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Friday, April 22, 2005

Microsoft tries to duck responsibility for the Washington gay rights vote
Posted by Jill | 6:49 AM

When we last visited Washington State yesterday, the gay rights bill on which Microsoft had reversed itself lost by ONE VOTE -- and the representative from Redmond could have changed that.

The more Microsoft tries to spin this, the worse they look, as the New York Times reports today:

Microsoft officials denied any connection between their decision not to endorse the bill and the church's opposition, although they acknowledged meeting twice with the church minister, Ken Hutcherson.

Dr. Hutcherson, pastor of the Antioch Bible Church, who has organized several rallies opposing same-sex marriage here and in Washington, D.C., said he threatened in those meetings to organize a national boycott of Microsoft products.

After that, "they backed off," the pastor said Thursday in a telephone interview. "I told them I was going to give them something to be afraid of Christians about," he said.

[snip]

The bill, which had passed in the State House, would have extended protections against discrimination in employment, housing and other fields to gay men and lesbians. It was supported by other high-tech companies and multinational corporations including Nike, Boeing, Coors and Hewlett-Packard.


Think about that. Sweatshop-labor Nike and wingnut-run Coors supported it, and Microsoft weaseled out.

Microsoft officials said that the recent meetings with the minister did not persuade them to back away from supporting the bill, because they had already decided to take a "neutral" position on it. They said they had examined their legislative priorities and decided that because they already offer extensive benefits to gay employees and that King County, where Microsoft is based, already has an anti-discrimination law broader than what the state bill proposed, they should focus on other legislative matters.


Well, as John Aravosis points out, they have no grounds to blow their own horn on benefits to gay employees, becuase such benefits are REQUIRED BY LAW IN KING COUNTY!


But State Representative Ed Murray, an openly gay Democrat and a sponsor of the bill, said that in a conversation last month with Bradford L. Smith, Microsoft's senior vice president and general counsel, Mr. Smith made it clear to him that the company was under pressure from the church and the pastor and that he was also concerned about the reaction to company support of the bill among its Christian employees, the lawmaker said.


Now hold it right there. Why were they concerned about company support of the bill among Christian employees, but not about withdrawal of company support of the bill from gay employees? Aren't they aware that this is a tacit admission that Christian employees take priority? And why are they assuming that ALL Christian employees are opposed to this bill, instead of a small segment of extreme right-wing theocratic Christofascist Christians? Are corporations now going to have to be run according to the religious dictates of a small minority?

And don't tell me that supporting this bill caters to a small gay minority. Supporting civil rights is not about catering to a gay minority, it's about simple human rights that the rest of us take for granted as Americans, and that these people think they shouldn't have. Civil rights for gay Americans take NOTHING away from Christians -- except their ability to throw away the U.S. Constitution and create a Taliban-style theocracy in America.

This so-called "minister of God" behaves like a common thug, and the Mighty Microsoft caves. Here's who they were dealing with: A guy who makes threats of mass boycotts (i.e. extortion) if Microsoft doesn't do his bidding. A guy who demanded that Microsoft fire employees who testified this year on behalf of the bill. Does that sound like Jesus representative on earth to you? It sure as hell doesn't to me.

This episode is terrifying even if you're not gay, for it demonstrates the utter terror that even major corporations have of this SMALL MINORITY of vocal religious fanatics, to the point that they're willing to deny people basic human rights in order to not make this small minority angry.

Right now it's gays, and we already know how they feel about Muslims. Who's next? Buddhists? Wiccans? Jews? African-Americans? Women? Who will the round up and put into camps and execute in the name of Jesus, if we give them the chance?

First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.

by Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945
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