Scott Shay, the chairman of doomed Signature Bank, co-hosted a company seminar last October that spent more than an hour instructing employees to use gender-neutral pronouns like “Ze” and “Hir.” was
Video circulating on social media shows Shay – whose New York-based bank was shut down by regulators over the weekend to stem the US banking crisis – with Finn Brigham, a corporate consultant on gender issues.
Video of the Pride Council event introduces Brigham, who serves as director of project management for the Manhattan-based nonprofit Kallen-Lord Community Health Center, an LGBTQ health clinic, as a “gender trans male person.”
In the Hour Plus video, Shay and Brigham deliver a lecture titled “Know Your Pronouns,” part of Brigham Bank’s “Social Impact” series.
Shay opened the session by boasting that Signature Bank was “the first bank in the United States to have an openly gay man on our board.”
The chairman cited Barney Frank, the former Massachusetts congressman who co-sponsored legislation regulating banks after the 2008 financial crisis — only to come under fire this week for his role on the signing board. for
The clip then shows Brigham running down a list of pronouns.
“The most common pronouns people are familiar with are ‘she’ and ‘he,'” says Brigham.
“I don’t know if there’s anyone in the Signature Bank world, but you probably have customers who use ‘they’/’them’ as pronouns,” he says. “They are gender-neutral pronouns on purpose.”
Brigham then describes “people who are non-binary … who do not consciously identify as male or female.”
“‘Ze’ is another gender-neutral pronoun,” says Brigham. “The other part of that would be ‘hir’ – spelled HIR.”
“And there are people who say, ‘Don’t use any pronouns for me. Just use my name.'”
Brigham then runs down the list of pronouns with explanations about “how to use them.”
On social media, the reaction was disappointing.
“And now their pronouns were/were,” one social media user commented.
Another Twitter user wrote that the new pronoun should be “is/been”.
Follow the post’s coverage of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank
Before the bank collapsed over the weekend, it published an annual social impact report that included “sustainability, diversity, equity, inclusion, community involvement, employee development, employee health and safety, and any other environmental, social, or governance issues.” -Encourages related initiatives.”
A representative for Signature Bank declined to comment. The Post has reached out to the Cullen-Lord Community Health Center for a response.
Signature and the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank have tested financial institutions’ emphasis on ESG investment strategies.
Jay Ersapah, Head of Financial Risk Management at SVB’s UK branch, Initiatives started Such as the company’s first month-long Pride campaign and a new blog emphasizing mental health awareness for LGBTQ+ youth.
The Biden administration’s move to backstop all depositors at both banks drew criticism from those who alleged bias against Democrat-aligned tech workers.
one in op-ed in Monday’s Wall Street JournalPresidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy argued that rather than hedging for financial risks, “SVB’s real ‘hedge’ was to curry favor with the Biden administration.”
He noted that last year, The bank released its ESG report Stating that it has committed $5 billion to “sustainable financing and carbon neutral operations to support a healthy planet.”
