When the New York Times published a cartoon last month depicting Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin as passionate lovers, it prompted backlash from critics who called the animated short homophobic for relying on anti-gay tropes. But the cartoon also intensified simmering tensions within the Times, according to employees of the media company who wish to remain anonymous. Those tensions culminated in a meeting on August 1 between the Times staff union’s diversity committee and the paper’s increasingly polarizing opinion department under the leadership of James Bennet, in which the diversity committee presented a strongly worded list of demands regarding how to address the controversy.

The cartoon published in July was part of a series called “Trump Bites,” in which Trump’s inner world is illustrated against the backdrop of real presidential quotes for narration. It depicted Trump and Putin as obsessed teen lovers, complete with plenty of frolicking, wistful glances, and, unfortunately for us all, an excruciatingly detailed make out session. The cartoon was fiercely and swiftly decried on social media, but Times staffers (who must abide by the company’s strict social media guidelines) were largely left expressing their disapproval offline. That disapproval finally culminated in a letter presented to the opinion desk last week.

The letter had three demands, according to a paper provided to them. by the New York Times News Guild today. It asked that the opinion department acknowledge that the cartoon was homophobic in content and tone, that the department hold a forum for staff to discuss it, and that the department conduct a postmortem review of its production process, with results made available to Times staff.

According to Times staff, the August 1 meeting included members of the diversity committee, a selection of non-guild Times employees, an organizer from the guild’s local LGBTQ+ caucus, three opinion editors — Jim Dao, Katie Kingsbury, and Adam Ellick — and Andrew Gutterman, the Times’ senior vice president of labor relations.

“Because the News Guild stands for equality and fair treatment and supports an inclusive workplace where everyone can feel comfortable, we have been working on an issue our members have brought to our attention: It concerns a video animation by Bill Plympton that was presented by the Opinion Department,” the diversity committee letter reads.

“The video drew criticism inside and outside The Times for the way it portrayed the two men. Several LGBTQ employees of The Times saw the video as a sign of disrespect and homophobia,” it continues. Ultimately, according to the paper, the guild thanked the editors for their willingness to engage, but says there was a disagreement after the meeting as to whether or not the video was homophobic.

The paper says neither Bennet nor publisher A.G. Sulzberger were in attendance. Employees were asked to raise the issue with Sulzberger the next day, at a Q&A session that had been scheduled before the cartoon had been published.

But the row over the “Trump Bites” cartoon is merely a flashpoint in a broader conflict between Bennet’s embattled opinion section and Times staffers, who have privately expressed frustration with the direction of the opinion desk since Bennet left the Atlantic and assumed control in 2016.

With a mission of representing a range of voices across the political spectrum, Bennet has onboarded polarizing figures like Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal, who has been criticized for making dubious claims on climate science and for his defense of alleged sexual predator Woody Allen, whom Stephens said was being smeared by the #MeToo movement. Bennet also hired writer Bari Weiss, whose most notable controversy came in February when she referred to Mirai Nagasu, an Asian American figure skater born in California, as an immigrant. Nagasu had recently become the first American female figure skater to land a triple axel at the Olympics.