Human Rights Campaign Sued for Racial Bias by Its First Black Leader

(Bloomberg) -- The Human Rights Campaign, one of the biggest and oldest LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, was sued for discrimination by its first Black president, who claims he was paid less than his White predecessor and barred from discussing his race in public to avoid alienating White donors.

Alphonso David, who held the post from 2019 to 2021, claims deep-rooted racism at the HRC came to a head in September when he was fired over actions he allegedly took to assist his previous boss, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, when the Democrat was accused of sexual harassment.

In 2020, while president of HRC, David was enlisted in an effort by Cuomo's office to discredit one of the governor's accusers, according to a report in August by New York Attorney General Letitia James that led to Cuomo's resignation. David denied wrongdoing over his role and argues in his federal suit that White HRC presidents have weathered worse scandals.

David's complaint, filed Thursday in Brooklyn, New York, blasts the 40-year-old HRC as a “White Men's Club” where staffers of color “were marginalized, tokenized, and denied advancement to high-level positions” for years. The racist culture persisted even after he was hired, David claims.

“Despite its equality-focused mission, the organization had a deserved reputation for unequal treatment of its non-White employees,” according to the complaint claiming he was held to an unfair standard of conduct.

In a statement, HRC Interim President Joni Madison highlighted the organization's Black leaders and said David's actions in the Cuomo matter were “painful.”

“Mr. David's complaint is riddled with untruths,” Madison said. “We are confident through the legal process that it will be apparent that Mr. David's termination was based on clear violations of his contract and HRC's mission, and as president of HRC, he was treated fairly and equally.”

David, who served as counsel to Cuomo before taking the top job at HRC, is seeking financial damages to cover his lost pay and benefits.

The damning report into Cuomo's conduct with women included details about an effort to get David and other current and former officials in the governor's office to sign a letter discrediting one of his key accusers. According to the report, David said “that he was not signing the letter but was willing to reach out to others to see if they would sign it.”

Letter Never Sent

The letter, deemed “victim shaming” by some who saw it, was never sent. But efforts at drafting it and identifying people to sign it were central elements of the AG's report.

The HRC initially threw its support behind David after his name appeared in the Cuomo report. An outside law firm hired by the organization to conduct a probe into David's conduct “revealed nothing apart from what was already in the Attorney General's report, which HRC was aware of when it issued a statement supporting him,” according to the suit.

Even so, the organization asked him to resign in September. David said he refused.

Before the Cuomo scandal erupted, David said he regularly dealt with racism at the HRC, including after the May 2020 murder of George Floyd, a Black man whose death at the hands of a White Minneapolis police officer triggered nationwide protests. David said his public statements supporting the Black Lives Matter movement were criticized by an HRC senior vice president, who expressed concern about alienating “White gay men.”

HRC fired David after “tolerating years of reputational crises under his White predecessor,” he alleges, “consistent with the social science literature examining how discrimination against high-level minority executives occurs in practice.”

The case is Alphonso David v. The Human Rights Campaign, 22-cv-00620, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).