My experiences at American Airlines have convinced me that we “get it,” and that aligning our policies and practices in the workplace is how we make it work. Being a global airline means we are in the business of connecting people and cultures. Yet our company will only be successful if the experience we deliver—and the environment we create—is safe, welcoming, and respectful of everyone. As a woman and a lesbian, that speaks directly to me.

Fortunately, American Airlines’ own history matches our good intentions. The airline hired the industry’s first African American flight attendant in 1963 and the first female pilot in 1973. It created a supplier diversity program in the 1980s and multicultural sales teams in the 1990s. Beginning in 1993, American was the first major airline to include sexual orientation in its Equal Employment Opportunity policy, and it added gender identity in 1999. In 1994, the company recognized lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender employees as its first official Employee Resource Group.

My colleagues and I have seen firsthand how these inclusive steps translate into enhanced loyalty and morale. Philosophically, we have always tried to recognize employees as individuals with their own families’ needs, talents, and ambitions. All deserve equal respect and acceptance for the true worth and unique experiences and skills they bring to their jobs. We determined that treating employees like me, living in committed relationships with same-sex partners as a family, rather than as single people, was consistent with that philosophy. So, in 2000, American became the first major airline to extend benefits to the same-sex partners of our employees as we do for married spouses.

What are the upsides? We see a stronger workforce in every sense. We are instilling a more enduring sense of loyalty and commitment and helping to motivate our LGBT employees to be all we can be and to bring our whole identity to work. We never saw this as a special case or privilege, but simply doing the right thing in a business setting that underscores fairness, equity, and inclusion.

For me and millions of Americans like me on the corporate ladder, we are doing all we can to welcome and retain a diverse, loyal, and profitable workforce. Only in that way can we continue to fly as though our business depends on it. And it surely does.