EA staff walkout called off after EA leadership makes statement about LGBTQ+ community
EA staff members who threatened to stage a walkout due to the company’s lack of action or statement during Pride Month have reportedly called the event off.
This news comes from GamesIndustry.Biz, who reports that after EA leadership made a statement earlier this month about not adopting a company-wide rainbow logo this month for Pride, the walkout was called off.
Originally the call to action for the walkout was largely due to EA’s unwillingness to take a stand against the ongoing hatred directed towards the trans community, as well as women’s rights. Back in May this year, EA told staff during a town hall meeting that they would not be speaking out on trans or abortion rights and that they couldn’t take a stance on everything happening in the world.
“Being an inclusive company means being inclusive of all those points of view,” EA said to staff during the meeting. Despite this statement, various EA employees – such as Head of Respawn, Vince Zampella – have spoken out in support of trans rights.
Nevertheless, the call to action was still planned to go ahead on June 3. Speaking to GamesIndustry.Biz, an employee is said to have stated the following in EA’s internal Slack group:
“If we see the company rainbow-wash their logo without making any substantive statement in support of trans people being abused nationwide in the US and elsewhere, especially after stating that the company doesn’t want to make any statement not supported by the diverse viewpoints of our 13,000 employees, we collectively walk out on Friday, June 3rd. Just slapping a rainbow on our logo in June without any broader action will be unacceptable.”
However the EA walkout never happened, and on June 3 EA instead shared a tweet in support of the LGBTQ+ community. The tweet included a link that took readers to EA’s Pride Month page on their official website. One of the statements shared in the post was: “As a company, we are united that Trans Rights are Human Rights. Women’s Rights are Human Rights. Our support is unwavering for our people, our players, and our LGBTQ+ communities.”
The blog post also spoke about the theme for this year’s Pride Month. “This year’s theme, chosen by our Pride Board, Authentically Proud: You Belong! reminds us to do just that. Please participate in our Pride Month 2022 programming to find all the ways we can learn, advocate, and celebrate together.”
As reported, the EA logo across all social media accounts has not been changed to reflect Pride.
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