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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. This is Bloomberg BusinessWeek

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Speaker 1: with Carol Masser and Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.

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Speaker 2: It is Pride Month and this story I did not

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Speaker 2: hear about Carol until doing research for this next interview.

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Speaker 2: Over in Europe, the mayor of Budapest vowed to ignore

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Speaker 2: police decision to ban the city's annual Pride parade, setting

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Speaker 2: up a showdown with Nationalist Prime Minister Victor Orbon. Police

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Speaker 2: cited a recently approved law cracking down on LGBTQ public

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Speaker 2: events for banning the June twenty eighth parade. This, according

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Speaker 2: to a statement on Thursday, the decision followed the mayor's

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Speaker 2: attempt to circumvent an earlier ban by helping to organize

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Speaker 2: the parade under the capital's authority. So, the idea of

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Speaker 2: Pride Month and everything happening with Pride Month and the

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Speaker 2: pullback that we've seen from companies not just happening here

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Speaker 2: in the US.

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Speaker 3: No, you bring out a good point. Survey of corporate

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Speaker 3: execs reveal that two and five we're scaling back Pride

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Speaker 3: Month engagement this year, leaving organizers scrambling for funds. And

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Speaker 3: then Back in May, New York City Pride announced it

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Speaker 3: was looking at a seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars

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Speaker 3: budget shortfall and launched a community fundraising campaign to keep

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Speaker 3: the event free to attend. There's a lot going on here.

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Speaker 2: Today, Yeah, Jenny Glazers all over at Jenny's CEO of

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Speaker 2: the nonprofit think tank Coke Wool, Jenny joins us from Brooklyn. Jenny,

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Speaker 2: this not surprising to you. I could see you nodding

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Speaker 2: as we were reading this. Coke Wol though out with

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Speaker 2: a new report, Pride under pressure. This is not necessarily

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Speaker 2: a new phenomenon this year, that we've seen this kind

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Speaker 2: of happening over the last couple of years. What did

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Speaker 2: you find in the survey?

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Speaker 4: Well, we've really found that safety isn't guaranteed anymore, not

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Speaker 4: even at work. We found that twenty one percent of

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Speaker 4: LGBTQ plus professionals in the US say that they or

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Speaker 4: their families have been harmed by rising hate crimes. That

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Speaker 4: fear doesn't stop at the It affects how people live,

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Speaker 4: where they work, and whether they feel safe to be themselves.

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Speaker 4: One lesbian professional in South Africa told us she hides

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Speaker 4: indoors when she visits her hometown. She said, going outside,

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Speaker 4: you're just going to get ten comments telling you that

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Speaker 4: you're going to hell or worse. What we're finding is

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Speaker 4: the backlash isn't staying outside the office, it's walking in

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Speaker 4: the door.

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Speaker 3: Why did you feel like you needed to do this report.

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Speaker 4: Ah, because LGBTQ plus inclusion affects more people than you think. Globally,

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Speaker 4: nine percent of adults identify as LGBTQ plus, and nearly

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Speaker 4: half non LGBTQ plus professionals have a close friend or

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Speaker 4: family member in the community. That means nearly one in

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Speaker 4: two workers are directly invested in how LGBTQ plus people

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Speaker 4: are treated. And these professionals cut excuse me to cut

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Speaker 4: across race, cast, class, gender, disability, and more. Inclusion for

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Speaker 4: this group isn't about checking a box. It's about understanding

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Speaker 4: how a culture really works.

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Speaker 1: Jenny, why do you.

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Speaker 3: Think we're seeing such a pushback in America when it

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Speaker 3: comes to this issue? And I think it's safe to

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Speaker 3: say when you look at political elections, certainly the presidential

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Speaker 3: you know, half of America seems to feel one way

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Speaker 3: and half of America seems to feel another way. So

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Speaker 3: let's be careful about lopping everybody together, right, But why

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Speaker 3: did we get to this point.

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Speaker 4: I think we saw in our research that there was

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Speaker 4: a sense of some of this being performative, and I

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Speaker 4: think people were really asking our systems really ready to

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Speaker 4: spond And we're finding in our data are systems really

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Speaker 4: ready to respond to bias not just promote diversity. So

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Speaker 4: we're really thinking about this as people in various parts

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Speaker 4: of the country need to navigate what's happening based on laws, context, etc.

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Speaker 4: It's very complicated.

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Speaker 2: If we were to think about acceptance as a chart

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Speaker 2: or on this spectrum. And you know, we see things

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Speaker 2: getting worse right now around the world. Where did things peak,

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Speaker 2: when were they best? Or is that the wrong way

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Speaker 2: to look at it.

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Speaker 4: Well, we did this report nearly ten years ago, and

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Speaker 4: it's very interesting to think about what the spectrum is.

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Speaker 4: We really tried to think about what's changed in these

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Speaker 4: past ten years. And I think we used to think

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Speaker 4: we want to make it possible so with an optimistic

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Speaker 4: point of view that everyone can come and be their

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Speaker 4: authentic selves at work. That's not showing up right now,

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Speaker 4: and so we're really trying to think about how do

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Speaker 4: we help equip leaders and individuals to really create belonging

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Speaker 4: at work so that people can work productively as teams

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Speaker 4: right now.

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Speaker 3: Got to say, I walked in today and there's a

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Speaker 3: big sign acknowledging you Pride Month and pride here at Bloomberg.

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Speaker 3: We've had conversations Tim and I with various business leaders

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Speaker 3: who say, we're still going to do what we want

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Speaker 3: to do, but we're just not going to talk about

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Speaker 3: it a lot. But our companies or the corporate community,

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Speaker 3: are they failing the LGBTQ community right now in some ways?

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Speaker 4: So we work with hundreds of Fortune five hundred companies

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Speaker 4: who are global multinationals, and what we're seeing actually is

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Speaker 4: eighty four percent of our members are doing what we

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Speaker 4: call above ground below ground, meaning they might be publicly.

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Speaker 4: And one of the reasons why they're scrubbing is to

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Speaker 4: protect employees because there is a lot of attention paid

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Speaker 4: on companies and it creates unintended consequences for employees. So

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Speaker 4: they've really tried to think and be conservative about what's

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Speaker 4: out there publicly. But they're thinking the long game. They

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Speaker 4: know that creating conditions for employees to thrive at work,

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Speaker 4: that people can be who they are that they have

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Speaker 4: health insurance, they can care for their loved ones. That's

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Speaker 4: just a basic need that people need no matter where

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Speaker 4: you are. We're finding that investment and focus hasn't changed, but.

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Speaker 3: A slippery slope. When you talk about people scrubbing, you know,

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Speaker 3: and not necessarily wanting to be identified with certain policies,

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Speaker 3: it just makes me think, Okay, then what's the next step?

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Speaker 4: Right?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, if the idea is not to draw attention to yourself,

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Speaker 3: you know, it's like where do you ultimately draw the line.

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Speaker 3: It's an interesting conversation to be having in a country

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Speaker 3: where we sow prize and value freedom of speech and

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Speaker 3: freedom of thought and freedom of action as long as

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Speaker 3: you're not harming or hurting you know, others, And so

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Speaker 3: it's an interesting moment in time.

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Speaker 4: It is. And keep in mind that this is the

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Speaker 4: US we're talking about right now. Throughout the world again,

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Speaker 4: we work with global multinationals, a third of whom are

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Speaker 4: headquartered outside of the US. It's a very different conversation.

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Speaker 4: So in the US, I don't think they're scrubbing to curtail,

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Speaker 4: but I think they're really trying to think about how

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Speaker 4: do we protect employees in this moment, and there is

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Speaker 4: a lot of uncertainty and complexity, So I have a

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Speaker 4: feeling over time we'll see companies come out with clearer

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Speaker 4: language messaging that's more about what is the evolution of

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Speaker 4: how we want to drive inclusion. So I'm seeing behind

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Speaker 4: the scenes that those things are forthcoming.

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Speaker 2: Jenny, good to catch up with you. Thanks for joining

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Speaker 2: us on this Friday. Do appreciate it. Jenny Glazer, the

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Speaker 2: CEO of the nonprofit think tank Koch Will joining us

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Speaker 2: from Brooklyn