Despite the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States (U.S.) and an increasing number of out gay and lesbian business leaders, we have little knowledge of the role played by leaders’ same-sex sexual orientation in the leadership process. To fill this important research void, we drew from a recent theoretical model on leaders’ sexual orientation and conducted four experimental studies designed to test and retest whether leaders’ same-sex sexual orientation affects followers’ leadership perceptions and conformity to influence attempts, and how the intersectionality of leaders’ same-sex sexual orientation with leaders’ gender orientation and follower characteristics may modify the influences of leaders’ same-sex sexual orientation on the follower outcomes. Based on over 2,100 working adults in the U.S., the results of the four studies, where leaders were depicted as charismatic, indicate that leaders’ same-sex sexual orientation could have negative impacts on the follower outcomes. However, same-sex sexual orientation leaders did not suffer double stigma penalization by having additional marginalized identities (e.g., also being women). Female followers were more supportive of same-sex sexual orientation leaders than male followers. Our research advances knowledge of and responds to calls for more research attention to leader sexual orientation in the leadership process. Research and practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

尽管美国（US）同性婚姻合法化以及越来越多的同性恋商业领袖，但我们对领导者的同性性取向在领导过程中所起的作用知之甚少。为了填补这一重要的研究空白，我们借鉴了最近关于领导者性取向的理论模型，并进行了四项实验研究，旨在测试和重新测试领导者的同性性取向是否会影响追随者的领导观念和对影响尝试的顺从，以及如何领导者的同性性取向与领导者的性别取向和追随者特征的交叉性可能会改变领导者的同性性取向对追随者结果的影响。基于美国超过 2,100 名在职成年人，四项研究的结果表明，领导者的同性性取向可能会对追随者的结果产生负面影响。然而，同性性取向领袖并没有因拥有额外的边缘化身份（例如，也是女性）而遭受双重耻辱惩罚。女性追随者比男性追随者更支持同性性取向领袖。我们的研究推进了对领导过程中对领导性取向的更多研究关注的呼吁，并响应了呼吁。