San Francisco Standard and its CEO sued for gender discrimination, harassment

The San Francisco Standard’s former director of growth has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the paper and its CEO, Griffin Gaffney, accusing him of making sexually explicit and demeaning comments involving women in the workplace.

The lawsuit, filed by Julia Ryan on Sept. 9, alleges that in one instance, Gaffney said it took a “hot ass” to close a business deal, and suggested that Ryan and others should obtain gym memberships for that reason. 

Gaffney twice suggested he should have an affair with the “significant other of one of the Standard’s prominent business partners,” Ryan alleges, and referenced a Scissor Sisters album cover that features the buttocks of a male dancer. In another instance, Ryan alleges that Gaffney said a woman was one-quarter her previous size after taking Ozempic.

“I’ve had the opportunity to work in a few newsrooms in my career. This was unlike anything I’d seen in my career,” Ryan said in an interview. “The level of inappropriateness and lack of professionalism and sexism was shocking for me to see.”

In a statement, the Standard said the allegations in Ryan’s lawsuit were not factual.

“Ms. Ryan was hired to lead subscription growth at the Standard. That membership growth fell well short of the company’s ambitions is not in dispute,” the organization wrote.

“Ms. Ryan acknowledged the shortfall at the time, and her complaint does not dispute it now. What she disputes is why her employment ended, and on that the allegations do not reflect the facts. Gender played no role in the decision. We will address these claims through the legal process, not in the press.”

The lawsuit also alleges that the organization under Gaffney was slow to fire a man accused of disparaging behavior towards female coworkers, hired a male intern despite concerns about inappropriate behavior, and that male employees who performed poorly were held to different standards. 

Ryan, who was in charge of the Standard’s subscription growth, worked at the newsroom from June 2024 until her firing in August 2025. She worked remotely, but traveled to San Francisco on occasion.

Her 19-page suit alleged the Standard lacked a “proper human resources function” to report an alleged pattern in which Gaffney “routinely criticized, demeaned, and made fun of women” because the only HR staff member was “very close” to Gaffney and reported directly to him. 

One former employee who spoke to Mission Local described that HR employee as ineffective.

Ryan alleges that she discussed these issues with other managers and raised them to the Standard’s leadership team, which her lawsuit described as male-dominated. (Gaffney is married to a man, and the lawsuit does not allege any sexual advances.)

She describes the following timeline:

• A 20 percent raise in January 2025, and a “glowing” performance review in February or March 2025 with “no negative feedback” and positive comments “throughout her tenure.”
• A subsequent bonus due to Ryan’s “exceptional year,” and praise from Gaffney through July 22, 2025.
• Then, on Aug. 1, 2025, Ryan said Gaffney emailed her “with negative feedback he had never given her before” and “continued to blame” for what Ryan called “issues outside of her control.” When Ryan told Gaffney he was holding her to a double standard over male colleagues, he “immediately became enraged.”
• Five days later, on Aug. 6, Gaffney fired her, Ryan says. “Ms. Ryan was genuinely shocked,” the lawsuit states. 

Her complaint seeks compensation for lost earnings and the distress she describes in the suit.

Ryan described the decision to file her lawsuit as “difficult” — weighing the blowback on her career with the obligation to set an example for other people with similar experiences.

“I’m concerned about it being very public, but ultimately it was important for me to do and say something,” Ryan said. “What I went through was incredibly isolating at times and difficult to handle, and I hope this helps people realize there is a systemic problem here.”

The lawsuit focuses on allegations of wrongful termination, but also describes a “hostile” work environment. During a work event months earlier, in February 2025, Ryan alleges Gaffney described a woman who had “crazy eyes” and who he didn’t recognize “because Ozempic. She’s 1/4th previous size.” 

In April 2025, Ryan said Gaffney disparaged a prominent female leader in tech as unqualified for her role and, in the lawsuit’s words, “only became famous because of her brother.”

“Ms. Ryan did not observe Mr. Gaffney making these kinds of remarks about men,” the lawsuit reads.

It adds that Gaffney made multiple sexually explicit comments in Slack conversations with Ryan, including the suggestion that he have an affair with a business partner’s significant other. In this same conversation, Ryan alleges Gaffney wrote that it takes “a hot ass” to close a deal.

Ryan further alleges that male members of the Standard’s leadership team hired a male intern full-time despite concerns raised at a 2025 meeting that the intern acted inappropriately toward a female intern who had complained about his conduct. 

Ryan said that in another instance, the leadership team did fire a male employee “due to his disparaging behavior towards female employees” after a female colleague asked them to do so.

Mission Local spoke with four former employees who roughly agreed that the Standard was an imperfect workplace and Gaffney an imperfect leader. They wanted to remain anonymous because they continue to work in the news industry.

Two former employees who spoke with Mission Local worked closely with Gaffney. One high-level employee said the behavior described in the lawsuit matched the employee’s own time working at the Standard. They described an “uphill struggle for women” and “bizarre” comments from Griffin.

Another former, high-level employee defended Gaffney — arguing that Ryan was, herself, a toxic leader who was difficult to work with — although she acknowledged the Standard felt like a “tech company” under Gaffney, and that it was difficult working there at times. 

But the employee disputed the notion of Gaffney being a “mean-spirited” or ill-intentioned person. 

Two of the workers who did not work closely with Gaffney said the lawsuit did not come as a surprise, and that the organization was dogged by a “boy’s club” atmosphere under Gaffney. 

One of those former employees who didn’t work closely with Gaffney said the Standard was “a very toxic workplace, for many different reasons,” including sexual innuendo “very inherent” to the work environment that was unchecked by Gaffney. The employee described the Standard, during her time there, as a male-dominated workplace.

The Standard launched in 2021 with funding from the billionaire venture capitalist Michael Moritz, formerly of Sequoia Capital. Gaffney co-founded the news organization with Moritz. The organization has emerged as a premier source of news for San Franciscans, and a competitor with the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Ryan said she knew of at least three high-level male employees who were widely acknowledged to be underperforming, and that Gaffney admitted so himself to her. 

Nonetheless, the lawsuit states, the Standard gave these male employees “many months and even years” to improve, and that it supported them but failed to do so for underperforming female employees. 

“One of these male employees had documented performance issues for years before The Standard gave him several months of executive coaching and a performance improvement plan, then finally fired him,” the lawsuit reads.

“The other two were not fired despite receiving significant negative feedback throughout 2024 and 2025. They both received executive coaching and other efforts to improve their performance.”

“Upon information and belief, multiple other high-level women who worked at the Standard experienced similar discriminatory and harassing treatment prior to being fired or resigning,” the lawsuit reads.

Additional reporting by Frankie Solinsky Duryea.