Google employees boo company at drag show that was nearly cancelled amid religious employee protest

Published

2 years ago

June 29, 2023

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Google tried to distance itself from a pre-planned drag show featuring longtime performer “Peaches Christ” in San Francisco but employees still attended. Some of them booed their employer for what they viewed as a caving to pressure of an internal religion-led protest.

Jennifer Elias

A drag show originally meant to celebrate the end of Pride month turned into a rallying cry for corporate allyship as dozens of Google employees attended, some of whom booed their employer.

“I don’t usually usually talk about this sort of thing,” began longtime San Francisco-based drag performer Joshua Grannell, as he opened his a multi-performer drag show Tuesday evening from a small stage at a bar in the Castro neighborhood.

“Folks who work at Google put this together and we did this last year and it was fabulous and it was fun and we had a good time,” he continued. “And this year, a group of Christians at Google signed a petition to take this event from their employees because they thought it was upsetting, offensive, controversial.”

“Boo!” yelled dozens of attendees, including several Google employees wearing company “Pride” T-shirts.

Grannell, whose drag performer name is “Peaches Christ” was a planned performer at a drag show sponsored and promoted by Google to close out Pride month. However, as CNBC previously reported, the company removed its affiliation and instead encouraged employees away from the drag show to a new event at its offices. The move came as several hundred employees signed a petition opposing the drag performance, claiming it was offensive to their Christian religion and that they’d complained to human resources.

The company said the event hadn’t gone through the proper approval process but didn’t comment on the petition.

Attendees and Grannell said they viewed the change as a buckling to pressure of the Christian employees’ petition and complaints.

“I was called all sorts of things,” Grannell said on stage, referring to the petition. “Boo!” more attendees yelled. “We support you!” one employee yelled from the crowd.

Watch a video from the show here.

Both employees and Grannell told CNBC they were disappointed in the company for backtracking, adding that the company held a similar event last year without any problems.

Attendees described Grannell as an “icon” and “an institution” in the gay community.

“I’ve been a performer for nearly 30 years in San Francisco, and I employ hundreds of people, performers and artists across the city,” Grannell told CNBC.

“This thing that happened with Google, unfortunately for this event, is actually indicative of a huge groundswell of hatred across the country using drag queens and trans people a scapegoats,” he told the crowd Tuesday, which garnered more boos and yelling.

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 attempting to limit drag events.

Corporations have also faced backlash for Pride-related marketing. Bud Light came into the crosshairs after it struck a partnership with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney, while North Face received backlash for an ad featuring drag queen Pattie Gonia. Target and Kohl’s have been criticized for Pride-themed clothing.

Joshua Grannell, who goes by the stage name “Peaches Christ,”addressed Google’s decision to distance itself from the pre-planned drag show.

Jennifer Elias

Following Grannell’s opening monologue, he repeated the reason for the event was to celebrate Pride and then proceeded to introduce the performers on a small stage toward the back of the venue, which held rainbow-colored lights.

The first performer sang in a sequenced Marilyn Monroe-style red dress to Diana Ross’ upbeat “The Boss.” The next performer dawned a large, multi-color coat who danced to Gloria Gaynor’s “I will survive.”

A few others followed, with their own unique acts. Some were comedic musical skits, others featured dancing and lip syncing.

“For me, it’s real bummer to see this happen but I also think it needs to be called out,” Grannell told CNBC after the show, referring to Google’s decision to distance itself from the planned event. “If you’re going to put a rainbow flag on stuff and march in the queer Pride parade but not support your queer employees and not take a stand against anti-queer sentiment, even in the name of religion, then you’re not a real ally.”

Drag performer acted out a comedic skit about her love of cats while lip synching “Crazy” by Patsy Cline. The skit garnered laughs from the audience.

Grannell said the stakes for a lot of drag performers are high, as some of them have come to rely on corporate sponsorship. “We’ve now created a culture where corporations’ allyship includes paying performers and paying queer people to celebrate Pride month. Google sets a standard for a lot of companies in the industry and in San Francisco,” he added.

Attendees and employees alike danced, cheered and took turns walking dollar bills to the stage throughout the nearly two-hour event.

“You have some work to do, Googlers,” Grannell told the crowd as he ended the show. “We’ve got to keep fighting and we will win—we’re on the right side of history.”

The crowd erupted in applause and cheers.

Google did not respond to a request for comment.

Technology

PayPal introduces 3.7% yield on stablecoin balances to boost payments activity

Published

2 hours ago

April 23, 2025

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PayPal introduces 3.7% yield on stablecoin balances to boost payments activity

Close up of a woman’s hand paying with her smartphone in a cafe, scan and pay a bill on a card machine making a quick and easy contactless payment.

D3sign | Moment | Getty Images

PayPal and Venmo users will soon be able to earn yield on their stablecoin holdings, the company said Wednesday.

Customers will earn an annual interest rate of 3.7% beginning this summer. It will be paid in the PayPal USD stablecoin (PYUSD) on their holdings of the same token. The rewards will be available to use for transacting with other users on the platform, funding international transfers, exchanging dollars or other fiat currency or to make purchases with PayPal merchants.

PayPal launched PYUSD in 2023, making it the first major financial institution to launch a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin. It now makes up less than 1% of the market, which is dominated primarily by Tether’s’ USDT (66% of market cap) and Circle’s USDC (28%), according to CryptoQuant. The total market cap for stablecoins has grown 37% in the past year.

Unlike bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies, stablecoins are designed to have a stable value against a non-crypto asset, usually the U.S. dollar. Historically, they’re used for trading and as collateral in decentralized finance (DeFi), and stablecoins are closely watched for evidence of demand, liquidity and activity in the market. More recently, they’ve become more attractive as a way to offer underbanked users access to financial services. Additionally, yield-bearing stablecoins have increased in popularity.

PayPal has long maintained that as its business model lies in payments, its use of stablecoins should be focused on that function, enabling the transfer and exchange of value and purchasing goods. Others, by contrast, such as Tether and Circle, which filed earlier this month to go public, make money from interest income by holding reserves in interest-bearing assets.

Now, in order to get users to use PYUSD within the PayPal ecosystem, the company is incentivizing them to buy the stablecoins to help get them to that step.

“Stablecoins have the power to reshape the future of commerce as the foundation for the next generation of payments,” Alex Chriss, president and CEO of PayPal, said in a statement shared with CNBC. “Combining this innovative technology with our expansive global network allows us to help all users thrive in the world economy.”

PayPal is committed “to an innovative, commerce-ready ecosystem by enabling it for the settlement of cross border transfers, vendor payments and in the future for additional payment use cases like payouts and bill pay,” he added.

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Technology

Meta makes ads on Threads available to all eligible advertisers

Published

4 hours ago

April 23, 2025

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Meta makes ads on Threads available to all eligible advertisers

This photo illustration created in Washington, D.C., on July 6, 2023, shows the logo for Threads, an Instagram app, reflected on its opening page.

Stefani Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images

Meta has opened up its Threads microblogging service to all advertisers.

The social networking giant said Wednesday in a blog post that all “eligible advertisers globally” will be able to run ads on Threads, marking an expansion from the company’s initial testing with a few U.S. and Japanese companies, which began in January.

Businesses running Threads ads can also access Meta’s so-called inventory filter that determines whether their promotions appear near offensive content, Meta said in the blog post.

“These ads will be delivered in select markets at launch and will roll out to additional markets as we continue to test and learn,” Meta said in the post.

Meta’s testing of Threads ads represents the company’s initial foray into generating revenue for its Twitter-like service that debuted in July 2023.

In January, Meta Chief Financial Officer Susan Li said during a fourth-quarter earnings call with analysts that the company’s “introduction of ads on Threads will be gradual” and executives “don’t anticipate it being a meaningful driver of overall impression or revenue growth in 2025.”

Analysts have previously noted that Threads could potentially be a major source of revenue for Meta, akin to X, formerly known as Twitter, before Tesla chief Elon Musk bought the social messaging platform in 2022. Twitter’s annual sales were $5 billion in 2021.

Threads has more than 320 million monthly active users “and has been adding more than 1 million sign-ups per day,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told analysts in January.

“I expect Threads to continue on its trajectory to become the leading discussion platform and eventually reach 1 billion people over the next several years,” Zuckerberg said at the time.

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Zuckerberg vs. Huang: Why Trump is backing Nvidia

Technology

5 quotes: Elon Musk on robotaxi timeline, Optimus robots, tariffs, energy and Tesla’s future

Published

4 hours ago

April 23, 2025

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5 quotes: Elon Musk on robotaxi timeline, Optimus robots, tariffs, energy and Tesla's future

Elon Musk steps off Air Force One upon arrival at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, on March 22, 2025. US President Donald Trump will be spending the weekend at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Brendan Smialowski | Afp | Getty Images

Elon Musk tried to rally Tesla bulls Tuesday, brushing off a weak first-quarter earnings report and touting a future of “sustainable abundance.”

Tesla missed expectations on the top and bottom lines and reported a 71% plunge in net income from the year prior.

His comments came as the electric vehicle faces a turbulent year, with shares down nearly 40%, European market share slumping along with deliveries — and the brand under siege with regular protests at showrooms across the U.S.

When the report came out Tuesday after hours, shares did not react, with all eyes on Musk‘s comments on the earnings call. Shares popped Wednesday along with the broader stock market.

Musk immediately addressed his efforts with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency under President Donald Trump, saying he would be reducing his federal budget-slashing efforts starting in May.

“I’ll have to continue doing it for, I think, probably the remainder of the president’s term,” Musk said on the call. He added, “So I think I’ll continue to spend a day or two per week on government matters for as long as the President would like me to do so and as long as it is useful but starting next month, I’ll be allocating far more of my time to Tesla.”

Here are five key quotes from Musk on the Tesla earnings call, as transcribed by FactSet:

Future of Tesla:

“The future of the company is fundamentally based on large-scale autonomous cars and large-scale and large volume, vast numbers of autonomous humanoid robots.

So, the value of the company that makes truly useful autonomous humanoid robots and autonomous useful vehicles at scale at low cost, which is what Tesla is going to do is staggering. I continue to believe that Tesla with excellent execution will be the most valuable company in the world by far. “

Financial impact of robotaxi:

“I said I think on the last earnings call that we will start to see the prosperity of autonomy take effect in a material way around the middle of next year. We expect to have – be selling fully autonomous rides in June in Austin as we’ve been saying for now several months. So, that’s continued.

But the real question from financial standpoint is when does it really become material and affect the bottom-line of the company and start to be a fundamental part of the – when does it move the financial needle in a significant way? That’s probably around the middle of next year, second half of next year.”

Optimus robots:

“And with regards to Optimus, making good progress in Optimus. We expect to have thousands of Optimus robots working in Tesla factories by the end of this year, beginning this fall. And we expect to scale Optimus up faster than any product, I think, in history to get to millions of units per year as soon as possible. I think we feel confident in getting to 1 million units per year in less than five years, maybe four years. So by 2030, I feel confident in predicting 1 million Optimus units per year. It might be 2029.”

Tariffs:

“Now tariffs are still tough on a company when margins are still low. But we do have localized supply chains in both America, Europe, and China. So that puts us in a stronger position than any of our competitors. And undoubtedly, I’m going to get a lot of questions about tariffs. And I just want to emphasize that the tariff decision is entirely up to the President of the United States. I will weigh in with my advice with the President, which if he will listen to my advice but then it’s up to him, of course, to make his decision.

I’ve been on the record many times saying that I believe lower tariffs are generally a good idea for prosperity. But this decision is fundamentally up to the elected representative of the people being the President of the United States. So I’ll continue to advocate for lower tariffs rather than higher tariffs, but that’s all I can do.”

Tesla energy segment:

“With respect to energy, our energy business is doing very well. The Megapack … enables utility companies to output far more total energy than would otherwise be the case. When you think of the energy capability of a grid, it’s much more than, let’s say, total energy output per year. If a power plants could operate at peak power for all 24 hours as opposed to being at half power, sometimes a quarter power at night, then you could double the energy output of existing power plants.”