Microsoft Withdraws Gay Rights Support

[she_is_my_addiction]

"Microsoft Corporation pulled its support for a gay rights bill in Washington state last month after complaints from a single radical right anti-gay leader, according to an article just published in the Seattle paper, The Stranger (the article is on the news stands already, online Thursday). "


Please check out the whole article.

http://www.americablog.org/
http://www.thestranger.com/2005-04-21/feature.html

 

[matriarch]

I find it ridiculous to the point of absurdity that a company who's products are as globally entrenched within commerce, education, health.....and any other area you can think of, would succomb to threats of a boycott.

I fail to see how a boycott could have any effect. And one man?? Just one man?

There goes another step on the ladder.

 

[she_is_my_addiction]

Holy Shit. Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center asks Microsoft for its award back

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=46293

 

[she_is_my_addiction]

HRC blasts Microsoft

This is good. Keep in mind that HRC's culture is more august - they're not going to throw flames like I might. But read this closely, it's quite good in my view. And they cc the evil general counsel who was behind the entire anti-gay coup:

Steven A. Ballmer
CEO, Microsoft Corporation
1 Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052-6399

CC: Bradford L. Smith

Dear Mr. Ballmer:

The Human Rights Campaign, along with your many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, would like to express our profound disappointment at Microsoft Corp.’s withdrawal of support for Washington State House Bill 1515 that would have banned discrimination against GLBT Washingtonians in housing, employment and insurance.

The defeat of this bill struck a blow to fairness for all Washingtonians. No Washingtonian or American should ever be fired for who they are. Corporations in Washington, especially Microsoft, must recognize the enormous impact this bill could have had at delivering equal protection to GLBT people.

In media reports, your company spokesperson said that workplace fairness is not directly “related to our business” and that the short legislative schedule precluded the company from supporting the bill. That position belies your own policies and those of countless other companies who believe firmly that workplace protections for all are essential to maintaining a competitive business environment. Successful businesses embrace diversity not just because it is the right thing to do, but because it the right thing to do for their business.

We also find it troubling that public reports allege that Microsoft made this decision not based on a business rationale, but under pressure from conservative religious-political groups. The reported rationale that Microsoft officials were afraid of offending “Christians” is itself deeply offensive to the many Christians who believe in non-discrimination and were proud of Microsoft’s previous position. Further, giving in to threats from a small group fighting to impose their own view of religion on the company and the state will only encourage more such threats. We urge you to work to change this perception.

While Microsoft’s internal policies regarding GLBT diversity have been trend setting, its reversal sends a signal, intended or not, that it is no longer supportive of its GLBT employees, customers and shareholders. It implies a lack of support for its own employees as they seek housing and insurance coverage and creates the impression that Microsoft does not support equal treatment at businesses elsewhere in Washington. In fact, the strong stance of Microsoft on behalf of the GLBT community and our partnership with the organization in the past makes this feel like even more of a betrayal.

In addition, Microsoft’s position is the exception to many other leading companies that support the bill and the timing of the withdrawal of your support has created the perception that Microsoft was partly responsible for the bill’s demise.

Microsoft should reinstate its support for this bill when it returns to the Legislature. It’s simply the right thing to do for Microsoft’s employees and its business. Further, we call on Microsoft to unambiguously state its support for non-discrimination legislation at the state and federal levels. This lack of clarity may have already had a devastating effect and it’s past time to clear the air.

We appreciate our 10-year relationship with Microsoft. We are hopeful the issues raised in this letter can be resolved and we look forward to working with you to that end.

Sincerely,

Joe Solmonese
HRC President

The Human Rights Campaign is the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender political organization with members throughout the country. It effectively lobbies Congress, provides campaign support and educates the public to ensure that LGBT Americans can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community.

 

[LadyJeanne]

I know MS very well. I have many gay friends who work there, and know many others who are in high level exec positions there, both internally facing and public facing. I never worked for them, but I've worked very closely with MS for years.

MS is one of the most gay-friendly companies on the planet. They honestly don't give a damn who anybody fucks and how, and they'll give your partner health benefits, and give you all kinds of maternity/paternity leave if you adopt a child. Promotions and raises are based on merit, profits, and politics, but not sexual orientation or gender. AIDS Walk? Yes, they'll help you promote it and they do corporate matching. You want to wear a T-shirt proclaiming your gayness to the world, feel free. GLEAM is not a sham organization within the company.

I'm not an apologist for MS, but because of their size and their dominance in the marketplace, they are a huge lightning rod for legitmate concerns and crack-pot ideas alike. Are social and political issues something they should be involved in? Which ones? To what extent? Those are business and legal decisions that they have to make every day - they're not going to please everybody.

I may not agree with their decision to change their position from "support" to "neutral" on this bill, but frankly, MS makes a much bigger impact in terms of gay rights around the world by the way they treat their employees than they could possibly make through some legal brief.

I'd be more interested in knowing how well gay employees are treated by the other PacWest companies who are supporting the bill. And I'd be much more concerned about who the Christian Evangelist guy is going to target next with his vitriolic hate. Let's not forget that MS is not crusading against gay rights in the way others are.

This country elected GWB on the strength of moral values as evangelized by the Christian right. Do you still doubt their power?

 

[cloudy]

Very well said.

While it saddens me to see them withdraw their support once it is already pledged due to one bigoted individual, people need to remember that it's not incumbent on any company to support any particular bill.

What is much more important, as Lady Jeanne pointed out, is how they operate day to day. My brother worked for Microsoft for years, and as she says, it's a very tolerant company - much more so than most.

 

[LadyJeanne]

Very well said.

While it saddens me to see them withdraw their support once it is already pledged due to one bigoted individual, people need to remember that it's not incumbent on any company to support any particular bill.

What is much more important, as Lady Jeanne pointed out, is how they operate day to day. My brother worked for Microsoft for years, and as she says, it's a very tolerant company - much more so than most.

Thanks, Cloudy. I'm just incensed whenever we lose sight of the true culprit in our rush to vilify an easy target.

It is the pastor of that "Evangelical megachurch" and the members of his church who actively crusaded against this bill. Where is the outcry against their activities? Which company, which bill will they target next?

 

[AppleBiter]

*HUGE sigh* Why can't people just live and let live, already???? I just don't get it. There are straight people, gay people, and bi people and we all live on the planet together and it's been that way since the beginning of time. Just like there are people with different skin colors, eye colors, shapes, sizes, etc. It seems like if there's not one group picking on another group, people aren't happy. This world is just fucked up sometimes. Grrr.

My 2 Red-Assed Centavos,

AppleBiter

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

On the other hand, though, I think it might be an admirable thing that corporations withdraw themselves from politics--even if that means withdrawing themselves from politics we wish they'd throw their weight into.

If we want them out of the "support tabacco and oil" lobbying, maybe we should accept that means they ought be out of the "gay rights" lobbying. Even playing field, non?

 

[she_is_my_addiction]

.02 and then I'm done, because I know my levels of anger toward several people on this board will escalate if I come back and read responses...

One senator said that he's glad this bill has been passed because he's tired of the gay and lesbian issue being called a "civil rights" matter...and that he won't tolerate such behavior.

We've been pushed back 44+ years on this issue...one step forward and two steps back. Microsoft may do a good job as a company, but caving due to idle threats from a pastor...I don't see that as realistic.

I don't think we're fighting a losing battle, but I think we're losing our backbones on an important issue and making excuses.

.02

 

[LadyJeanne]

.02 and then I'm done, because I know my levels of anger toward several people on this board will escalate if I come back and read responses...

One senator said that he's glad this bill has been passed because he's tired of the gay and lesbian issue being called a "civil rights" matter...and that he won't tolerate such behavior.

It was Hutcherson, the minister fighting the passage of the bill, who said something like that, not a senator. From your link:

Hutcherson, whose church boasts 3,500 members, is an outspoken national leader in the Evangelical Christian crusade against gay rights. He organized the Mayday for Marriage rally last spring that drew an estimated 20,000 conservative Christians to Safeco Field, as well as a national Mayday for Marriage rally in Washington, D.C. last October, which attracted some 140,000 participants from around the country.

An African American, he strenuously objects, in public appearances and writings, to the equation of gay civil rights with the African-American civil rights struggle in the 1960s. For instance, in an op-ed in the Seattle Times on March 29, 2004, Hutcherson wrote, "It has been said loudly and proudly that gay marriage is a civil rights issue. If that's the case, then gays would be the new African Americans. I'm here to tell you now, and hopefully for the last time, that the gay community is not the new African-American community." He has also said that he does not tolerate known gays in his church.

A fixture in local Republican politics, Hutcherson was clearly feeling empowered after last November's election, when 11 states passed constitutional amendments barring gay marriage. "11 out of 11," he bragged to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on November 3, characterizing the ballot-box victories as a happy indictor of the growing power of the Religious right. "We're a force to be reckoned with," he said.

Hutcherson did not return a call requesting comment for this article.

We've been pushed back 44+ years on this issue...one step forward and two steps back. Microsoft may do a good job as a company, but caving due to idle threats from a pastor...I don't see that as realistic.

I don't think we're fighting a losing battle, but I think we're losing our backbones on an important issue and making excuses.

.02

Again, Microsoft is not campaigning against the passage of this bill, nor do they discriminate against gay employees. Microsoft was the largest and the most visible target of an influential group that is actively working against gay rights.

You gain nothing by fighting a company that treats its gay employees fairly. You lose everything by ignoring the active threat.

 

[Luna_Wolf72]

Personally

As others have pointed out, there are 2 sides to the issue. I understand where some feel Microsoft is doing more by being so civil minded company wise, I even agree with the statement that we should not invite big business into politics...

That being said, it is upsetting to imagine a corporation with such great things (and ideas) going for it to all of a sudden (after almost 13 years of leadership in treating ALL of thier employees with respect) take a step back and down.

It pissed me off when I read about it, it pissed me off when my girl was calling Microsoft HQ asking for information and it pisses me off now. It just seems wrong.
I know where I place the blame...equally. Not just the religious right for making equality so damned hard, but also Microsoft for caving.

That's it from here
Luna

 

[Colleen Thomas]

One nut. It seems so obvious that Microsoft could ignore one nut with impunity. But, and there always seems to a be a but, this one nut is a nut, but he is also indicitive of the kind of nut who is on the lead edge of the religious right's political aspirations. At the moment, that group, working through a pliant GOP, who control 2 of three branches of the federal government, are pushing an agenda.

Any sane company has to take the way the political winds seem to be blowing into acount. I don't condone backing down in the face of threats, but I can not make myself get angry with a company that is, for better or worse, subject to the same political winds that affect my life. The winds are blowing towards a more reationary, fundamentalist, religious/moral presence in our lives.

We can fight that. One would hope we, as a people won't accept going back to the days of the inquisition and the state-church concept. You can't however, bet on that. And considering the apparent dissarry of the Democrats and the growing audacity of the religious right, the smart money seems to be on at the least, limited theorcracy.

There are points in time where you have to pick and choose your spots, rather than fighting a full tilt battle. Microsoft will continue to take a course that will allow them to back off on their policy should the political situation detereoritate to the point where it isn't one nut making threats, it's Tom DeLay or Bill First making those threats on the floor of a rubber stamp congress and it isn't the threat of a boycott, it's the threat of federal laws tailored to punish Microsoft for being so liberal.

You don't want to believe it will ever come to that, but someone, somewhere at Microsoft has a job called risk assessment. And someone, in that thankless job, has seen this congress already tailor a law to one family, to push their views. Simply put, the potential for punative congressional action is very real. When you are effectively a monoploy, you have to be aware of the mood of the men who could instigate investigations and change laws to ruin you.

 

[NoJo]

Anyone who uses Windows XP without changing the look and feel back to "Classic" is gay.

 

[snooper]

Incredible

Here in the UK the concept of a business "supporting" a bill through the Houses of Parliament is unthinkable, if by "support" you imply financial assistance.

Here a company which wants some particular legislation passed or rejected is described as "lobbying", and is regarded as pretty desperate if the news of that lobbying leaks out. Certainly the idea of helping the proponents or opponents of a bill in any public way would be construed as bribery and is illegal.