Alphonso David, the former president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights group, is suing the organization he once headed, accusing HRC of firing him because he was Black.

In the lawsuit, filed on Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, David alleges that the Human Rights Campaign had a “racist, biased culture” and a “deserved reputation for unequal treatment of its non-white employees,” with a culture where “non-white staffers were marginalized, tokenized, and denied advancement to high-level positions.”

The lawsuit seeks punitive and compensatory damages, including “the value of all compensation and benefits lost” due to his firing, from the organization for violations of New York State and federal law, as well as reinstatement to his position as president.

David, who became the first Black president in the organization’s 40-year history in 2019, was terminatedby the Boards of Directors for both HRC and the HRC Foundation, the organization’s educational arm, after David was named in a probe by New York Attorney General Letitia James investigating allegations of sexual misconduct by former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), for whom David had served as in-house counsel prior to joining HRC.

In the attorney general’s report, David was accused of providing aides to Cuomo with the confidential personnel file of a former staffer, Lindsey Boylan, who had publicly accused the governor of sexual harassment. Those aides then allegedly leaked the file, including workplace complaints about Boylan, to media outlets in an attempt to discredit her.

David claimed that he did nothing wrong, and in fact had a legal obligation to hand over the document in question — which he has characterized as a copy of a memo he helped craft about his time investigating and counseling Boylan over an alleged workplace conflict in which she was involved — to Cuomo’s office upon request. The conflict was unrelated to Boylan’s claims that she was harassed by Cuomo.

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Following the release of the attorney general’s report, HRC and the HRC Foundation hired law firm Sidley Austin LLP to conduct a 30-day internal investigation into David’s role in the sexual harassment scandal. But according to David’s lawsuit, HRC’s Board co-chairs Morgan Cox and Jodie Patterson — who had previously issued a statement supporting David — called him at the start of Labor Day weekend to demand that he resign.

David asked what the investigation had uncovered, and whether a report would be issued explaining what he was accused of doing wrong. But the board co-chairs refused to say what the investigation’s findings were, and refused — breaking earlier promises — to make the report public or even hand a copy of its findings over to David.

“Because David did not do anything wrong, and because HRC could not even articulate what it was accusing him of doing wrong, David refused to resign. In response, HRC then retaliated against David and terminated his employment purportedly ‘for cause,’ depriving him of the benefits” of a five-year contract renewal that had been negotiated prior to the release of the attorney general’s report.

David claims in the lawsuit that his treatment, including his termination, differed greatly from how his white predecessor, Chad Griffin, had been treated, despite “repeated, serious scandals — many of which involved HRC’s mistreatment of Black and other marginalized individuals.” For instance, he claims, Griffin was allowed to keep his job despite a report detailing the mistreatment suffered by Black and transgender HRC employees during Griffin’s tenure.

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The lawsuit also claims that David and other Black employees frequently encountered racist or hostile attitudes while trying to carry out their jobs. David says he was told by a board member to stop mentioning his race in public comments following a speech about racial and ethnic differences in the LGBTQ movement. He adds that one senior executive told him that his public support for racial justice, as the head of HRC, risked alienating white donors and specifically “white gay men.” That same executive allegedly expressed displeasure at hiring Black-owned consulting firm, and criticized a Black staffer for meeting with the consulting firm without a white person present.

David also alleges that the board co-chairs admitted to him that he was being paid less than his predecessor for performing the same work, and that the discrepancy was due to his race.

But Joni Madison, the interim president of HRC, who previously served as David’s chief of staff, pushed back against David’s allegations, saying the organization was “disappointed” that David “has chosen to take retaliatory action against the Human Rights Campaign for his termination which resulted from his own actions.” She also said that David’s actions in handing over Boylan’s file to Cuomo’s team to discredit Boylan violated HRC’s conflict-of-interest policy and its overall mission.

“Mr. David’s complaint is riddled with untruths. We are confident through the legal process that it will be apparent that Mr. David’s termination was based on clear violations of his contract and HRC’s mission, and as president of HRC, he was treated fairly and equally,” Madison said in a statement. “Notably, some of the individuals he accuses of discriminatory behavior are people of color and champions of racial equity and inclusion who provided support and guidance as Mr. David led the organization. Also, the Executive Committees, constituted of independent directors, were comprised of seven individuals, five of whom are Black.

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“Mr. David’s actions as detailed in the NY State Attorney General’s report were a painful revelation, particularly because so many members of the LGBTQ+ community are survivors of assault and harassment themselves,” she added. “Moving forward, we will not be distracted and will remain focused on our critical work to bring full equality and liberation of LGBTQ+ people everywhere, especially for the most marginalized people in our community.”

Speaking to The Washington Post, David explained his decision to sue the organization he once headed, saying: “I had to challenge a system and a pattern of bias that has not only affected me, but it has affected way too many Black and Brown people. Discrimination and bias are rife within HRC. And I’m just the latest person to be affected.”

Other Black employees who previously worked for HRC told the Post that they believe there is a systemic problem with racism within the organization, although they also noted that he oversaw the organization while those problems persisted.

“I don’t think that Alphonso is wrong in saying that there is a culture of racism and white supremacy, as well as across the board pay inequities, at the Human Rights Campaign,” Michael Vazquez, an Afro-Latino activist who was HRC’s faith program director until August, said in a statement. “At the same time, we have to recognize that a lot of these issues were reported to Alphonso, to human resources and general counsel while Alphonso was in charge of the organization and nothing seemed to change.”

J. Maurice McCants-Pearsall, a Black activist who worked as HRC’s director of HIV and health equity, posted a public letter to Twitter denouncing David’s firing back in September. In it, he noted that some white employees were reticent to embrace David when he was first named president, and suggested that those hostile attitudes may have played a role the decision to ultimately terminate David.

“[F]or decades and in recent years, HRC has struggled with addressing internal racism among staff,” McCants-Pearsall said. “…I’d be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to question if we’d be in the same situation had Alphonso been a white gay man? My answer is no. I believe that the board would have gone above and beyond to protect him. However, Alphonso is a Black man, and sadly, Black people are the most despised creatures in the world. This sentiment is why he wasn’t afforded the same level of blanketed trust and support given to his predecessor.”