LGBTQ employees within Google are petitioning San Francisco Pride to kick the company from its official festivities this weekend. “[We] urge you to revoke Googles sponsorship of Pride 2019, and exclude Google from representation in the San Francisco Pride Parade on June 30th, 2019,” reads a Medium post with the full petition. The name includes close to 100 signatures of employees who “are compelled to speak,” despite potential repercussions.
The petition, which is addressed to San Fransisco Prides board of directors, was first reported by Bloomberg. Prior to the petitions public existence, a source told The Verge it was “extremely controversial” within the Gayglers group, but it had already collected dozens of signatures by Tuesday night.
“We do not make this request without serious consideration of the alternatives,” it reads. “We have spent countless hours advocating for our company to improve policies and practices regarding the treatment of LGBTQ+ persons, the depiction of LGBTQ+ persons, and harassment and hate speech directed at LGBTQ+ persons, on YouTube and other Google products. Whenever we press for change, we are told only that the company will take a hard look at these policies. But we are never given a commitment to improve, and when we ask when these improvements will be made, we are always told to be patient.”
The petition also asks that if SF Pride will not remove Google, it “will issue a determination, absent a real change in these policies and practices, and a strong position statement to that effect, that Google will not be permitted to sponsor or be officially represented in future San Francisco Pride celebrations.”
The move is the latest in ongoing unrest from some LGBTQ members of Google following YouTubes decision to allow conservative pundit Steven Crowder to remain on the platform after the repeated homophobic harassment of Vox journalist and video host Carlos Maza. (The Verge is par
