California requires venture capital firms to record ventures’ races, sexuality

California Governor Gavin Newsom Sunday signed a bill requiring venture capital firms to record and publish the races, disabilities, genders and sexuality belonging to the founders of the companies being funded.

Effective March 1, 2025, VC firms must submit annual reports to the state’s Civil Rights Department disclosing the personal details of each founding team member of each venture. These details must include each member’s race, ethnicity, disability status, whether they “identify as LGBTQ+,” and their “gender identities . . . including nonbinary and gender-fluid identities.” 

These reports must also include how much the VC firm invested throughout the year and how much was invested in companies with “diverse founding team members.” Bill SB 54 defines “diverse” as anyone “who self-identifies as a woman, nonbinary, Black, African American, Hispanic, Latino-Latina, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, Native Hawaiian, Alaskan Native, disabled, veteran or disabled veteran, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer.”

The reports must be released to the public, excluding the names of the team members. Firms who fail to submit the reports will face heavy penalties.

“This bill resonates deeply with my commitment to advance equity and provide for greater economic empowerment of historically underrepresented communities,” said Gov. Newsom. 

At the same time, SB 54 acknowledges that “[e]xisting law generally prohibits discrimination in the provision of privileges and services on the basis of sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship, primary language, and immigration status.”

Demographic data show that 39% of Californians are Latino, 35% are White, 15% are Asian American, and 5% are Black, in addition to other minorities. But despite Whites no longer constituting the majority, the crusade for “diversity” has proven to be more anti-White than pro-minority, and has permeated all state institutions.

Earlier this year, De Anza College Office of Equity, Social Justice, and Education Faculty Director Dr. Tabia Lee, who is Black, became the victim of “non-stop hostility” from her co-workers after she created a Google Doc system to help streamline processes for a colleague. 

“I’m a black woman, and [they’re] telling me that I’m white-splaining,” Lee told the New York Post. “[Everyone] acted like I had injured [my colleague] instead of it being the other way around, because I didn’t confess to my white supremacy or whatever.”

Lee, who has been in the DEI business for years, was excited to get the job at De Anza in 2021.

“I researched them, and I thought we had similar values around diversity, equity and anti-racism,” she said. “I was selected, and I was like, wow, this is a dream come true.”

But that dream was crushed when Lee asked why the university was capitalizing “Black” in communications but not “white”, citing a recommendation from the National Association of Black Journalists that races be capitalized.

“For that, I was accused of being a white supremacist,” she said. “These constant accusations of calling people racist or calling them a white supremacist or saying that they’re aligned with right wingers — that’s such ridiculousness. It’s very damaging.”

In another instance, Lee questioned a ritual by the college where faculty members recite an acknowledgement that the land the college is built on belongs to Native Americans. While Lee supported the ritual — which is performed at the beginning of classes, meetings and Zoom calls — she informed her colleagues that they were declaring solidarity with the wrong tribe, sparking backlash.

“To me that signals, it doesn’t really matter,” Lee said. “We’re doing [land acknowledgements] to signal our alignment with critical social justice ideology and not to really make any real changes. It’s a performative, almost pseudo-religious exercise.”

When Jewish students and faculty members approached her about being subjected to antisemitism on campus, Lee decided to organize a conference to address the issue. But her colleagues told her the event was unimportant and that Jews are white oppressors.

Lee says her colleagues decided she had to be eliminated by “any means necessary.” She was recently denied tenure for her “inability to demonstrate cooperation in working with colleagues and staff” and an “unwillingness to accept constructive criticism.”