To: Jacquelene Bishop, President

and her fellow members

Board of Directors

San Francisco Pride

1841 Market Street, 4th Floor

San Francisco, CA 94103–1112

CC: Lisa Williams, sponsorship sales

sponsorship@sfpride.org

Ms. Bishop, et al.,

We, the undersigned, employees of Google (and related companies YouTube and Alphabet), 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.

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.

We have considered the possibility that our employer will punish us for signing this letter, or that supporters of these very hatemongers will attack us personally, online or otherwise, simply for speaking out against them. Despite these risks, we are compelled to speak.

We feel we have no choice but to urge you to reject Google’s failure to act in support of our community by revoking their sponsorship of Pride, and excluding Google from official representation in the Pride 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. On the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, in a Pride celebration whose very slogan is “Generations of Resistance”, we ask you to join us in resisting LGBTQ+ oppression on the internet, and the subjugation of our right to equality in favor of calculated business concerns. The first Pride was a protest, and so now must this Pride be one.

We know this request comes just a short time before the Pride celebration. But we are tired of waiting, and we hope you are, as well. We ask that, even if you will not consider excluding Google so soon before Pride, that you 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.

We thank you for your consideration, and your time.

Sincerely,

The below Google employees:

Aaron Gable

Abi LaBounty

Adam Campbell

Adrienne Walker

Aidan Holloway-Bidwell

Alan Hwang

Alasdair Mackintosh

Alex Chell

Alex Hanna

Alex Heinz

Alfonso Mejia

Alice Witchfire

Allison K.

Alon Altman

Amanda

Amr Gaber

Andrea Martinelli

Andrew Sherman

Ashley Rose

Becca

Benjamin S Wolf

Brielin Brown

Brock Jackman

Caleb Eggensperger

Cassandra Fox

Chieu Nguyen

Chloe Pelling

Chris Erickson

Christian Biesinger

Christopher Anderson

Colby Jordan

Conrad Parker

Cortney Cassidy

Curtis Steckel

Dan Boger

Dana Anderson

Dana Jansens

Dave Fayram

David Pizzuto

David Reese

Demma Rosa Rodriguez

Devon H. O’Dell

Dionna Glaze

Dustin Zelle

Eddie Grystar

Elijah Soria

Emily Hurdle

Emily Metcalfe

Emma Lea

Eric Lewis

Gabe Benjamin

Gabriel Dulac-Arnold

Gabrielle Anderson

Garrett Maron

Gavin Dodd

Gianni Gambetti

Gordon Barber

Hannah Pascal

Harpo Jaeger

Harrison Shullo

Hayes Neuman

Hazel Troost

Irene Knapp

Irina Dumitrescu

Isaias Suarez

Jacob Morgan

Jacob Reynolds

Jacob Rubenstein

James Buyayo

Jeffrey Yasskin

Jennifer Thakar

Jerrald Kelty Jr.

Jesse Lovelace

Jimmy Ramirez

John Caron

Julia Tufts

Junaedy Liem

Kai Frey

Kaley Main

Kathryn Spiers

Kate Donahue

Kimberly W.

Lauren Tweedie

Laurence Berland

Liza Burakova

Lux Betancourt

Lynne Goerner

Marie Collins

Maris Ryckman

Mark Cogan

Mark Fickett

Marshall Gillson

Matthew Burgess

Matthew Garrett

Matthew Martin

Maxime Tiran

Mayuri Raja

Michael Ryan Walker

Michael Shields

Miguel barreto

Miguel Mendez

Natalie Phillips-Hamblett

natasha tamiru

Nick Stevens-Yu

Nicole Kihara

Nikhil Desai

Nina-Marie Amadeo

Ojas Deshpande

Olga Ustiuzhanina

Oliver Hunt

Owain G. Ainsworth

Patrick Dixon

Paul

Paul Duke

Phillips Mitchell

Pierre-François Laquerre

Rebecca Nickerson

Ricard Sole Casas

RW

Sam Phippen

Sasha Ayvaziv

Scotty Tucker

Sean Risser

Seth Troisi

Sheena Hillier

Sophie Schmieg

Stephanie Parker

Steve Robertson

Steven Bills

Theodore Dubois

Todd Eisenberger

Tony Shih

Troy Deck

Veronica Benson-Moore

Viet-Tam Luu

Vladimir Yakunin

Wesley Aptekar-Cassels

Will Hayworth

Wyatt Ratliff

Xavid Pretzer

Xiao Yu Zhu

Yash Sekhon

Yuzu Saijo

Zie Weaver

Zora Tung

We will update with additional signatures if more Googlers choose to sign after this open letter is published

(last signature update: 201906290425 count: 145)

Find us on Twitter: @NoPrideForGoog

—

[1] https://www.cnet.com/news/youtube-ceo-apologizes-to-lgbt-community-for-hurtful-decision/ https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/6/11/18660779/youtube-ceo-susan-wojcicki-code-conference-peter-kafka-interview-transcript-maza-crowder-lgbtq

[2] https://hoodline.com/2019/06/sf-pride-considers-excluding-google-from-parade-over-homophobic-harassment-on-youtube

[3] https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct/