Is Anyone Surprised?

Gay Inc. is being called out for their lack of diversity?

Internal Report: Major Diversity, Organizational Problems At Human Rights Campaign
A “White Men’s Club,” the report calls HRC. HRC’s top officials acknowledged the report’s findings, pointing to more than 20 steps being taken to address the issues.
Buzzfeed
By Chris Geidner
June 3, 2015

WASHINGTON — Staff at the Human Rights Campaign last fall described the working environment at the nation’s largest LGBT rights group as “judgmental,” “exclusionary,” “sexist,” and “homogenous,” according to a sharply critical report that was commissioned by HRC and obtained by BuzzFeed News.

Based on a series of focus groups and surveys with the staff, conducted by outside consultants, the report detailed systemic problems within HRC — ranging from treatment of employees, including those who are transgender, to concerns about human resources and organizational commitment to diversity and inclusion.
[…]
“Leadership culture is experienced as homogenous — gay, white, male,” the report stated. “Exclusion was broad-based and hit all identity groups within HRC. A judgmental working environment, particularly concerning women and feminine-identified individuals, was highlighted in survey responses.”

Surprise, surprise!

I wonder how much they spent to find out that HRC is made up of “gay, white, males” and I wouldn’t want to bet that it is made up of rich, gay, white males.

The report went on to say,

The report informed HRC leadership that staff are critical of an “exclusionary environment” at the advocacy group — where 1 in 5 staff believe “diversity and inclusion” is not a necessary part of the group’s work and values.

To that end, the report stated, “There is a general perception that current diversity efforts are not working and that there’s a lack of diversity understanding broadly.” A participant in a focus group noted, “A lot of folks are personally invested in diversity inclusion but their voices have been smothered or pushed away.”

That is what the trans community has been saying for years, why do you think we call it “Gay Inc.?”

The report notes, “Seven out of 31 men who have been promoted have been on staff less than two years (some promoted two times). No women under two years have been promoted.”

Hmm… sounds like grounds for a discrimination law suit.

Now here is another surprise,

The environment for transgender staff was highlighted in the Pipeline Project report as a particularly problematic area. In the summary of findings, the consultants broke out the focus group discussions about the experience of trans staff at HRC “[d]ue to the depths of concerns.” Among those issues were findings that “[t]rans* people don’t feel safe to come out at HRC,” noting that some staff “work for years at HRC before coming out as trans.”

No kidding Sherlock. I’m surprised any trans people work there at all.