Alphonso David, former president of the Human Rights Campaign, lost his job in September in the wake of revelations that he had advised aides to Andrew M. Cuomo, then governor of New York, on the response to a sexual harassment allegation. David claims in federal court in New York that he faced repeated racial bias while working at HRC.

“HRC underpaid David, and then terminated him, because he is Black,” David’s lawyers wrote in the complaint, which was filed in federal court in New York.

David claims that board members told him that he was initially paid less because he is Black. He says he was encouraged by a board member to stop mentioning his race in public comments after a speech about racial and ethnic differences in the LGBTQ movement. He also recounts being told by a senior HRC executive that his public support for racial justice risked alienating White donors and specifically “White gay men.”


The same senior executive, according to the complaint, 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 think they are working for people of their race.