Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. This is Bloomberg BusinessWeek
Speaker 1: with Carol Masser and Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: It is Pride Month and this story I did not
Speaker 2: hear about Carol until doing research for this next interview.
Speaker 2: Over in Europe, the mayor of Budapest vowed to ignore
Speaker 2: police decision to ban the city's annual Pride parade, setting
Speaker 2: up a showdown with Nationalist Prime Minister Victor Orbon. Police
Speaker 2: cited a recently approved law cracking down on LGBTQ public
Speaker 2: events for banning the June twenty eighth parade. This, according
Speaker 2: to a statement on Thursday, the decision followed the mayor's
Speaker 2: attempt to circumvent an earlier ban by helping to organize
Speaker 2: the parade under the capital's authority. So, the idea of
Speaker 2: Pride Month and everything happening with Pride Month and the
Speaker 2: pullback that we've seen from companies not just happening here
Speaker 2: in the US.
Speaker 3: No, you bring out a good point. Survey of corporate
Speaker 3: execs reveal that two and five we're scaling back Pride
Speaker 3: Month engagement this year, leaving organizers scrambling for funds. And
Speaker 3: then Back in May, New York City Pride announced it
Speaker 3: was looking at a seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars
Speaker 3: budget shortfall and launched a community fundraising campaign to keep
Speaker 3: the event free to attend. There's a lot going on here.
Speaker 2: Today, Yeah, Jenny Glazers all over at Jenny's CEO of
Speaker 2: the nonprofit think tank Coke Wool, Jenny joins us from Brooklyn. Jenny,
Speaker 2: this not surprising to you. I could see you nodding
Speaker 2: as we were reading this. Coke Wol though out with
Speaker 2: a new report, Pride under pressure. This is not necessarily
Speaker 2: a new phenomenon this year, that we've seen this kind
Speaker 2: of happening over the last couple of years. What did
Speaker 2: you find in the survey?
Speaker 4: Well, we've really found that safety isn't guaranteed anymore, not
Speaker 4: even at work. We found that twenty one percent of
Speaker 4: LGBTQ plus professionals in the US say that they or
Speaker 4: their families have been harmed by rising hate crimes. That
Speaker 4: fear doesn't stop at the It affects how people live,
Speaker 4: where they work, and whether they feel safe to be themselves.
Speaker 4: One lesbian professional in South Africa told us she hides
Speaker 4: indoors when she visits her hometown. She said, going outside,
Speaker 4: you're just going to get ten comments telling you that
Speaker 4: you're going to hell or worse. What we're finding is
Speaker 4: the backlash isn't staying outside the office, it's walking in
Speaker 4: the door.
Speaker 3: Why did you feel like you needed to do this report.
Speaker 4: Ah, because LGBTQ plus inclusion affects more people than you think. Globally,
Speaker 4: nine percent of adults identify as LGBTQ plus, and nearly
Speaker 4: half non LGBTQ plus professionals have a close friend or
Speaker 4: family member in the community. That means nearly one in
Speaker 4: two workers are directly invested in how LGBTQ plus people
Speaker 4: are treated. And these professionals cut excuse me to cut
Speaker 4: across race, cast, class, gender, disability, and more. Inclusion for
Speaker 4: this group isn't about checking a box. It's about understanding
Speaker 4: how a culture really works.
Speaker 1: Jenny, why do you.
Speaker 3: Think we're seeing such a pushback in America when it
Speaker 3: comes to this issue? And I think it's safe to
Speaker 3: say when you look at political elections, certainly the presidential
Speaker 3: you know, half of America seems to feel one way
Speaker 3: and half of America seems to feel another way. So
Speaker 3: let's be careful about lopping everybody together, right, But why
Speaker 3: did we get to this point.
Speaker 4: I think we saw in our research that there was
Speaker 4: a sense of some of this being performative, and I
Speaker 4: think people were really asking our systems really ready to
Speaker 4: spond And we're finding in our data are systems really
Speaker 4: ready to respond to bias not just promote diversity. So
Speaker 4: we're really thinking about this as people in various parts
Speaker 4: of the country need to navigate what's happening based on laws, context, etc.
Speaker 4: It's very complicated.
Speaker 2: If we were to think about acceptance as a chart
Speaker 2: or on this spectrum. And you know, we see things
Speaker 2: getting worse right now around the world. Where did things peak,
Speaker 2: when were they best? Or is that the wrong way
Speaker 2: to look at it.
Speaker 4: Well, we did this report nearly ten years ago, and
Speaker 4: it's very interesting to think about what the spectrum is.
Speaker 4: We really tried to think about what's changed in these
Speaker 4: past ten years. And I think we used to think
Speaker 4: we want to make it possible so with an optimistic
Speaker 4: point of view that everyone can come and be their
Speaker 4: authentic selves at work. That's not showing up right now,
Speaker 4: and so we're really trying to think about how do
Speaker 4: we help equip leaders and individuals to really create belonging
Speaker 4: at work so that people can work productively as teams
Speaker 4: right now.
Speaker 3: Got to say, I walked in today and there's a
Speaker 3: big sign acknowledging you Pride Month and pride here at Bloomberg.
Speaker 3: We've had conversations Tim and I with various business leaders
Speaker 3: who say, we're still going to do what we want
Speaker 3: to do, but we're just not going to talk about
Speaker 3: it a lot. But our companies or the corporate community,
Speaker 3: are they failing the LGBTQ community right now in some ways?
Speaker 4: So we work with hundreds of Fortune five hundred companies
Speaker 4: who are global multinationals, and what we're seeing actually is
Speaker 4: eighty four percent of our members are doing what we
Speaker 4: call above ground below ground, meaning they might be publicly.
Speaker 4: And one of the reasons why they're scrubbing is to
Speaker 4: protect employees because there is a lot of attention paid
Speaker 4: on companies and it creates unintended consequences for employees. So
Speaker 4: they've really tried to think and be conservative about what's
Speaker 4: out there publicly. But they're thinking the long game. They
Speaker 4: know that creating conditions for employees to thrive at work,
Speaker 4: that people can be who they are that they have
Speaker 4: health insurance, they can care for their loved ones. That's
Speaker 4: just a basic need that people need no matter where
Speaker 4: you are. We're finding that investment and focus hasn't changed, but.
Speaker 3: A slippery slope. When you talk about people scrubbing, you know,
Speaker 3: and not necessarily wanting to be identified with certain policies,
Speaker 3: it just makes me think, Okay, then what's the next step?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 3: Yeah, if the idea is not to draw attention to yourself,
Speaker 3: you know, it's like where do you ultimately draw the line.
Speaker 3: It's an interesting conversation to be having in a country
Speaker 3: where we sow prize and value freedom of speech and
Speaker 3: freedom of thought and freedom of action as long as
Speaker 3: you're not harming or hurting you know, others, And so
Speaker 3: it's an interesting moment in time.
Speaker 4: It is. And keep in mind that this is the
Speaker 4: US we're talking about right now. Throughout the world again,
Speaker 4: we work with global multinationals, a third of whom are
Speaker 4: headquartered outside of the US. It's a very different conversation.
Speaker 4: So in the US, I don't think they're scrubbing to curtail,
Speaker 4: but I think they're really trying to think about how
Speaker 4: do we protect employees in this moment, and there is
Speaker 4: a lot of uncertainty and complexity, So I have a
Speaker 4: feeling over time we'll see companies come out with clearer
Speaker 4: language messaging that's more about what is the evolution of
Speaker 4: how we want to drive inclusion. So I'm seeing behind
Speaker 4: the scenes that those things are forthcoming.
Speaker 2: Jenny, good to catch up with you. Thanks for joining
Speaker 2: us on this Friday. Do appreciate it. Jenny Glazer, the
Speaker 2: CEO of the nonprofit think tank Koch Will joining us
Speaker 2: from Brooklyn