“I came across a piece of testimony and thought, ‘Well, that’s not what I expected!'”
As a teenager in small village, Sergio Matos never imagined how another person’s story would shape his own.
I come from a small village, and when I was 17, I bought a magazine that featured Microsoft as one of the best companies to work for. And I remember reading it and thinking, “Oh, I’ll never get there.”
But I did! And when I started at the company, I was overwhelmed with the amount of internal information about the culture, volunteer programs, and emphasis on diversity and inclusion. I came across a piece of testimony from a person who began their gender transition while working at Microsoft, and I thought, “Well, that’s not what I expected!”
Because of that employee’s story, I felt support from Microsoft’s culture and decided it was time for me to come out. Had I worked at another company, maybe I wouldn’t have done it yet, but Microsoft was different.
This past year, Microsoft was the first company to have a float in Lisbon’s Pride parade, an effort I helped lead. Our LGBTQI+ employee chapter now has around 30 members, and we hope many more to come!—Sergio Matos, from Santiago do Cacém, Portugal
