dynamic
and I’m just very proud to be here in
almost the 3 years that I’ve been the
Ambassador.
Equality in the workplace is not only
the right thing to do, it’s a good thing
to do. That’s why 91% of the
Fortune 500 companies already
prohibit discrimination based on
sexual orientation and 61% already
prohibit discrimination based on
The day that I received the phone
gender identity. And it’s not just
call from President Obama asking
about doing the right thing, it’s also
me to serve as the US Ambassador about attracting and retaining the
to Spain, was one of the proudest
best talent. But regardless of
days of my life because, of course
whether the company will make
it’s a great honour to serve my
more profit, improve its productivity,
President, whom I truly admire, and
enhance its image with its
my country that I profoundly love, but consumers or achieve any other
it’s also because my nomination,
benefits, discrimination is both
along with that of 6 other
illegal and morally wrong.
Ambassadors, openly gay
Ambassadors, told the world that the No employees should suffer
United States is committed to
discrimination where they work. You
advocating for full equality for the
know, 60 years ago, America was a
LGBT Community. And it sent also
very different nation. But even still
an unmistakable message that the
today, we have much to learn from
United States is committed to
the struggles and perseverance that
advocating for full equality for the
characterise the leaders of our civil
LGBT Community around the world. rights movement. Indeed so much to
You know, America is built on the
learn that President Obama has
belief that if you work hard and you
drawn a parallel between America’s
take risks and overcome failure, you historic battle against race
can succeed. That is in fact my story. discrimination and the movement for
marriage equality in the United
I grew up in a middle-class family in States. And the parallels are
Lowell, Massachusetts. My
striking, especially if you consider
grandparents emigrated from
recent cultural shifts in public
Greece to build a new life and a
opinion and decisions by the United
better life in America. My parents,
States’ Supreme Court. On June 26
my father was a marine, instilled in
2015, last year, I was particularly
my family and my sisters the values proud to be an American when, in
of hard work, self-reliance and
my country, we took another step
service. We learned that workers
forward, when the United States’
should be judged by only one thing: Supreme Court reaffirmed one of
their ability to get the job done.
our most basic ideals: that all
Unfortunately, some Americans go
Americans are equal under the law.
to work every day feeling they could The right to marry is now a
lose their jobs – not because of
fundamental right for the first time in
anything they do at work, but simply American history. As President
because of who they are or whom
Obama said, “this court decision is
they love. No current federal US law the consequence of countless small
fully protects LGBT workers from
acts of courage of those who stood
employment discrimination, which is up, those who came out and those
contrary to our American values.
who loved their children no matter
That’s why President Obama, in
what. Together, we slowly made an
2014, signed an executive order
entire country realise that love is
prohibiting federal contractors from
love”. And as a result, there’s a
discriminating against LGBT
tremendous amount of advocacy
employees and prohibiting
and momentum continuing on this
discrimination based upon gender
issue in the United States. And we
identity in federal employment.
all bring that same commitment, and
we should bring that same
commitment to our work abroad, in
whatever country that you live.
Advocating for LGBT rights around
the world is an important part of
American foreign policy. It’s strange,
I mean while to some this may seem
and look like something new – it’s
really just a continuation of a long
American tradition of fighting for
human rights and freedom for all.
Since my arrival in Spain, almost 3
years ago, I’ve met with countless
members of the Spanish LGBT
Community. I’ve worked with many
of them to build on their advocacy
efforts and demonstrate the United
States’ commitment to promoting
LGBT equality. And I’m proud to
offer moral support to their
advocacy efforts, use my good
offices to help spotlight their issues,
and connect them to global
advocacy of work being done by
groups such as the human rights
campaign, under the leadership of
my dear friend, Chad Griffin. And
I’ve also learned a lot from them. In
many ways, Spain leads the world in
recognising LGBT individuals. Spain
tops the list of the 40 most accepting
countries of homosexuality and 88%
of Spaniards say that homosexuality
is acceptable. Spain also legalised
the adoption of children by samesex couples, it legalised civil
registration of transgender people,
and 10 years ago, Spain led the way
for others legalising same-sex
marriage. With all of that, despite
broad social acceptance and
progressive laws, LGBT
discrimination still exists in Spain.
Many Spanish LGBT members have
shared with me their concerns about
bullying in schools, hate crimes and
inequality in the workplace. One
said to me, “while we’ve seen lots of
superficial change, there is still a
glass ceiling for many LGBT
members of the Community”. He
summed it up by saying,
“unfortunately, the law is ahead of
society”.
So, with that, it leads me to my final
key message. As we rightly
celebrate with pride and I applaud
the successes that each one of you
have achieved in support of
fundamental human rights, we can
never be complacent in the face of
bigotry and prejudice that still exists.
Although in many ways the Unites
States has much to learn from
Spain’s example, there is strength to
be drawn in exchanging
experiences. That’s why all of you
are here today and working hand-inhand to promote our shared values
around the world, wherever you live
and wherever you work.
come as the US Ambassador to
Spain, I encouraged him because
his organisation that he had
assumed, surely before my
appointment, was purely a domestic
organisation. And I hosted Chad at
my house for an event right before I
left, and I publically made a
statement that his organisation
should be global. And I kind of
spilled the beans because
apparently they had all been talking
about it and now they have
launched a global initiative. I talked
to Chad about the fact that
domestically there is the HRC index
So, I leave you with one final quote
that companies voluntarily live up to
from my President, and I join him,
and they’re ranked very high - as I
‘We believe in human dignity that
mentioned in my remarks, it’s an
every person is created equal no
incredible thing to do in the sense
matter who you are or what you look that you’re sending a very clear
like or who you love or where you
message of what your company
come from”. So, with that, I thank
stands for in terms of equality and
you for this incredible opportunity to inequality issues in the workplace.
share a little bit of my story and it’s
But it’s interesting that when I came
an honour to be here in front of all of here, I found that a lot of the
you today. Thank you so much.
American multinationals don’t live
up to that same expectation once
So I hear that we could, after a
they leave the borders of the United
couple of questions, have an
States, and a lot of them are here,
opportunity to meet and mix a little
unlike yours, they don’t do that. This
bit and hear briefly from some of you is why I encouraged Chad prior to
what you’re doing, where you’re from my departure that he needs to focus
and perhaps some of the challenges on that and that’s what they’re
that you’re facing, and obviously
doing. So we need to encourage,
some of the incredible home runs
and you should encourage your
that you’ve all hit. So, once again, I
friends who work at multinational
wish you all the best and thank you
companies that they should
for giving me this opportunity and
voluntarily be trying to take this HRC
thanks for your leadership.
index and apply it. If they’re doing it
in the US, there’s no reason why
What do you believe is the role of they can’t do it at home. So, we
large organisations, like
need to work together, we need to
Accenture, in promoting change
share ideas, we need to go back to
for the LGBT Community?
the countries that you’re all posted
in and talk to your colleagues and
Well, you know, obviously this is a
your friends who work at other
global company, all of you are from a companies, and share the fact that
particular region, and of course the
these things exist. So, it is a
company is even broader, where
dialogue, it is a conversation, and
some members are not present
that’s where it starts.
today. As I said, I think it’s an
exchange of ideas. There are a
Do you have a partner? How is
tremendous amount of resources
your relationship perceived in
that exist, particularly in my country - Spain?
as I mentioned my friend Chad
Griffin at HRC. When I told Chad I
That’s a very good question. So, my
was appointed by the President to
partner, Michael Smith, and I have
been together for 16 years. He’s
with me for 5 or 6 days a month
because he still has his business
back in the US, so we don’t live
together full-time but he’s an integral
part of what I do here in Spain. And,
based upon that relationship and the
power of my office as the US
Ambassador, Michael received all of
the privileges of a straight spouse,
that the Spanish people didn’t know
what to do with because he had to
be received by the King and the
Queen and the President and the
ministers, and there was a lot of
kerfuffle about protocol of how it
was all going to be done. But
Michael is incredibly charming and
he adds a lot to my mission. But the
press speculated upon our arrival –
that we were coming, that I was the
gay Ambassador, I was the
vegetarian Ambassador, and that I
was the Hollywood Ambassador
because I worked at HBO. But I
thought: no - I’m just the
Ambassador and these are some of
the things that define me. But in fact
that question is so relevant because
so many people have come up to us
to say that in the past, they have
never been received by some of the
people that received us. And we
were able to break that glass ceiling
for them, that they were now
received in the circles of protocol
that didn’t exist before. You know, I
would meet them and they would
say that they would be invited alone,
that their partner or spouse wasn’t
invited. And that has changed. So,
just being here has changed that
dynamic. In silence, we didn’t say it,
they had to figure it out and they
willingly did and I was very proud to
see that they made these
accommodations, which are not
accommodations, this is the way it
should be. And that did affect
change for others. So, thank for you
asking that question, it’s actually
quite relevant. Thank you.
What’s next for you after your
role as US Ambassador to Spain?
Well, I mean, a little bit of
background. It’s something I need to
think about but I’m not ethnically
allowed to actually do anything about
it because I’m still employed by the
government. Just for those of you
who are coming from different
countries, the way that it works in the
United States, and a few other
countries, is that the President of the
US gets to choose what’s called a
political appointee, someone who
does not come through the ranks of
the foreign service of the US, they
are from the private sector, they are
picked for reasons based upon the
relationship they have with the
president and what he thinks they
can do in the country that they’re
appointed to.
I work for one of the most prestigious
organisations in the world, the US
foreign services, and with some of
the smartest people I’ve ever worked
with. So I come in with a different set
of skills. There are a lot of things I
don’t know. I arrived in Spain 3 years
ago and what we say is you kind of
parachute into this experience and
there are 375 smiling faces who are
looking to you for leadership and you
really don’t know too much about
what you’re supposed to do. One of
my trusted advisors, Anton Smith, is
standing in the backroom quite
humbly, who has been such an
incredible advisor to me and I
wouldn’t be standing here today if it
weren’t for his outreach to the
community and the economic
community and the business
community that inspired me to try to
do so much more.
Everything I’ve done in the past has
prepared me for this. There are so
many stories of people I’ve met
along the way, people who have
made an impact in my life…every
relationship counted. And I knew that
from a young age, as I said growing
up, that our parents instilled that
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value of appreciation and that has
served me well and that’s what led
me here.
So, I’ve worked in the private sector
all my life and I was proud of
everything I’ve ever done. I was
proud of the brands or the
companies that I worked for. I was
always philanthropic and I always
did my part to try to help others but I
never worked at helping other
people – that was not what my job
was.
So I’m at a crossroad because in 10
months, on January 21 2017, when
my president goes I go with them, I
have to figure out the way that I can
go back into the private sector and
still have this incredible ability to
serve other people, that the things
that I do, as simple as they are, can
affect change in people’s lives. So
what that means in the future is yet
to be told. I think companies like
yours that are committed to
innovation, change, diversity,
consulting and what you do to
empower companies that help other
people are incredible examples of
that. So, I’m still finding my way but
it’s always served me well. I’ve
always run that way. I’ve always
done the best I could at whatever
that was in front of me. And that has
always served me well. So, I’m
excited to see what happens in
2017. And I could be in any of your
countries, I’m moving around with
some international companies. So,
tell me about your countries, let me
know what’s going on.
Juan Pedro Moreno: Don’t forget
that Accenture is a very good
employer, so just in case you are
interested, you will always be
welcome in Accenture. Thank you
very much.