Richter owns two successful construction companies in the Chicago area. The architect started his own practice and Díaz-Fañas founded Queer Advocacy and Knowledge Exchange (Qu-AKE), one of the first construction industry groups in the U.S. for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) workers. He also moved to a more inclusive workplace, at WSP, where he thrives as an award-winning senior technical principal. Despite advances, LGBTQ+ employees can still be legally fired or discriminated against in 29 states. “The construction industry still is fraught with lots of folks that do not accept other people,” says Davoren. “But if we are the leaders and catalysts, and we use active caring in the process, eventually cultures change. We are seeing impacts of those changes by the employees that we hire and the employees that are working with us who say we’re heading in the right direction.”
https://www.enr.com/articles/48305-after-years-of-antipathy-construction-puts-out-welcome-mat-for-lgbtq-workers