Multiple LGBTQ Google employees are requesting SF Pride to remove Google/Alphabet from sponsoring and participating in SF Pride on June 30th because they have no firm commitment from Google corporate to improve YouTube and other Google products, that instead, they are told to wait, they have also been told that peaceful protests are a violation of Google's code of conduct:
The Verge article about this:
We do not make this request without serious consideration of the alternatives. 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.
We are told to wait. For a large company, perhaps waiting is prudent, but for those whose very right to exist is threatened, we say there is no time to waste, and we have waited too long, already. We are no longer content to wait.
We receive apologies that we may be upset about the policies and practices to which we object, even as we are told that leadership stands by those policies. We are told to wait quietly, while executives state this position in interviews with the press¹.
Even as this discussion was ongoing, we watched and waited as others petitioned you to take the very action we now ask for². When some of our fellow employees expressed concern that they might not be able to march in the parade if such a petition were to succeed, we opened a genuine dialogue, and ultimately together proposed a compromise: to protest from within the contingent, allowing employees to express their disagreement with the company's position, from the parade. But Google has now informed us that this is a violation of our communications policy, a part of the company code of conduct³. They claim the contingent is their official representation, and we may not use their platform to express an opinion that is not their opinion. In short, they rejected any compromise.
The Verge article about this:
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 Fransisco 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.
The Pride controversy is the latest in ongoing unrest from some LGBTQ Google employees, following YouTube's refusal to ban conservative pundit Steven Crowder from the platform after the repeated homophobic harassment of Vox journalist and video host Carlos Maza. (The Verge is part of Vox Media, which also owns Vox.) In addition to spurring a larger conversation around moderation and harassment, some employees feel the company has lost its right to participate in Pride proceedings.
Earlier this week, The Verge reported that Google would not allow its employees to peacefully protest recent policy decisions while marching with the company in any official capacity. Internally, employees were told that any form of protest — including signs or T-shirts — as a representative of Google would violate the company's code of conduct. If employees want to protest, they are allowed to do so on their own.