When Chely Wright came out of the closet in 2010, revealing to Nashville and to millions of country fans that she was gay, that emergence put her in a position to become a spokesperson and activist on behalf of the LGBTQ community, as someone middle America had known, trusted and sung along with. Now, in 2025, she’s doing a different kind of coming out — as a corporate person, who’s at least temporarily setting aside music, and the platform that comes with it, to take a senior executive gig with ISS, a company that has 320,000 employees around the world. Does that make her a sellout? Far from it, if you dig down to what Wright has already been able to accomplish in six months on the job as ISS’ Senior VP of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and New Market Growth for North America.
The former country star is bringing the same sensitivity and ethics she had as a recording artist and public role model to her responsibilities in the private sector, looking to build on what she says the 125-year old corporation was already doing in the areas of (dare we say it?) diversity, equity and inclusion, which she maintains is vital as a national and international business model, and not just good for goodness’ sake (though there’s that, too). As Pride Month wraps up, Variety presents a conversation with Wright that touches on her experience coming out and whether she thinks the world has gotten better or worse for queer people in the interim. As for the rather severe career.
