From this week’s The Stranger:
In a move that angered many of the company’s gay employees, the Microsoft Corporation, publicly perceived as the vanguard institution of the new economy, has taken a major political stand in favor of age-old discrimination.
The Stranger has learned that last month the $37-billion Redmond-based software behemoth quietly withdrew its support for House bill 1515, the anti-gay-discrimination bill currently under consideration by the Washington State legislature, after being pressured by the Evangelical Christian pastor of a suburban megachurch. The pastor, Ken Hutcherson of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, met with a senior Microsoft executive in February and threatened to organize a national boycott of the company’s products if it did not change its stance on the legislation, according to gay rights activists and a Microsoft employee who attended a subsequent April 4 meeting where Bradford L. Smith, Microsoft’s senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary, told a group of gay staffers about Hutcherson’s threat.
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).
My sources in Washington state tell me that the vote on the bill, expected in two days (Friday), is SO CLOSE that Microsoft’s actions may be pivotal in KILLING THE PRO-GAY LEGISLATION.
The radical right activist reportedly told Microsoft it had better pull its support for the gays or anti-gay bigots would launch a nationwide boycott of Microsoft, and guess what – Microsoft caved. A single anti-gay jerk, and Microsoft chose to reverse over ten years of policy and bash gays.
This is outrageous. It’s also incredibly dangerous. For over a decade Microsoft, along with hundreds of other corporate leaders, has endorsed gay rights legislation in the states and nationally. And now, suddenly, because ONE ANTI-GAY ACTIVIST COMPLAINED, they’ve suddenly changed their minds ON A CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE. A rather big “oops” after ten years of being in favor of civil rights, don’t you think?
I don’t know anything about it, or anything about how Microsoft decides to support political issues, but human rights is very important to me personally and I’m gonna take this up with the leadership of the company and support this cause.
Update: The anti-discrimination bill, which had been passed 61-37 by the House in February, was defeated this afternoon by one vote (via Salon)