Paul Singer and Lloyd Blankfein were
among the Wall Street leaders who appeared Wednesday at the second
annual Out
on the Street LGBT Leadership Conference held at Bank of
America's Manhattan offices.
Blankfein, the chief executive officer
of Goldman Sachs, in February created a stir when he appeared
in a video for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) urging Americans to
support gay marriage.
At the summit, Blankfein discussed
reaction to his involvement in the campaign.
“It was important for our recruiting,
for being able to move people around the world, for a number of
business reasons, and then of course, last but not least, how could
you not be on the side of what seems like a basic civil rights
movement?” BloombergBusinessweek
quoted Blankfein as saying.
He also revealed that while client
reaction was “generally positive,” one client threatened to fire
the firm over his stand. “I won't say the name, but if you heard
the name it wouldn't surprise you,” he teased.
Singer, the founder of hedge-firm
Elliott Management who also played a key role in making marriage
equality a reality in New York, suggested Mitt Romney's anti-gay
rhetoric was all talk.
“I don't think it's going to be a
harsh environment [for gay rights] in a Romney administration,” the
67-year-old Singer said. “It's a process if Mitt Romney is elected
– it's a process of pressure, education.”