Google dropped from LGBT equality index

An anti-LGBTQ app on the PlayStore that influences a person's sexual orientation using psychological or spiritual interventions has raised questions about Google's corporate equality ideals leading to the search engine's suspension from the CEI rating.

The app "Conversation therapy" originates from a non-profit organisation -- Living Hope Ministries -- which "proclaims a Christ-centred, Biblical world-view of sexual expression rooted in one man and one woman in a committed, monogamous, heterosexual marriage for life because anything less than this ideal falls short of God's best for humanity".

US-based LGBTQ civil rights advocacy group -- Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation -- has suspended Google from its 2019 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) for failing to remove the app from PlayStore, USA Today reported on Thursday.

The CEI is a report published by the HRC Foundation as a tool to rate American businesses on their treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) employees, consumers and investors.

"Pending remedial steps by the company to address this app that can cause harm to the LGBTQ community, the CEI rating is suspended," the report noted.

"Conversation therapy" is a practice that is used to influence a person's sexual orientation or gender identity using psychological or spiritual interventions.

Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft have removed the app from their platforms and currently, petition-filing platform Change.org has collected over 1,40,000 signatures for removal of this app from PlayStore.

Google's suspension from the CEI comes as a shock especially because the company has been known to support the LGBTQ community.

In 2018, Google scored a full 100 per cent on the CEI report.

Google has not yet commented on the matter.

--IANS

rp/mag/in