Citibank: Homophobic?

Imagine trying to start your own business.  You've got a reputation for being a rock star entrepreneur, capable of raising millions.  Your talents have taken you to some of the biggest companies -- AOL and T-Mobile among them -- and you've even had a stint at the White House. Now, you decide that you want to start up a business that seeks to become the biggest social media spot for gay men. Sound like a good plan?

Sure, unless Citibank decides to suspend your bank account because it doesn't like the fact that you're gay. Or the fact that the work you do caters to gay people. Or both.

Though it sounds unbelievable, the above scenario is definitely fact, not fiction. It all hovers around Jason Goldberg, the CEO of the soon-to-be-launched Fabulis. What is Fabulis? Well, it's goal is to become the go-to place for gay men on the Internet. Gay. Gay. Gay. In fact, "gay" is all over the Fabulis property. Which is, quite possibly, why Citibank decided to suspend their bank account without warning.

Well, the technical reason Citibank gave was that they found the content on the Fabulis blog to be objectionable. But looking over the Fabulis blog, there's nothing really that objectionable at all. Could it be that Citibank employees acted less out of concern for what was on the Fabulis blog, and more out of their own homophobia?

Certainly seems so. It's time for Citibank to pony up and answer why a very legitimate business had its account blocked, and why Citibank employees originally objected to the content of the Fabulis blog in the first place.

The exact quote that Goldberg received from Citibank when he discovered his bank account was suspended was "Content was not in compliance with Citibank’s standard policies." Not sure what those standard policies are, but if they're not rooted in homophobia, they must be rooted in downright stupidity. Because a quick check of Fabulis' blog tells me that I can win a free hoodie, how I can win a flip video camera, and how I can win free underwear with the Fabulis logo on it. That's objectionable?

Seriously, Citibank funds defense contractors who make bombs and missiles that kill lots of people each year. And they want to suspend the account of a gay social media site for being objectionable? But beyond that, as Nathaniel Whittemore writes over at Change.org's Social Entrepreneurship blog, it's pretty bad precedent for a bank to suspend accounts simply for content on a blog.

"First of all, a bank closing an account because of objectionable content on a blog!? What country do they think they're in? How is that in any way relevant to a bank's business?" Whittemore writes. He's right. Is Citibank seriously paying their employees -- with our bank bailout money, no less -- to morally police Web sites?

Citibank has since apologized to Fabulis in a rather bizarre way. According to Goldberg, "A manager from Citi just called to apologize and to say that all 3 of the citibank individuals who over the past 24 hours each individually claimed that fabulis’ account was to be terminated for compliance issues around the content of our site, were all wrong to have said what they said."

Ok, great. But what policies led these employees to make such a stupid judgment call in the first place? Citibank has some explaining to do. Urge them to start doing it now.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons