Alphonso David, former president of the Human Rights Campaign, has filed a lawsuit against the LGBTQ organization alleging racial discrimination led to his dismissal last year.
David and the HRC parted ways last September after a report from the New York State Attorney General revealed David had advised the office of then-New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on its response to sexual harassment allegations.
Former Human Rights Campaign president alleges racial bias in his firing after Andrew M. Cuomo scandal
https://t.co/z2piNfWiHR— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 3, 2022
From the Washington Post:
Alphonso David, a Black civil rights attorney, describes in the legal complaint a “racist, biased culture” at the organization he led for more than two years.
He claims that board members told him that he was initially paid less because he is Black. He says he was encouraged by a board member to stop mentioning his race in public comments. He also recounts being told by a senior HRC executive that his public support for racial justice risked alienating White donors and specifically “White gay men.”
The same senior executive, according to the complaint, criticized a Black staff member for meeting with a Black-owned consulting firm without a White person present because the firm’s employees might perform worse if they think they are working for people of their race.
“HRC underpaid David, and then terminated him, because he is Black,” David’s lawyers wrote in the complaint, which was filed at 8 a.m. in federal court in New York.
David defended his actions regarding Cuomo as proper saying as a former attorney for Cuomo he was obligated to provide documents to his former client.
But the HRC countered saying his actions amounted to a “violation of HRC’s Conflict of Interest policy and the mission of HRC.” The powers that be also alleged David’s actions had caused damage to the group’s “interests, reputation and prospects.”
Read the full article here.
Alphonso David sued the HRC in federal court on Thursday, alleging that he was underpaid and then terminated “because he is Black.” https://t.co/0uroMSbwH3
— NBC Out (@NBCOUT) February 3, 2022