Anna Wintour’s opulent offices at Conde Nast turned into a scene of turmoil when a determined transgender journalist confronted a human resources executive over the dismissal of their non-binary partner.

The journalist, Alma Avalle, found herself among four staff members let go by Conde Nast after she challenged Stan Duncan, the head of human resources, regarding the termination of her partner, Lex McMenamin, from Teen Vogue. This confrontation took place on a tense Wednesday.

Avalle, who worked as a digital producer for Bon Appétit, was dismissed alongside three others: Jake Lahut, a senior reporter for Wired; Ben Dewey, an entertainment videographer for Conde Nast; and Jasper Lo, a fact-checker for The New Yorker.

Conde Nast, the powerhouse behind prestigious publications like Vogue, GQ, and Vanity Fair, faced this wave of staff unrest as the quartet assembled outside Duncan’s office in their One World Trade Center headquarters. Their aim was to address the significant staff reductions at Teen Vogue, where half of the 12-member team had been let go.

The foursome took it upon themselves to gather outside Duncan’s offices at Conde Nast’s One World Trade Center headquarters in Manhattan, where they demanded to speak to him about cuts at Teen Vogue comprising half its 12 staff. 

Semafor reported that Duncan ordered the troublemakers to return to work, only to be asked if he was ‘running away’.

Duncan was then grilled by the unionized group about how he planned on standing up to the Trump administration. 

‘We’d like you to move forward,’ an exasperated Duncan is said to have asked, prompting his entitled underlings to reply: ‘We’d like you to answer our questions.’ 

The Trump questions appears to have been in reference to McMenamin, who uses they/them pronouns and was Teen Vogue’s political editor. 

Avalle and McMenamin are in a relationship, and even protested together outside of the skyscraper that houses their former employer last year. 

Alma Avalle (left) was fired by Conde Nast after taking it upon herself to challenge a senior executive over the dismissal of her non-binary lover Lex McMenamin (right) from Teen Vogue  

This week’s scandal saw four entitled Conde Nast journalists fired from their jobs at the esteemed publisher, whose most powerful journalist remains Anna Wintour (pictured) 

The two were also pictured together at the LGBTQ+ ‘Them Now Awards’ in New York City last June.

McMenamin gushed on X about their ‘beautiful girlfriend’ who ‘valiantly won Conde Nast’s FIRST EVER union contract’ in June 2024.

The foursome gathered outside the office of Stan Duncan, seen here, to protest the firings, and were then subsequently dismissed from their roles

Immediately after the incident, Conde Nast filed a charge against the National Labor Relations Board against the NewsGuild of New York.

In it, they described the organization as having taken ‘repeated and egregious disregard of our collective bargaining agreement’.

A spokesperson added: ‘Extreme misconduct is unacceptable in any professional setting. This includes aggressive, disruptive, and threatening behavior of any kind

‘We have a responsibility to provide a workplace where every employee feels respected and able to do their job without harassment or intimidation. 

‘We also cannot ignore behavior that crosses the line into targeted harassment and disruption of business operations. 

‘We remain committed to working constructively with the union and all of our employees.’

Alma Avalle later took to BlueSky to complain that it was ‘transphobic’ to refer to the confrontation that got her fired as ‘aggressive’ 

The dispute on Wednesday unfolded inside Conde Nast’s headquarters in One World Trade Center, the exterior of which is seen here 

In her own statement posted to liberal social media Bluesky, Avalle complained that it was a ‘transphobic’ to describe her behavior as aggressive. 

She said: ‘I was acting as a union member and concerned employee when I questioned Stan Duncan, well within my rights. 

‘I don’t love pointing to my identity, but the company saying that I was behaving ‘aggressively’ when I was calmly asking questions feel like a clear transphobic dog whistle.’

The NewsGuild of New York issued a statement on Thursday on the sacking of the four, branding the layoffs as ‘illegal’.

President Susan DeCarava said: ‘Management’s attempt at union-busting, using intimidation and grossly illegal tactics to try to suppress protected union activity will not stand.’

In a post to his X, Lahut said: ‘To take this in good faith: Sometimes, it’s a good thing to stand up for your colleagues.

Wired senior reporter Jake Lahut, left, and Conde Nast entertainment videographer Ben Dewey, right, were also both sent packing after questioning Duncan over the dismissals 

‘We’ve gotta look out for each other, as competitive as this business is. And I was on the Condé Nast unit council, so it very much was our business.’

The remaining Teen Vogue employees have found their roles folded into the more prestigious – but markedly less woke – Vogue magazine.  

This week’s drama is the latest instance of Conde Nast’s chickens coming home to roost after the publishing giant indulged woke excesses in the wake of George Floyd’s June 2020 murder. 

In August this year, hateful anti-white posts written by The New Yorker journalist Doreen St. Felix sparked fury, but bosses there said nothing and continued to employ her. 

No such grace was afforded to other Conde Nast staffers who previously offended the publisher’s in-house social justice mob.  

In March 2021, Teen Vogue fired its incoming editor-in-chief Alexi McCammond after racist and homophobic tweets she’d posted as a 17-year-old were unearthed.

A ringleader of the effort to oust McCammond, social media manager Christine Davitt, was herself let go after it emerged she’d sent tweets using the n-word.

In July 2020, Bon Appetit editor Adam Rapoport was fired over a photo of him dressed in a durag, baseball cap and chains in what woke journalist Korsha Wilson claimed was an act of racism. 

Anna Wintour, who was the inspiration for nightmare editor Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, herself apologized the same summer for what she called ‘race-related mistakes’ during her then 32 year tenure at the helm of Vogue.

The 76-year-old stood down as editor-in-chief of the fashion bible earlier this year but retains the title of global chief content officer at Conde Nast, meaning she remains the corporation’s most powerful journalist.