Why Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration fired its top DEI and LGBTQ+ affairs officials due to a ‘semi-nude’ photo neither sent

The story of how two top Philadelphia city officials ended up being fired less than a year after they joined Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration started with a “semi-nude” photograph neither of them sent.

And it ended with Brandee Anderson, who until Tuesday was the city’s chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer, questioning the city’s commitment to her former office’s work and accusing Parker of fostering a toxic work environment that Anderson said led to her being fired “unjustly.”

The path between those two points was long and winding.

“I did my due diligence in flagging the issue and feel like I very much was retaliated against because I didn’t send anyone illicit pictures, and when it was reported to me, I reported it to the appropriate parties,” Anderson said in an interview with The Inquirer. “It just felt like scapegoating.”

High-ranking officials rarely speak candidly about what happens behind the scenes in City Hall, even after they leave office. Anderson said she is speaking out to share the truth about a workplace culture that “puts a higher value on loyalty than integrity” and to call out what she sees as a failure to live up to promises on diversity, equity and inclusion issues.

“As a DEI leader, it’s important to speak truth to power and to stand up for marginalized voices, and it felt like the administration was more interested in secrecy and cover-ups,” Anderson said. “I’m not a government insider. I don’t give a f— about having another job working for city government, especially after how I’ve been treated."

Parker spokesperson Joe Grace said that “issues surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion are of the utmost importance to Mayor Parker and the administration.”

“We vehemently disagree with many of the former employee’s allegations and outright misstatements of fact,” Grace said. “However, as this is a personnel matter, we cannot comment further.”

According to Anderson, the saga started when Christopher Dailey, the city’s deputy chief of staff, sent a photograph on a cruising app to Tyrell Brown, the director of LBGTQ+ affairs.

Dailey, the top aide to Chief of Staff Tiffany W. Thurman, is one of the highest-ranking officials in the Parker administration.

Dailey declined to comment.

Brown reported the incident to Anderson and showed Anderson what she called a “semi-nude” image on July 2, she said.

Philadelphia’s first city worker strike since 1986 had begun the day before when the largest union for municipal workers walked off the job. As top managers, none of the people involved in the ordeal that led to the firings are union members.

Brown said they didn’t feel harassed, Anderson said, in part because it was unclear whether Dailey knew to whom he had sent the photo, which included Dailey’s face. Brown’s profile was anonymous, she said, but the app used geo-location, meaning users would have been able to see that the person they were contacting was in or near City Hall.

“Ty wasn’t sure what to do,” Anderson said. “It was just an awkward thing to have a high-ranking city official send that.”

Anderson said she reported the incident to the Office of Human Resources and Chief Deputy Mayor Vanessa Garrett-Harley.

“I was just going primarily for guidance in the situation,” Anderson said.

After she reached out, Anderson said Garrett-Harley told her, “Stop talking about the issue; stop mentioning it.”

“Vanessa said I should have shut it down,” Anderson said.

Then things took an unexpected turn. The Office of the Inspector General conducted a probe, and after staff in her office were interviewed, Anderson realized that she had gone from sparking an investigation to being the subject of one.

On Tuesday, Anderson said she was called into a meeting with Garrett-Harley and Candee Jones, the human resources director, and she was fired.

Anderson said they told her she was being terminated due to a “violation of the sexual harassment policy — ironically.“

”I asked, ‘What specifically in the policy did I violate?’ and they couldn’t give me an answer," she said.

Anderson said they also faulted her for how she handled the moment when Brown showed her the photograph. Another employee was present during the meeting, and Anderson said Jones and Garrett-Harley told her she should have removed that person from the meeting.

Anderson said she was told by the members of the mayor’s administration that allowing the other person to remain in the room meant she had “distributed” the photograph.

“I had no control over the fact that [Brown] brought it up in front of another staff member,” Anderson said, adding that employees reporting workplace issues should be able to choose who is present. “[The administration officials] were like, ‘You should have kicked the other person out of the room.’ … They should have the right to have whoever they want present."

She noted that Dailey, who is white, is still with the city.

“It’s not lost on me that in all of this the two Black leaders who did not engage in poor judgement … that we were let go," she said.

Neither the city nor Brown commented on the reason for their termination.

The Philadelphia Gay News first reported that Brown had left city government Friday morning, a shocking development given that Parker appointed them to the high-profile post less than five months earlier. Brown told the newspaper that they were leaving their post with the city to return to full-time work on Philly Pride 365, the nonprofit they founded that organizes the city’s annual Pride celebrations and other events.

The article did not mention that Brown was fired or the incident involving Dailey. In an interview, Brown declined to comment on the ordeal. They acknowledged they were terminated, but also characterized it as a “mutual separation.”

“I wanted to go back to Philly Pride 365, and they wanted to, I guess, reimagine what they wanted to do with the office,” they said. “I’m trying to move on from this.”

Brown said they are “happy” to move on from the city.

“This is about realignment, and I think what we ultimately all agree upon Pride celebrations — it’s not just about the party," they said. “It’s a vehicle for resources for the community. This year, there was something missing, especially because I had to step out and step behind the scenes.”

Brown was the first person to hold the director of LGBTQ+ affairs role on a permanent basis after Celena Morrison, who was appointed in 2020 by Mayor Jim Kenney, vacated the post in late 2024.

An administration email that was sent Friday morning to members of the Mayor’s LGBTQ+ Commission said that Jessica Shapiro, associate deputy mayor for strategic initiatives, informed the commission’s staff at 8:15 p.m. Thursday night that both Brown and Anderson had left the city.

“Tyrell wanted to stress to the commission that this was a mutual decision between them and the city and that they do not want any of us to react out of anger or outrage towards the city,” said the email, which was obtained by The Inquirer.

Before joining city government last year, Anderson founded the Antiracism Academy and served as a senior adviser for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the U.S. Department of Commerce. Under Kenney, Anderson served as the city’s chief racial equity strategist in the Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity.

Parker appointed Anderson in August 2024.

“I envision a city government where every employee has every equal opportunity to succeed, regardless of race, creed, gender expression, or sexual orientation,” Parker said in a statement at the time.

Anderson said the administration failed to live up those lofty goals. Her office was budgeted for 10 positions, she said, but she was only allowed to hire four people. A strategic plan she submitted at the turn of the year resulted in little action. And complaints reported by her office, she said, were routinely ignored.

Anderson said it was unfortunate to discover what the administration’s workplace culture was like, given that Parker and all three of her top aides are Black women.

“At best we were there for the aesthetic, and at worst an issue to be managed so as not to attract the ire of Donald Trump,” she said. “The only things I was able to do were just flag-raisings.”

The LGBTQ+ affairs office is now without a leader for the second time in Parker’s administration, which began in January 2024. The vacancies come at a time when many are calling on state and local government to vocally oppose Trump’s attacks on the LGBTQ+ community and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Grace, the Parker spokesperson, said the administration was “working expeditiously to fill these important positions.”