Tag Archives: Google

American Airlines and Others Companies Under Fire For Donating to Anti-LGBT Republicans

American Airlines and Others Companies Under Fire For Donating to Anti-LGBT Republicans

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A new social media campaign called Zero for Zeros is taking on the hypocrisy of American Airlines, Google, Facebook and other companies whose PACs have donated to anti-gay Republican lawmakers .

Take for example Republican Senator Ted Cruz who has received campaign contributions in the amounts of $18,500 from Google, $16,000 from American Airlines, $15,000 from Microsoft and $2,000 from Amazon since 2012, according to Federal Election Commission records.

“These companies are some of the most well-known companies throughout the world and they support LGBT equality in many ways,” Lane Hudson, Zero for Zeros campaign manager, said in a statement. “Their political contributions to the most anti-gay members of Congress do not reflect the values they have expressed to their employees and the public.”

All five of the companies mentioned above have received a score of 100 on the useless 2019 Human Rights Campaign Foundation Corporate Equality Index, which rates workplaces on LGBT equality. The Zero for Zeros campaign argues that given their high scores and apparent sensitivity to such issues, they should stop donating to lawmakers who don’t strongly support LGBT rights.

Anti-gay GOP Reps. Bill Flores, Pete Olson, Randy Weber, Brian Babin and racist extremist Louie Gohmert. have also received donations from PACs for American, AT&T, Microsoft, Amazon or other major employers.

Gohmert, the worst of the bunch has received $10,500 from American Airlines, $32,000 from AT&T, $7,000 from Microsoft and $4,000 from UPS since 2005.

GOOGLE Finally Pulls “Ex-Gay Therapy” App After Immense Pressure

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Tech giant Google has finally pulled a controversial app from its store that championed the widely-condemned practice of “ex-gay therapy.”

Via Press Release from Change.org.


The move comes after 140,000 people signed a Change.org petition pressuring Google to pull the app, as well as a move by HRC (Human Rights Campaign) to suspend Google from its Corporate Equality Index over the app. The app was created by Living Hope Ministries and touted the practice of “ex-gay therapy” to “cure” LGBTQ people, telling users that it could “help homosexuals leave their destructive lifestyle” and suggested that homosexuality was a “stomach-ulcer-of-a-life.”


“This is what people power looks like, when 140,000 people can convince one of the largest companies in the world to take a bold stand against the dangers of ex-gay therapy,” said Michael Jones, Managing Director of Campaigns at Change.org. “This was the perfect storm of online pressure and institutional activism from the LGBTQ movement, and tonight supporters can claim a big win in convincing tech companies to stand up for equality.”


Amazon, Microsoft and Apple had all previously removed the Living Hope Ministries app from their platform

In a statement from Google read: “After consulting with outside advocacy groups, reviewing our policies, and making sure we had a thorough understanding of the app and its relation to conversion therapy, we’ve decided to remove it from the Play Store, consistent with other app stores.”

While this is a victory for the LGBT community, just a few days ago Back2Stonewall exposed that Google had appointed Kay Cole James, the president of the anti-LGBT, anti-immigration extremist right-wing group The Heritage Foundation to a position to its Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC).

Google did not respond to numerous attempts for a comment.

Google Appoints Right-Wing Extremist Heritage Foundation President To It's Advisory Council

GOOGLE Appoints Right-Wing Extremist Heritage Foundation President To It’s Advisory Council

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Google has appointed the Kay Cole James, the president of the extremist right-wing group The Heritage Foundation to a position on its Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC).

“Last June we announced Google’s AI Principles, an ethical charter to guide the responsible development and use of AI in our research and products. To complement the internal governance structure and processes that help us implement the principles, we’ve established an Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC). This group will consider some of Google’s most complex challenges that arise under our AI Principles, like facial recognition and fairness in machine learning, providing diverse perspectives to inform our work. We look forward to engaging with ATEAC members regarding these important issues and are honored to announce the members of the inaugural Council”

Founded in 1973 by Joseph Coors (Coors Brewery), The Heritage Foundation is an extreme anti-immigration, anti-LGBT right wing conservative “think tank” based in Washington, D.C..

The Heritage Foundation has been described as a major influence on the presidential transition of Donald Trump and the Trump administration. The foundation had a powerful say in the staffing of the administration, with CNN noting during the transition that “no other Washington institution has that kind of footprint in the transition.”

Time for a new browser!

And remember. You heard it on Back2Stonewall first!

Google Appoints Right-Wing Extremist Heritage Foundation President To It's Advisory Council

Trans Man Files Lawsuit Against Google, Alleges Company Fired Him For “Pro-Diversity” Posts

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A lawsuit has been filed against Google by former software engineer Tim Chevalier for discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wrongful termination. Chevalier who is transgender claims that Google fired him when he responded with internal posts and memes to racist and sexist encounters within the company.

Chevalier said in a statement to The Verge, “It is a cruel irony that Google attempted to justify firing me by claiming that my social networking posts showed bias against my harassers.” Chevalier, who sufferers PST and is transgender, alleges that his internal posts that defended women of color and marginalized people led directly to his termination in November 2017. He had worked at Google for a little under two years.

“Google’s internal social networking platforms were widely used to belittle and harass women, people of color, LGBTQ employees, and other underrepresented groups,” Chevalier alleged in the lawsuit filed in California state court in San Francisco.

Chevalier claims that his supervisors were critical of his efforts to change the company’s culture, he said in the suit.

“Human Resources explicitly told Chevalier that Google was ending his employment because of his political statements in opposition to the discrimination, harassment, and white supremacy he saw being expressed on Google’s internal messaging systems,” the suit said.

One of the internal memes Chevalier created was inspired by a black Google employee, who wrote in an internal Google Plus post that she was being asked to present her ID badge more often than her white co-workers. If you’re looking for a good and experienced lawyer for your case just visit Amy & Barbara Witherite. A Google employee allegedly responded to the post by noting that asking for ID was just part of the job, Gizmodo reported. Chevalier then made a privilege-denying dude meme using Google’s internal meme generator with the caption, “I have opinions about forms of oppression that don’t affect me.”

Chevalier’s acting manager told him repeatedly he was engaging in too much “social activism”.

In September, Chevalier was called into a meeting by HR and told that a complaint had been made about another post in which he said he would not work with people who shared James Damore’s views.  Darmore authored a 10-page screed condemning the company’s diversity efforts in July of 2017 claiming that men are biologically more predisposed to working in the tech industry than women. Darmore was subsequently fired by the tech giant..

Google spokesperson Gina Scigliano says that in Chevalier’s case Google was enforcing its policy against the promotion of harmful stereotypes. “An important part of our culture is lively debate. But like any workplace, that doesn’t mean anything goes. All employees acknowledge our code of conduct and other workplace policies, under which promoting harmful stereotypes based on race or gender is prohibited” Scigliano says. “This is a very standard expectation that most employers have of their employees. The overwhelming majority of our employees communicate in a way that is consistent with our policies. But when an employee does not, it is something we must take seriously. We always make our decision without any regard to the employee’s political views.”

Tim Chevalier v. Google by Nick Statt on Scribd

Fired GOOGLE Conservative Anti-Diversity Software Engineer: ‘Really, it’s like being gay in the 1950s’

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Fired Google software engineer, James Damore, is saying that a right-wing  conservative and working at the tech behemoth is “like being gay in the 1950s.”

Damore, the author of the controversial anti-diversity memo which he sent around to the entire company, made the comparison in conversation with Business Insider.

He says he was fired for “wrong-think” and that anyone who has conservative viewpoints at Google “are currently marginalized.”

Damore wrote a 10-page memo claiming the gender gap in tech is a due to biological differences between men and women, not discrimination. 

Damore believes he was fired because his views did not match those of the majority at Google.

“There is a dominant ideology at Google, and anyone who dissents against that is either shamed or ostracized. And when it became apparent that I wasn’t backing down to the shame, they had to fire me.”

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the memo violated the company’s Code of Conduct by “advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace.”

Damore’s claim that being conservative is like being gay in the 1950’s has sent  prominent tech journalist Kara Swisher, the executive editor of Recode, who is herself gay in attack mode.

Were you forced into electroshock therapy? No? Were you thrown out of your family? No? Did you lose custody of kids? No? Beaten?” Swisher says, tweeting in response to the story.

Swisher adds that the comparison is rubbish because it misrepresents the severity of the discrimination gay people faced. “It’s like comparing yourself to a political prisoner when you get arrested for jaywalking.”

Damore intends to sue Google for the way he was fired.

Google Appoints Right-Wing Extremist Heritage Foundation President To It's Advisory Council

Google Is Donating $1 Million for a Digital Stonewall Inn Memorial. But Will They Use The Correct History?

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A week ahead of the Stonewall Riots’ 48th. anniversary, Google has announced a $1 million donation to the LGBT Community Center of New York to digitize the story of the Stonewall Riots.

Google made the announcement over the weekend, noting that Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village, is widely recognized as the birthplace of the modern LGBT rights movement. In 1969, the bar was at the center of riots between bar-goers and police who tried to take them to jail. The riots lasted several days.

“The Stonewall Riots were important to the ongoing road to civil rights for LGBT communities around the world — and their message is as resonant and necessary today as it was back then,” wrote William Floyd, Google’s head of external affairs for New York and California, in a blog post Sunday.

The grant will help fund the Center’s project to record stories from the riots, which will be available in a park across the street from Stonewall as well as online.

“These are the stories of transgender women of color who fought back; of queer youth, many of whom were homeless, who bravely refused to be silenced; of the poorest of the LGBTQ community,” Floyd wrote.

The only problem is that much of the history has been forgotten and distorted over the almost 50 years since the riots began. 

Hundreds of people took part in the three nights of the Stonewall riots.  Black, White, Latino, Youth, Adults, Gay, Lesbian  Bi, and even Straight people. Drag Queens. and cross-dressers also took part. (There were very few transgender individuals in 1969 even in such liberal bastions as Greenwich Village)  Also its has always been a point of contention that Sylvia Rivera and Marsha Johnson was there that night at the beginning of the riot.  Many Stonewall veterans say no.  Marsha Johnson herself is quoted as saying that they were not there at the beginning and that she was uptown getting Rivera who was sleeping on a park bench and that they later joined the melee.  Many verified Stonewall veterans have stated that Rivera and Johnson were not there from the beginning.  The only person who ever said they were there was Rivera herself. And many trans activists who believe and repeat the story not because its the  truth but to further their cause. (To be honest many believe it to be the truth because it has been repeated so much)  But with that being said we cannot discount Rivera and Johnson who are two very important people in LGBT history and their real contributions. Their participation in the three nights of rioting should not be overlooked. But it shouldn’t be embellished either.

Read:  The Real History of the Stonewall Riots by clicking this link and learn more. 

OUTRAGE! – Google Sponsors Anti-Gay Kenyan Politician To Attend Its Web Rangers Conference In CA

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google

 

Google has invited anti-gay activist and Kenyan government official Ezekiel Mutua to its Web Rangers conference in Mountain View, California, and is reportedly even sponsoring his passport and visa.

According to a report on abuses of LGBT people from the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA)  in Kenya sexual contact between consenting adults of the same sex is criminalized by four statutes, the most recent from 2003. Prison terms for breaking anti-gay laws can be set at  to years.

Mutua, who is the head of the Kenyan film classification board (KCFB), gained notoriety this year for banning from the country’s servers local band Art Attack’s cover of the Macklemore gay marriage anthem Same Love, saying it “promotes homosexuality” in Kenya, where homosexuality is illegal.

“Kenya must not allow people to become the Sodom and Gomorrah through psychological drive from such content,” said Mutua.

In 2014, Mutua banned Stories of Our Lives, a film about Kenya’s gay community, for “obscenity, explicit scenes of sexual activities and [for promoting] homosexuality, which is contrary to [Kenya’s] national norms and values”.

“Because of my stand on moral values, including the banning of content promoting LGBT and atheists culture in Kenya, someone wrote in a local daily that I will never get a visa to the US,” Mutua wrote in a post, now deleted, on his Facebook page.

“Well, I not only got it but it came on a diplomatic passport and I didn’t even have to go to the embassy for biometrics or pay the visa application fee. It was delivered to my office free of charge thanks to our efficient ministry of foreign affairs and highly courteous US embassy officials. America here we come … TO GOD BE THE GLORY!”

Sources from inside Google say that there is much conflict happening in the company over Mutua’s invitation. With some trying to defend it suggesting that discussions about bullying, especially as it affects teens struggling with nascent sexual identities, could prove helpful. But Mutua’s reputation in Kenya makes that seem highly unlikely.

#NoCarolina: Google Ventures Stops Funding North Carolina Startups Because Of Anti-LGBT Law

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Google Ventures Boycotts North Carolina

Google Ventures will not invest in say North Carolina startups as long as the new anti-gay law that allows discrimination  against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual people remains in place. “I am not comfortable deploying dollars into startups there until the voters there fix this,” Google Ventures CEO Bill Maris wrote in a note to the company’s partners, according to tech website Recode.

It’s a personal issue for Maris, who lived in the state as a neuroscience researcher at Duke University. “I have great faith in the people there and a lot of affinity for the state and its people,” he wrote in an email. “I am hopeful this will be repealed quickly.”

Google Ventures, which manages $2.4 billion, has a history of backing enterprises in biotech and life sciences, fields from which many North Carolina companies are emerging.

Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, and 100 Other Tech Companies Call For Full Federal LGBT Rights and Equality – Full List

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Tech Companies

 

Fed up with the the ongoing RFRA battles a coalition of over 100 major tech industry corporations including: Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Linkedin, Yahoo, Netflix, Intuit, Uber, Salesforce, Cisco Systems, and PayPal has issued a joint statement calling for full federal LGBT anti-discrimination protections.

Joint Statement from Tech Industry Leaders

The values of diversity, fairness and equality are central to our industry. These values fuel creativity and inspiration, and those in turn make the U.S. technology sector the most admired in the world today.

We believe it is critically important to speak out about proposed bills and existing laws that would put the rights of minorities at risk. The transparent and open economy of the future depends on it, and the values of this great nation are at stake.

Religious freedom, inclusion, and diversity can co-exist and everyone including LGBT people and people of faith should be protected under their states’ civil rights laws. No person should have to fear losing their job or be denied service or housing because of who they are or whom they love.

However, right now those values are being called into question in states across the country. In more than twenty states, legislatures are considering legislation that could empower individuals or businesses to discriminate against LGBT people by denying them service if it they felt it violated their religious beliefs.

To ensure no one faces discrimination and ensure everyone preserves their right to live out their faith, we call on all legislatures to add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes to their civil rights laws and to explicitly forbid discrimination or denial of services to anyone.

Anything less will only serve to place barriers between people, create hurdles to creativity and inclusion, and smother the kind of open and transparent society that is necessary to create the jobs of the future. Discrimination is bad for business and that’s why we’ve taken the time to join this joint statement.

Sincerely,

Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce
Max Levchin, CEO, Affirm
Mark Pincus, Chairman, Zynga
Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO, Yelp
Jack Dorsey, CEO, Square
Dick Costolo, CEO, Twitter
Logan Green, CEO, Lyft
Brian Chesky, CEO, Airbnb
Joe Gebbia, CPO, Airbnb
Nathan Blecharczyk, CTO, Airbnb
Ron Conway, Founder, SV Angel
John Donahoe, CEO, Ebay
Paul Graham, CoFounder, YCombinator
Rich Barton, Chairman, Zillow Group
Chad Hurley, CEO, Mixbit
Adora Cheung, CEO, Homejoy
Phil Libin, CEO, Evernote
Trevor Traina, CEO, IfOnly
Nirav Tolia, CEO, Nextdoor
Dion Lim, CEO, NextLesson
Bret Taylor, CEO, Quip
Joe Lonsdale, Managing Partner, Formation 8
Thomas Layton, Chairman, Elance-odesk
Fabio Rosati, CEO, Elance-odesk
Dave Morin, CEO, Path
Mark Goldstein, Chairman, BackOps
Kevin Rose, CEO, North Technologies
Yves Behar, CCO, Jawbone
Padmasree Warrior, CTSO, Cisco Systems
Tony Conrad, CEO, about.me
Sunil Paul, CEO, Sidecar
Michael Moritz, Chairman, Sequoia Capital
Dan Schulman, President, PayPal
Devin Wenig, President, eBay Marketplaces
Robert Hohman, CEO, Glassdoor
Laurene Powell Jobs, Founder and Chair, Emerson Collective
Mohan Warrior, CEO, Alphalight
David Spector, CEO, ThirdLove
Shervin Pishevar, CoFounder, Sherpa Ventures
David Karp, CEO, Tumblr
Reid Hoffman, Chairman, Linkedin
Kevin Ryan, Chairman, Gilt
Michael Birch, CoFounder, Bebo
Hosain Rahman, CEO, Jawbone
John Zimmer, President, Lyft
Bill Ready, CEO, Braintree
Jon Oringer, CEO, Shutterstock Images
Drew Houston, CEO, Dropbox
Bijan Sabet,  General Partner, Spark Capital
Douglas Merrill, CEO, ZestFinance
Tom Sheahan, CEO, RedOxygen
Brian Samelson, CEO, eMaint.com
Daniel Lurie, CEO, Tipping Point Community
Aaron Levie, CEO, Box
Jeff Weiner, CEO, Linkedin
Gary Moore, President & COO, Cisco
Travis Katz, CEO, Gogobot
Joe Davis, CEO, Webtrends
Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft
Brad Smith, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Microsoft
Josh Kopelman, Partner, First Round Capital
Rob Glaser, CEO, Realnetworks
Jason Goldberg, CEO, hem
Evan Reece, CEO, Liftopia
Dave Gilboa, CoFounder, Warby Parker
Neil Blumenthal, CoFounder, Warby Parker
Sean Parker, Chairman, Airtime
Reed Hastings, CEO, Netflix     
Charles Phillips, CEO, Infor
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, CEO, Joyus.com
Michael Brown, President & CEO, Symantec
Sarah Leary, CoFounder, Nextdoor
Katie Stanton, VP, Twitter
Karen Appleton, Founder, Box.org
Brit Morin, CEO, Brit + Co
Susan Wojcicki, CEO, Youtube
Melody McCloskey, Founder, StyleSeat
Brandee Barker, Co-Founder & Partner, The Pramana Collective
Greg Tseng, CEO, if(we)
David Tisch, Chairman, Boxgroup
Kristen Koh Goldstein, CEO, BackOps
Jessica Herrin, CEO, Stella & Dot
Brian O’Kelley, CEO, AppNexus
Jeff Lawson, CEO, Twilio
Steven R. Boal, CEO, Coupons.com
Gary Shapiro, CEO, Consumer Electronics Association
Kim Jabal, CFO, Path
Ryan Holmes, CEO, Hootsuite
Alison Pincus. Co-Founder, One Kings Lane
Jeremy Liew, Managing Director, Lightspeed Venture Partners
Larry Page, President, Google
Eric Schmidt, Chairman, Google
Travis Kalanick, CEO, Uber Technologies
Brad Smith, CEO, Intuit
Mike Huang, CEO, Glow
Aileen Lee, Founder, Cowboy Ventures
Kristen Koh Goldstein, CEO, Scalus
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook
Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook
Chris Nicholas, President, Asymmetrica Labs
Ken Brownfield, CTO, Asymmetrica Labs
Stacy Brown-Philpot, COO, TaskRabbit
Nick Woodman, CEO of GoPro
Tony Bates, President of GoPro
Jack Lazar, CFO of GoPro
Tracy DiNunzio, CEO, Tradesy
John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco
Lorna Borenstein, CEO, Grokker.com
Michelle Peluso, CEO, Gilt
Ben Silbermann, CEO Pinterest
Lloyd Carney, CEO, Brocade
Irakly George Arison, CEO, Shift Technologies Inc.
Evan Goldberg, CTO,  Netsuite
Zach Nelson, CEO, Netsuite
David Hassell, CEO, 15Five
Brian McAndrews, CEO, Pandora Media
Jared Fliesler, General Partner, Matrix Partners
Joshua Kushner, Founder, Thrive Capital
Marissa Mayer, CEO, Yahoo!
Bracken P. Darrell, CEO, Logitech