Google to stay in SF Pride parade despite employees’ call to kick it out

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 nearly 100 Google employees to kick the company out.

The employees on Wednesday sent a letter to the Pride’s board in which they also asked that the parade 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.

“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,” Pride organizers said in a press release Wednesday.

They also said Google has been a Pride partner “for a number of years.” The company is listed on the event’s website as an “associate” sponsor. Pride organizers have not returned a request for comment.

The group of Google employees who urged the Pride board to dump Google has not yet returned a request for comment.