Human Rights Campaign denies racial discrimination against former president

HRC’s lawyers wrote that nearly all of the specific claims of discrimination and bias made by David are false, including the alleged statement by a senior HRC executive that David’s public support for racial justice risked alienating White donors and specifically “White gay men.” HRC also denied that David was initially paid less than his predecessor, or that an HRC co-chair told him that he was initially paid less because he is Black and that the organization may not be ready to be led by a Black person.

The organization has maintained that David was fired because his work with Cuomo’s advisers was a “violation of HRC’s Conflict of Interest policy and the mission,” caused damage to the group’s “interests, reputation and prospects” and compromised David’s ability to lead the organization.

“Any employment actions taken by HRC with respect to Plaintiff’s employment were based solely on legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons, and were in no way based on Plaintiff’s race or any other protected characteristic,” HRC’s lawyers wrote in their court filing.

David, in a statement to The Post, said the response was “yet another sign that HRC’s leadership is out of touch with its organizational reality and woefully blind to the systemic inequities that continue to run rampant within it.”

“At least four former employees within the past month, including me, have highlighted issues of systemic racism within the organization,” he said. “Rather than address the problem, HRC once again attempts to erase it but they cannot run away from evidence that shows their true colors and I look forward to unveiling it.”

Before joining HRC as president in 2019, David served as counsel to Cuomo, who was accused in an August report by New York Attorney General Letitia James, a fellow Democrat, of sexually harassing 11 women, including a state trooper the governor arranged to be put on his detail. Cuomo resigned weeks after the report was released, ending almost 11 years as the state’s chief executive, and has denied that he behaved inappropriately.

David also offered advice to Cuomo aides and shared with the governor’s office personnel records he had retained about Boylan after leaving his job in Albany.

David has argued that he was obligated as an attorney to share the documents with his former client and that he told Cuomo aides at the time that he would not sign the letter, which described claims about the accuser he could not verify personally. He said he also suggested changes to make the unreleased document less objectionable.

His involvement with Cuomo provoked a backlash, both among some HRC staff and the larger activist community. After initially supporting David, HRC launched an internal investigation into his work with Cuomo’s office during his time at HRC. They later asked him to resign, and then fired him in September when he declined to step down.

David was one of several informal Cuomo advisers who lost their job after the James report. The leaders of Time’s Up, a workplace sexual harassment group, stepped down because of their organization’s contacts with Cuomo’s staff. Cuomo’s journalist brother, Chris, was fired from his CNN anchor job in December for what the network said were unapproved efforts to help the governor.

HRC admitted in the court filing on Monday that a White board member was asked to resign during David’s tenure after making “several comments believed to be inappropriate.” David previously claimed that this board member told him to talk less about being Black after David gave a speech about the importance of fighting for LGBTQ people who are not White. David also said that the same person belittled another Black female board member and that this person was only dismissed after David raised the issue.

A person familiar with HRC’s legal position, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said that David did not tell the organization about his prior interaction with the board member until after the subsequent incident with the Black female board member.

HRC also said in court that its internal investigation of David was not undertaken at David’s suggestion, as David has previously claimed.

“Because we are in active litigation, we are unable to comment on or discuss specifics related to the suit beyond the public statement released by HRC in February,” the organization said in a written statement when asked for comment about the Monday filing.

David had argued that the fact that his White predecessor was not punished for previous controversies at the organization was evidence that David was treated differently because he is Black. HRC responded in its filing by pointing out that a 2015 report about racial tensions inside the organization that caused one of those controversies when it was leaked to the media had been commissioned by the organization as part of a self-improvement effort under David’s predecessor.

HRC also denied David’s claim that his salary during his first two years was “considerably less than [that of] his predecessor.”

“Plaintiff’s compensation pursuant to his original employment agreement resulted in greater total compensation than that paid to his predecessor in his original contract, and in any event, differences, if any, in the compensation structure or agreements between HRC and Plaintiff and his predecessor were justified by factors having nothing to do with race,” HRC’s court filing stated.

David claimed in his complaint that the same senior executive who he alleged had expressed worries about David alienating “White Gay men” had once criticized a Black staff member for meeting with a Black-owned consulting firm without a White person present because the firm’s employees might perform worse if they thought they were working for people of their race.

In its legal response, HRC denied that was true.

“This case is about a former leader who refuses to take responsibility for the consequences of his own actions that directly contradicted and deeply undermined the core mission of the organization he was entrusted to lead,” HRC lawyers wrote in the filing.