Houston Employees Protest Exxon's Ban on Pride Flags

ExxonMobil has banned LGBTQ flags from being flown outside of its office buildings during Pride Month, and its Houston-based employees are protesting.

The energy company recently announced it is prohibiting “external position flags,” such as Pride flags and Black Lives Matter flags, from being displayed outside of company facilities, according to an email that Bloomberg acquired last week. In response, employees from Exxon’s PRIDE Houston chapter are refusing to represent the company at the city’s June 25 LGBTQ Pride parade.

“It is difficult to reconcile how ExxonMobil recognizes the value of promoting our corporation as supportive of the LGBTQ+ community externally (e.g. advertisements, Pride parades, social-media posts) but now believes it inappropriate to visibly show support for our LGBTQ+ employees in the workplace,” Exxon’s PRIDE group wrote in an April 21 email.

Despite rainbow flags being flown outside Exxon offices last year, PRIDE said the new decision was “centered on the need for the corporation to maintain ‘neutrality.’”

Read more: http://www.outsmartmagazine.com/2022/04/houston-employees-protest-exxons-ban-on-pride-flags/