The left always eats itself.
LGBTQ employees within Google are petitioning San Francisco Pride to kick the company from its official festivities this weekend. “[We] urge you to revoke Google’s 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, posted to the site on Tuesday. The name includes close to 100 signatures of employees who “are compelled to speak,” despite potential repercussions.
The petition, which is addressed to San Francisco Pride’s board of directors, was first reported by Bloomberg . Prior to the petition’s 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 does 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.”
In a response given to The Verge on Wednesday, SF Pride said it will not remove Google from its celebrations. “As we commemorate the roots of our movement in resistance, we also understand that San Francisco Pride has become synonymous with the values of inclusion and acceptance,” the statement reads. “In the spirit of community and growth, we confirm Google as a continued participant in the 2019 SF Pride Parade. Together as a community we will continue our progress, and together we will protect our hard-won civil rights victories.”