Thank you, Jerry Davich and The Times of Northwest Indiana! You are such a beautiful and essential voice in our community. I’m unbelievably grateful for the way you’ve told my story, so authentically and so inclusively. I’ve never really been able to share this perspective in such an honest way.
I hope readers – whether LGBTQIA+ or not – find hope and inspiration in this to be their most authentic selves in every aspect of living. I grew up in Indiana, and I now find myself in a full circle moment living in Indiana again (just 30+ miles from downtown Chicago). I don’t know that I would have ever envisioned a future where all of my worlds converged in such a lovely and elegant way.
Thank you again, Suki Sandhu OBE and INvolve – The Inclusion People, for the recognition and the platform that is allowing these stories to be told. And my forever gratitude to the Legal Marketing Association for all that community has brought to my life and career: friends, opportunities, visibility, joy, affirmation.
A Hoosier kid’s journey from self-doubt to LGBTQ+ leadership in the workplace
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By Jerry Davich, The Times of Northwest Indiana Metro Columnist
As a boy, Roy Sexton dreamed of becoming Han Solo or Batman.
Growing up in a small Indiana town in the 1980s and 1990s, he had no idea one day he’d become something else entirely: an openly gay corporate executive, nationally recognized for helping others feel comfortable being themselves.
Then again, the young Roy wasn’t even sure being openly gay in the workforce was on the business table.
“In my teen and college years, I didn’t think being gay was an option,” said Sexton, of St. John. “I didn’t have the language or the role models to understand what my heart felt.”
As an only child growing up in the Hoosier heartland, he was afraid to discuss what he was thinking or feeling, worried he would be misunderstood or rejected. It’s a sadly common obstacle in the LGBTQ+ community, at any age. But especially for youths struggling to find their true identity.
So Sexton immersed himself in academics, extracurricular activities and student government. He measured his worth through straight A’s — pun unintended, he joked — and being well-liked by everyone around him.
Looking back, he recognizes that constantly trying to prove himself wasn’t necessarily the healthiest approach. But it also helped shape the ambitious, accomplished working professional he eventually became.
Today, Sexton is chief marketing officer at Vedder, a global business law firm, and a four-time consecutive honoree on INvolve’s Outstanding 100 LGBTQ+ Executives Role Model List, recognizing influential leaders whose everyday leadership helps foster more inclusive workplaces.
The recognition is significant in a corporate environment where openly LGBTQ+ executives remain relatively uncommon. I know too many people who remain closeted as working professionals out of fear, possible consequences or decades of lifestyle habit.
Sexton’s journey has been anything but conventional
He earned a master’s degree in theater, talked his way into a consulting job, spent more than a decade in health care strategic planning and eventually pivoted into law firm marketing and business development.
“On paper, my professional life makes zero sense,” he said. “But it has worked for me because it has always — at some level — been a grand adventure.”
Sexton’s personal life took considerably longer to find its footing. When he met the man who would eventually become his husband in his late 20s, something finally clicked.
“I saw someone who loved me for me, who didn’t need me to put on a show for anyone and, in fact, saw right through the show and what it was doing to me,” Sexton said.
But even after becoming comfortable being openly gay, Sexton discovered that some of his childhood insecurities had followed him into adulthood. Years ago, while working with an executive coach, he confessed he felt an almost constant need to get everything right for fear of being rejected because of one aspect of his identity.
Her response stopped him cold: “You’re out with everyone. They love you. You are doing well. Do you really think you still need to try so hard?”
“For once, I had no words,” Sexton recalled.
He’s still working on that tendency, he admitted. Perhaps that’s why he still identifies with those childhood superheroes.
“So maybe I do have more in common with Han Solo and Batman at this age than I ever would have predicted,” he said. “Good-hearted iconoclasts with a bit of a chip on their shoulders, still hustling to make the world a better place than they found it.”
A different kind of visibility
Sexton doesn’t believe he needs to plant a Pride flag everywhere he goes. But he also sees no reason to hide who he is.
“I’m not totally sure I belong anywhere … except in front of the television with a stack of comic books, eating a bowl of Cap’n Crunch with dogs in my lap,” he joked.
After spending so many years struggling to understand and express his identity, Sexton recognizes the importance of visibility for younger LGBTQ+ people who might be experiencing the same uncertainty.
“I think people who are in the shoes I wore once deserve to see folks like me … living life comfortably and freely,” he said.
That responsibility became particularly apparent in 2023, when he served as international president of the Legal Marketing Association. At a time when the LGBTQ+ community was facing increasing hostility, Sexton realized his position offered an opportunity to make others feel more comfortable being themselves.
This message extends well beyond sexual orientation or gender identity.
“Anyone who has felt ‘othered’ or ‘on the margins’ sees somebody in a role like that, speaking candidly, standing up for others, holding space for all … and they breathe just a little easier,” he said.
For Sexton, inclusion isn’t simply about workplace policies or corporate initiatives. It’s about creating an environment where people don’t have to spend their energy worrying about whether they belong.
The phrase “professional legacy” makes Sexton’s “teeth itch,” he said. But his answer eventually circles back to something much more personal than professional recognition.
“I can still feel the sting of what it was like to be left out of a lunch circle or birthday party or kickball team in grade school and junior high,” he said. “I can still feel that feeling so viscerally that I never want anyone else to feel that.”
That memory, more than any award or executive title, helps explain what motivates him today.
“I just hope, truly, that whatever I’ve been doing has helped carve a path for young professionals to bring their whole selves to work,” Sexton said.
If even a handful of people feel more comfortable being themselves because of his visibility, he considers that worthwhile. And somewhere, perhaps, that young Indiana kid who dreamed of being Han Solo or Batman might finally recognize the hero he grew up to become.
Contact Jerry at Jerry.Davich@nwi.com. Find him on Facebook and other socials. Opinions are those of the writer.
