A furious outcry from Exxon Mobil Corp. employees in Houston has erupted after the company announced plans to prohibit the display of the LGBTQ-rights flag on the company’s flagpole outside its offices during Pride month in June.
Exxon has changed its policy on what flags can be displayed outside its offices, Bloomberg News reports. The policy says that “external position flags,” like PRIDE and Black Lives Matter, can’t be displayed. Instead, the rule allows a flag for an LGBTQ group that doesn’t have a lot of Exxon’s logo on it.
In response, members of Exxon’s PRIDE Houston Chapter are refusing to represent the company at the city’s June 25 Pride celebration, according to an employee group email also seen by Bloomberg.
“Corporate leadership took exception to a rainbow flag being flown at our facilities” last year, Exxon’s PRIDE Houston employee group wrote in the email Thursday. “PRIDE was informed the justification was centered on the need for the corporation to maintain ‘neutrality.’”
The dispute comes as employees, investors and customers increasingly push America’s biggest corporations to take stances on social issues such as LGBTQ rights, racial equality and abortion. Walt Disney Co. last month decided to publicly oppose legislation promoted by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis that critics call the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, prompting lawmakers to move to strip the entertainment giant of special self-governance privileges.
