WEBVTT - ICYMI: Pride Under Pressure

0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:09.719
<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. This is Bloomberg BusinessWeek

0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:13.760
<v Speaker 1>with Carol Masser and Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.

0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.840
<v Speaker 2>It is Pride Month and this story I did not

0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:21.720
<v Speaker 2>hear about Carol until doing research for this next interview.

0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:25.040
<v Speaker 2>Over in Europe, the mayor of Budapest vowed to ignore

0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:29.000
<v Speaker 2>police decision to ban the city's annual Pride parade, setting

0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:32.920
<v Speaker 2>up a showdown with Nationalist Prime Minister Victor Orbon. Police

0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:36.680
<v Speaker 2>cited a recently approved law cracking down on LGBTQ public

0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:39.760
<v Speaker 2>events for banning the June twenty eighth parade. This, according

0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:42.600
<v Speaker 2>to a statement on Thursday, the decision followed the mayor's

0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:45.640
<v Speaker 2>attempt to circumvent an earlier ban by helping to organize

0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:49.839
<v Speaker 2>the parade under the capital's authority. So, the idea of

0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:52.839
<v Speaker 2>Pride Month and everything happening with Pride Month and the

0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:57.280
<v Speaker 2>pullback that we've seen from companies not just happening here

0:00:57.720 --> 0:00:58.320
<v Speaker 2>in the US.

0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:00.640
<v Speaker 3>No, you bring out a good point. Survey of corporate

0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:04.080
<v Speaker 3>execs reveal that two and five we're scaling back Pride

0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:08.480
<v Speaker 3>Month engagement this year, leaving organizers scrambling for funds. And

0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:10.560
<v Speaker 3>then Back in May, New York City Pride announced it

0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:12.959
<v Speaker 3>was looking at a seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars

0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:16.679
<v Speaker 3>budget shortfall and launched a community fundraising campaign to keep

0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:19.039
<v Speaker 3>the event free to attend. There's a lot going on here.

0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:21.760
<v Speaker 2>Today, Yeah, Jenny Glazers all over at Jenny's CEO of

0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:26.279
<v Speaker 2>the nonprofit think tank Coke Wool, Jenny joins us from Brooklyn. Jenny,

0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:28.760
<v Speaker 2>this not surprising to you. I could see you nodding

0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:31.240
<v Speaker 2>as we were reading this. Coke Wol though out with

0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:35.160
<v Speaker 2>a new report, Pride under pressure. This is not necessarily

0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:38.479
<v Speaker 2>a new phenomenon this year, that we've seen this kind

0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:41.039
<v Speaker 2>of happening over the last couple of years. What did

0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:42.040
<v Speaker 2>you find in the survey?

0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:47.400
<v Speaker 4>Well, we've really found that safety isn't guaranteed anymore, not

0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:50.480
<v Speaker 4>even at work. We found that twenty one percent of

0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:54.240
<v Speaker 4>LGBTQ plus professionals in the US say that they or

0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:58.280
<v Speaker 4>their families have been harmed by rising hate crimes. That

0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:01.960
<v Speaker 4>fear doesn't stop at the It affects how people live,

0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:06.080
<v Speaker 4>where they work, and whether they feel safe to be themselves.

0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:10.359
<v Speaker 4>One lesbian professional in South Africa told us she hides

0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:14.600
<v Speaker 4>indoors when she visits her hometown. She said, going outside,

0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:17.760
<v Speaker 4>you're just going to get ten comments telling you that

0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:20.920
<v Speaker 4>you're going to hell or worse. What we're finding is

0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:24.520
<v Speaker 4>the backlash isn't staying outside the office, it's walking in

0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:24.920
<v Speaker 4>the door.

0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:27.840
<v Speaker 3>Why did you feel like you needed to do this report.

0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:35.960
<v Speaker 4>Ah, because LGBTQ plus inclusion affects more people than you think. Globally,

0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:40.280
<v Speaker 4>nine percent of adults identify as LGBTQ plus, and nearly

0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:44.200
<v Speaker 4>half non LGBTQ plus professionals have a close friend or

0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:47.680
<v Speaker 4>family member in the community. That means nearly one in

0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:52.519
<v Speaker 4>two workers are directly invested in how LGBTQ plus people

0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:57.440
<v Speaker 4>are treated. And these professionals cut excuse me to cut

0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:03.400
<v Speaker 4>across race, cast, class, gender, disability, and more. Inclusion for

0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:06.880
<v Speaker 4>this group isn't about checking a box. It's about understanding

0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:08.760
<v Speaker 4>how a culture really works.

0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:09.840
<v Speaker 1>Jenny, why do you.

0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:14.400
<v Speaker 3>Think we're seeing such a pushback in America when it

0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:17.000
<v Speaker 3>comes to this issue? And I think it's safe to

0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:20.120
<v Speaker 3>say when you look at political elections, certainly the presidential

0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:22.400
<v Speaker 3>you know, half of America seems to feel one way

0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:24.440
<v Speaker 3>and half of America seems to feel another way. So

0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:29.240
<v Speaker 3>let's be careful about lopping everybody together, right, But why

0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:31.160
<v Speaker 3>did we get to this point.

0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:36.440
<v Speaker 4>I think we saw in our research that there was

0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:40.800
<v Speaker 4>a sense of some of this being performative, and I

0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:43.760
<v Speaker 4>think people were really asking our systems really ready to

0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:47.280
<v Speaker 4>spond And we're finding in our data are systems really

0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:51.400
<v Speaker 4>ready to respond to bias not just promote diversity. So

0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:57.720
<v Speaker 4>we're really thinking about this as people in various parts

0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:06.440
<v Speaker 4>of the country need to navigate what's happening based on laws, context, etc.

0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:08.920
<v Speaker 4>It's very complicated.

0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:13.920
<v Speaker 2>If we were to think about acceptance as a chart

0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:19.520
<v Speaker 2>or on this spectrum. And you know, we see things

0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:23.599
<v Speaker 2>getting worse right now around the world. Where did things peak,

0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:25.680
<v Speaker 2>when were they best? Or is that the wrong way

0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:26.360
<v Speaker 2>to look at it.

0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:31.599
<v Speaker 4>Well, we did this report nearly ten years ago, and

0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:35.840
<v Speaker 4>it's very interesting to think about what the spectrum is.

0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:40.960
<v Speaker 4>We really tried to think about what's changed in these

0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:43.719
<v Speaker 4>past ten years. And I think we used to think

0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:48.040
<v Speaker 4>we want to make it possible so with an optimistic

0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:50.240
<v Speaker 4>point of view that everyone can come and be their

0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:54.000
<v Speaker 4>authentic selves at work. That's not showing up right now,

0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:56.640
<v Speaker 4>and so we're really trying to think about how do

0:04:56.760 --> 0:05:02.200
<v Speaker 4>we help equip leaders and individuals to really create belonging

0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:05.200
<v Speaker 4>at work so that people can work productively as teams

0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:05.640
<v Speaker 4>right now.

0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:07.359
<v Speaker 3>Got to say, I walked in today and there's a

0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:12.599
<v Speaker 3>big sign acknowledging you Pride Month and pride here at Bloomberg.

0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:16.240
<v Speaker 3>We've had conversations Tim and I with various business leaders

0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:17.600
<v Speaker 3>who say, we're still going to do what we want

0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:19.120
<v Speaker 3>to do, but we're just not going to talk about

0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:22.200
<v Speaker 3>it a lot. But our companies or the corporate community,

0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:27.159
<v Speaker 3>are they failing the LGBTQ community right now in some ways?

0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:33.400
<v Speaker 4>So we work with hundreds of Fortune five hundred companies

0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:37.800
<v Speaker 4>who are global multinationals, and what we're seeing actually is

0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:40.920
<v Speaker 4>eighty four percent of our members are doing what we

0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:46.560
<v Speaker 4>call above ground below ground, meaning they might be publicly.

0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:49.600
<v Speaker 4>And one of the reasons why they're scrubbing is to

0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:55.599
<v Speaker 4>protect employees because there is a lot of attention paid

0:05:55.640 --> 0:06:00.680
<v Speaker 4>on companies and it creates unintended consequences for employees. So

0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:05.080
<v Speaker 4>they've really tried to think and be conservative about what's

0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:09.000
<v Speaker 4>out there publicly. But they're thinking the long game. They

0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:12.760
<v Speaker 4>know that creating conditions for employees to thrive at work,

0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:15.000
<v Speaker 4>that people can be who they are that they have

0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:18.159
<v Speaker 4>health insurance, they can care for their loved ones. That's

0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:21.440
<v Speaker 4>just a basic need that people need no matter where

0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:25.159
<v Speaker 4>you are. We're finding that investment and focus hasn't changed, but.

0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:29.600
<v Speaker 3>A slippery slope. When you talk about people scrubbing, you know,

0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:33.640
<v Speaker 3>and not necessarily wanting to be identified with certain policies,

0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:36.280
<v Speaker 3>it just makes me think, Okay, then what's the next step?

0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:36.880
<v Speaker 4>Right?

0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:39.760
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, if the idea is not to draw attention to yourself,

0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:43.560
<v Speaker 3>you know, it's like where do you ultimately draw the line.

0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:47.160
<v Speaker 3>It's an interesting conversation to be having in a country

0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:51.680
<v Speaker 3>where we sow prize and value freedom of speech and

0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:54.320
<v Speaker 3>freedom of thought and freedom of action as long as

0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:57.320
<v Speaker 3>you're not harming or hurting you know, others, And so

0:06:57.760 --> 0:06:59.080
<v Speaker 3>it's an interesting moment in time.

0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:02.680
<v Speaker 4>It is. And keep in mind that this is the

0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:06.640
<v Speaker 4>US we're talking about right now. Throughout the world again,

0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:09.640
<v Speaker 4>we work with global multinationals, a third of whom are

0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:12.840
<v Speaker 4>headquartered outside of the US. It's a very different conversation.

0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:19.800
<v Speaker 4>So in the US, I don't think they're scrubbing to curtail,

0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:22.800
<v Speaker 4>but I think they're really trying to think about how

0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:26.400
<v Speaker 4>do we protect employees in this moment, and there is

0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:29.840
<v Speaker 4>a lot of uncertainty and complexity, So I have a

0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:34.120
<v Speaker 4>feeling over time we'll see companies come out with clearer

0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:38.320
<v Speaker 4>language messaging that's more about what is the evolution of

0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:42.240
<v Speaker 4>how we want to drive inclusion. So I'm seeing behind

0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:44.200
<v Speaker 4>the scenes that those things are forthcoming.

0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:47.320
<v Speaker 2>Jenny, good to catch up with you. Thanks for joining

0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:49.960
<v Speaker 2>us on this Friday. Do appreciate it. Jenny Glazer, the

0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:54.000
<v Speaker 2>CEO of the nonprofit think tank Koch Will joining us

0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:55.240
<v Speaker 2>from Brooklyn