Parade will include Google despite objections
Employees fail to sway organizers amid YouTube controversy
Calling Google “a considerate partner,” San Francisco Pride parade organizers on Wednesday said the tech giant will participate in this weekend’s parade despite a call from more than a hundred Google employees to kick the company out.
The employees sent a letter to Pride’s board Wednesday in which they also asked that the board revoke Google’s sponsorship of the parade.
“If another official platform, YouTube, allows abuse and hate and discrimination against LGBTQ+ persons, then Pride must not provide the company a platform that paints it in a rainbow veneer of support for those very persons,” the Googlers said in a petition they also posted publicly. Parent company Google has been feeling the heat since YouTube decided not to remove conservative pundit Steven Crowder’s channel after Vox journalist Carlos Meza complained that Crowder was harassing him based on his sexuality and race.
Google confirmed Tuesday that it was urging employees who wanted to protest YouTube’s decision at the parade not to do so with the company’s Pride contingent.
In a news release Wednesday, Prize organizers said, “Google and YouTube can and must do more to elevate and protect the voices of LGBTQ+ creators on their platforms, and we’ve found that Google has been willing to listen to this criticism and is working to develop appropriate policies.”
They also said Google has been a Pride partner “for a number of years.” A company spokeswoman said this week that Google has been participating in Pride for at least 12 years, and the company is listed on the event’s website as an “associate” sponsor this year.
Pride organizers did not return a request for additional comment, but a Google employee who signed the letter said late Wednesday afternoon that organizers have offered to let Googlers who want to protest a chance to march in the “Resistance” contingent at the front of the parade.
“Google has marched in the San Francisco Pride Parade for more than a decade and we are excited to continue the tradition this weekend,” a Google spokesman said Wednesday. “We are grateful for SF Pride’s partnership and leadership.”
In their signed letter, the employees acknowledged that they feared retribution from their employer for going public, especially since Google said this week that protesting under the company’s banner would be a violation of its communications policy.
“Despite these risks, we are compelled to speak,” they said.
One of them, Wyatt Ratliff, told this news organization that to him, “it’s not an option. I’m doing what my heart says to do.” The technical solutions specialist said it was “galling… to allow a bigot to use our platform to spread hate speech, but we’re not allowed to use Google as a platform at (Pride).”
He added that he had dreamed about working for Google for 15 years and finally got a chance to do so two years ago.
“I want to make the company more in line with that dream,” Ratliff said. “I want to make it a better place for everyone.”