The former president of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy group in the US, filed a lawsuit on Thursday accusing the organization of racial discrimination in his firing last year, the Washington Post reported.
Alphonso David was fired on 6 September after a report by the New York state attorney general, Letitia James, said he had advised the former New York governor Andrew Cuomo on how to handle sexual harassment allegations, the organization’s board said at the time.
In the complaint, David accused HRC of fostering a “racist, biased culture”. He also said that he was told that he was initially paid less because he was Black and that an organization board member told him to stop mentioning race in public comments, the Post reported.
At the time of his firing, David said the Human Rights Campaign board had “unjustly” terminated him, and said it should expect a legal challenge.
There has not yet been any official comment from the organization.
David arrived at the HRC in 2019, after working for Cuomo. The organization was founded in 1980 and is based in Washington.
It has long come in for criticism from progressives and activists for a culture associated with advocating for change from inside the political and business establishment, in contrast to groups that focus on direct action-type protests.
And HRC has been under fire for slow progress towards racial diversity and gender equality, including transgender rights.
David’s lawsuit was filed in New York and is claiming violations of state and federal law and is seeking damages and his reinstatement at HRC.
As part of the action, he alleges a senior HRC executive told him his high-profile advocacy for racial justice could be off-putting to the organization’s core of wealthy white donors – specifically “white gay men”, the Post reported.
“I had to challenge a system and a pattern of bias that has not only affected me, but it has affected way too many Black and brown people. Discrimination and bias are rife within HRC. And I’m just the latest person to be affected,” David told the newspaper in an interview.
He added: “I’m hoping that we recognize that institutions that purported to represent all members of our community actually have to do just that.”
David was involved in some of Cuomo’s efforts to fight back against multiple allegations of sexual harassment. Cuomo resigned last summer.
