San Francisco Pride's ban on Google, YouTube gets noped by the lawyers

The San Francisco Pride (SF Pride) legal team has determined that a vote last week to remove Google and YouTube as sponsors and participants in future SF Pride celebrations was not legally binding, per an emailed statement from the organization's leader received by Mashable. (According to a Google spokesperson, the company has sponsored SF Pride celebrations for over a decade.) 

The previously announced resolution cited what "some voting members of the organization perceived to be inadequate protection from homophobia, racism, and harassment on Google's platforms, particularly YouTube," as formerly reported at Mashable.

Per our earlier reporting and a new statement from SF Pride, the Jan. 15 meeting at which the resolution was passed only had around a dozen of SF Pride's 326 members present for the vote. Of those present, seven voted for the ban.

In an emailed statement to Mashable, Carolyn Wysinger, the president of San Francisco Pride, explained the legal team's reasoning behind its decision.

"This small group is not representative of the larger Pride community, and our lawyers determined it is not reasonable for them to make motions at a meeting which doesn’t have enough people to equal a quorum and expect that vote to be a binding measure for the Board of Directors," Wysinger said. "Our Board of Directors was elected to represent our members and the community as a whole. They have a fiduciary responsibility to advocate for an inclusive, successful, and safe celebration each year."

As noted in our previous reporting, the authors of the initial statement announcing the vote noted that though they did not know if the resolution would be legally binding without board approval, it was possible that the board of directors might pass the motions. They wrote that "there seems to be broad agreement that motions like these passed by both membership and board votes would be binding."

We've reached out to the authors of the statement and will update as we hear back.

Now, Wysinger explained, the board will meet on Feb. 5 to discuss the next steps concerning the proposed ban and its implications for SF Pride.

When asked about Google and YouTube's sponsorship of the 2020 parade, Wysinger wrote to Mashable: "We are in the process of lining up sponsors for our 2020 parade. We expect to have our sponsors set in the coming months."

SF Pride has acknowledged the importance of sponsors and partners in the past. Last year, the organization reported that the cost to produce its annual event had exceeded $3 million. Despite an earlier push to ban Google from sponsoring and participating in pride last year, referenced in our earlier reporting, Google was confirmed as a sponsor in 2019, and is still listed as a sponsor of the 2019 SF Pride parade, according to its website.