A seminar on gender-neutral pronouns hosted by Signature Bank just months before its collapse now has critics accusing the company of not having its priorities in order.
The bank, which was shut down by regulators at the weekend to avoid a US banking crisis, held the seminar in October and featured its chairman Scott Shay along with corporate consultant on gender issues Finn Brigham.
Video of the seminar, which goes for more than an hour, shows Brigham and Shay delivering a lecture about ‘pronouns’ with the ultra-woke company seizing the opportunity to laud their title as the ‘first bank in the United States to have an openly gay man on the board.’
It was in reference to Barney Frank, former Massachusetts congressman, who co-sponsored legislation regulating banks following the 2008 financial crisis only to this week have his role on the Signature Bank board come under fire.
Brigham, who works as director of project management for the Manhattan-based nonprofit Callen-Lorde Community Health Center – an LGBTQ health clinic – identifies as a ‘genderqueer trans masculine person.’
A seminar on gender-neutral pronouns held in October has critics of the embattled Signature Bank launching venomous attack on the company for appearing to not have their priorities in order
The clip then shows Brigham run down a list of pronouns and say: ‘The most common pronouns folks are familiar with are ‘she’ and ‘he.’
‘I don’t know if there’s anyone in the Signature Bank world, but probably you have clients that use ‘they”https://www.dailymail.co.uk/”them’ as pronouns,’ he says. ‘They’re gender-neutral pronouns on purpose.’
Brigham then goes on to describes how ‘folks that are non-binary … that intentionally don’t identify as male or female.’
‘Ze’ is another gender-neutral pronoun. The other part of that would be ‘hir’ — spelled H-I-R.’
‘And there are some folks who say, ‘Don’t use any pronouns for me. Just use my name.”
Brigham then runs down the list of pronouns with explanations on ‘how to use them.’
Twitter users were appalled by the viral video, one user commenting: ‘And now their pronouns are was/were.’
Another Twitter user wrote that the new pronouns should be ‘Has/Been.’
One user said: ‘Signature Bank CHAIRMAN just before the bank collapsed. Teaching his employees pronouns from this WOMAN.
‘Now you know why Biden and the Dems are desperate to bail them out. I wonder if shareholders still care about pronouns after they collapsed?’
While another quipped: ‘Maybe if the Banking Execs were Taking care of Business instead training Employees about Pronouns.’
Prior to the bank’s collapse, it published an annual Social Impact report that promoted ‘sustainability, diversity, equity, inclusion, community engagement, employee development, employee health and safety, and any other environmental, social, or governance-related initiatives.’
The collapse of Signature and Silicon Valley bank (SVB) has drawn criticism for spending a considerable amount of time spearheading multiple ‘woke’ LGBTQ+ programs and their emphasis on Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG).
Jay Ersapah at the helm of SVB’s Financial risk management launched initiatives such as the company’s first month-long Pride campaign and a new blog emphasizing mental health awareness for LGBTQ+ youth.
The more than hour-long seminar was co-hosted with Finn Brigham a corporate consultant on gender issues who spoke to appropriate pronouns to use with clients and employees
The video which goes for more than an hour sees Brigham and Shay delivering a lecture about ‘pronouns’ with the ultra-woke company seizing the opportunity to laud their title as the ‘first bank in the United States to have an openly gay man on the board’
Signature Bank was shut down by regulators at the weekend to avoid a US banking crisis
Following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank – New York officials were probing financial institutions with similar practices when they placed Signature Bank under The New York Division of Financial Services jurisdiction. It would later be taken over by the FDIC.
Both banks ran into problems when they did not have enough liquidity to cover a spate of recent withdrawals.
Frank, a Democrat from Massachusetts who helped craft legislation to regulate banks said he believes state officials were just trying to make an example of Signature Bank, and its government takeover was the wrong move.
He is now under fire, though, for serving on the bank’s board of directors.