Google has for years been funding events around the country for Pride month. This year the company was set to have a big end-of-the-month drag show in San Francisco at a bar called Beaux SF. One of the featured performers at the event was Peaches Christ who apparently was featured at an Google sanctioned event in the same bar last year. But this year a group of people inside the company complained that the event represented religious discrimination and a violation of Google’s event guidelines.

A few hundred employees signed the petition opposing the drag performance, claiming it sexualizes and disrespects Christian co-workers, and accused Google of religious discrimination, according to the petition viewed by CNBC. “Their provocative and inflammatory artistry is considered a direct affront to the religion beliefs and sensitivities of Christians,” the petition stated, referring to the drag performer…

The petition states that organizers complained to People Operations, Google’s human resources department, and claimed the venue violates one of Google’s event guidelines, which bans sexuality explicit activity. The petition also demands an apology from organizers and promoters of the event.

Google did back away from the event but refused to say whether or not the complaint had anything to do with that decision. As an alternative the company held another Pride event in their San Francisco office. The letter criticizing the event also demanded an apology from the company but it’s not clear if the signatories got one. The Federalist spoke to some of the employees behind the letter:

Michael Harrington, a software engineer, said he has enjoyed working at Google for over five years. He praised the company’s culture of open discussion, debate, and criticism, but said he feels the company’s decision to include the June 27 event and promote it to employees crosses “an uncrossable line.”

“I joined Google to be an engineer, not an activist,” he said.

But he feels the situation is having “a reverse chilling effect, an emboldening effect that is, on willingness to attack Christians in the workplace in general.”

Naturally, there were other Google employees who were not happy about this.

Some employees criticized the petition, saying the complaints were subjective and feed into political culture wars, according to internal discussions viewed by CNBC. Drag shows have been a target of religious and conservative organizations and politicians leading up to the 2024 presidential election. That includes a flurry of legislative proposals backed by GOP governors taking aim at drag events.

Employees also criticized Google leadership for what they viewed as the quiet removal of the event from the internal website and a buckling to petitioners’ pressure.

The original drag event went ahead as planned, it just wasn’t being promoted by Google. According to the SF Chronicle, Peaches interrupted the show to comment on the situation.

A video of Christ, shared from the event with her in full drag regalia, saw her break character, somewhat, to address the audience.

“This thing that happened with Google, unfortunately today for this event, is actually indicative of a huge groundswell of hatred across the country using drag queens and trans people as scapegoats,” Christ said. “All it is is hatred.”

The manager of the club said he felt good about it.

Joshua Cook, the managing partner at Beaux, said he heard from Google employees, who said they are part of the company’s LGBTQ group and who were organizing the event, that they were dealing with some complications internally with their human resources department, but that the show would still go on as planned.

“We are very thankful that the queer Google group continues to choose us as a space to celebrate,” Cook said, adding, “I let them know, ‘Fabulous, we pissed off some Christians.’”

It’s a free country and if Joshua Cook wants to make pissing off Christians his goal in life he’s free to do that. But Google really shouldn’t be endorsing that as a company. I think this kind of confirms that the Christians who objected had a point.

I really don’t think states or companies should be promoting or banning drag shows for adults. If adults enjoy this and want to attend these events they should be free to do so. Not just free, they should be left alone and not harassed by anyone. The reason this topic has gotten attention recently is because some events were being held at schools or involved young children in the audience. Given the explicitly sexual nature of many of the performances that does not seem right. This is the same issue some parents have with certain books being made available to elementary age children. No one should be banning books obviously but it is reasonable for parents to have a say that some images or descriptions go beyond what they want their young children to encounter in school.