Microsoft Caves On Gay Rights (WA Civil Rights Law)

[FreeState]

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

Pressured by Evangelical Minister, Microsoft Withdraws Support for Civil Rights Bill

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. Hutcherson also unsuccessfully demanded that the company fire two employees who had testified in favor of the bill.

State Rep. Ed Murray, a gay Democrat representing Capitol Hill and the prime sponsor of the bill, confirmed that Smith also told him about the pressure from Hutcherson during an awkward and at times heated March 29 conference call in which they discussed the company's decision to end its active support for the bill.

[Rainscents]

1. Power of people!!!

[Melodybe]

13. Get an apple, Jobbs is cool with gays and he is a democrat.

[swimmernsecretsea]

2. Microsoft caved to a threat? MICROSOFT?!

The very same company that has crushed other company's attempts to establish themselves? The same company that ripped off Apple's GUI and many of their innovations? The company that never creates, only creatively "borrows" the inventions of others? The one that attempted to pollute the Java computer language so that it would only apply to Windows? The Microsoft that crushes the competition with their considerable financial clout gained from the aforementioned activities? The one the Department of Justice went after only much too late and far too little to do any good?

MicroSOFT, all right. Poor Microsoft--why would they possibly be afraid of losing any money? They practically own computing, now.

[Sandpiper]

4. People threatening not to use Microsoft

Is about the same as people threatening not to use Bell Telephone back in the 70's.

[Raster]

6. something here does NOT pass the smell test...

...boycott MS, what are the alternatives? MS operating systems inhabit 95% of the world's PCs. There is little to NOTHING Rev. Ken the hypocritical asshole can do.

Bulletin to anyone who cares to dig a bit deeper: Dollar to a doughnut, ken has a few rather unsavory little tidbits burried in his closet. Just start digging. Just another greasy prey evangelist looking to score some congregational bling on the backs of someone he can persecute. I mean, after all, who would jesus hate?

[Raster]

9. On a bit of a rant here, but...once again, one of the "faithful" using

Jesus to spread discrimination, to foster hate and stir dissention. And oh, the irony, a black fire-and-brimstone brutha to boot. Yessiree, who would Jesus discriminate against? Evidently the good reverent is one of these "literal interpretists" of the Bible. You know, Grim Fairy Tales for Jews, Part I. Spewing hate in the name of Christ for profit.

[Melodybe]

14. Apple rocks and you can use OSX on your PC.

[Raster]

18. and Apple is gay friendly. My point is that there is

LITTLE rev ken really can do except suck up the publicity. This is just another convenience crusader needing to recharge his ministry on the backs of others. If this idiot didn't an issue to rail against, he wouldn't get publicity. If he didn't have a cause to beat to death, especially something anti-gay, no one would give him the time of day. Hate sells. Unfortunately in this country you don't fill pews preaching love and understanding. You have to give the plebs something to hate and fear. Compassion and understanding means NO CASH!!!

[swimmernsecretsea]

27. Between the iPod and the "halo effect" that it's bringing...

Apple might do well this year. Very good! I'm happy with my Mac, and OS X. Let's make some converts!

[Realityhack]

26. No offence but that makes no diffrnece

Doesn't mater if OSX exists or not this reverend is not going to make a dent in merkysoft sales period.

and as for microsoft alternatives a LOT depends upon what you are doing... Most IT people consider supporting it a nightmare.

[Coastie for Truth]

3. cui bono - who wins in a national boycott of Microsoft

Either IBM and/or Oracle-- or

China or India.

So, I would say, with at least as much evidence as Anne Coulter or Bill O'Reilly or Bob Novak or the Late Senator Joe McCarthy or the late Director J. Edgar Hoover typically had --

Pastor Ken Hutcherson is a dedicated agent of the Red Chinese Peoples Communist Party -- a Godless, Atheistic threat to every God fearing American man, woman, and child. He is no dupe or fellow traveler - he is a dedicated agent of Godless Atheistic Chinese Commies - the same ones who force abortions on their people and killed Americans in Korea and Viet Nam.

The Chinese Communists are learning from Karl Rove. They have read What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank. They are not dumb. They have brain washed the people of the Antioch Bible Church on the same wedge issue that Karl Rover used - gays. And they have brain washed the Fundies on stem cell research. They are not dumb. And, they are using it to destroy America. It ain't a straight continuum -- it's a circle -- and the Communists are right next to the Rapture Right on wedge issues to achieve their agenda.

This is not about gays. This is about destroying an American industry.

[Anakin Skywalker]

28. LOL! Micro$uck Is About As American

as Samsung!

[Speck Tater]

5. One more good reason to bail on MS software

I really don't like Linux, or at least last time I tried it 3 years ago it was monstrously complicated. So what are the alternatives?

I just can't in good conscience buy any more microsoft products after this.

[sui generis]

7. meet it head on

write to MicroSoft. Address every member of the board and send out local LTTE's to your local publications.

This whacko church does not have the resources to organize a national boycott of anything. Somebody at MicroSoft is a little soft in the head if they think that people are going to stop using their computers or updating their licensing just because a freak closet case preacher in Redmond has his panties in a bunch.

[Coastie for Truth]

8. They do if they are backed by the Chinese Communists

or Al Qaida.

Who wins if MS goes down? The Communist Chinese.

[sui generis]

10. MS is not going down

for those of you with brown hair, please be aware that MicroSoft has been approached by someone with red hair who believes that people with brown hair are innately evil and immoral and has threatened to make the whole world stop buying MicroSoft products if MicroSoft backs a bill that supports anti-discrimination measures based on hair color.

That's what this is about.

[complain jane]

11. Gates makes garbage, one more reason to by Apple products.

As if all those twits threatening a boycott would actually be able to get through a day without using Microsucks Windblows. What are they going to do, run their business on an abacus?

I call great big honking bullshit.

[rocktivity]

12. Americablog has an interesting take on the subject

Dear Microsoft: You messed with the wrong faggots.

...You're planning a 2.2 million-square foot expansion of the Microsoft campus in Redmond over the next ten to twenty years...We also hear that you're going to need a lot of help...from the state legislature and the Redmond city council...and that not everybody is real happy about it.

Well, wouldn't it be funny if some really smart faggots decided to...kill any possibility of you getting the legislat(ive)...approval you need to make that expansion happen? And wouldn't it be even funnier if those same faggots went to your competitors and asked them to finance the entire campaign to kill your expansion?

...Best of luck to you with the legislative session over the next 24 hours.

link

:headbang:
rocknation

[Missy Vixen]

17. Okay, just throwing this one out here

First of all, I am not especially enamored of Ken Hutcherson, but if you live in the area, you will remember the Bob Moorehead of Overlake Christian Church incident. If you don't, please Google the name and church, and read all about it. Ken Hutcherson, while he is a flaming right-wing zealot, was one of the FEW local ministers that actually stood up in the media and demanded Moorehead's resignation from Overlake when its board did everything to save his sorry ass and intimidate the victims into silence. I DO NOT agree with what Ken Hutcherson is doing right now, but if there is anything on him, it would have come out a long time ago.

>Well, wouldn't it be funny if some really smart faggots decided to...kill any possibility of you getting the legislat(ive)...approval you need to make that expansion happen?<

Microsoft will simply move offshore, as they have threatened to do multiple times before, and now with the blessing of the * administration, they won't have to pay tax in the USA either.

Okay, DU, it's time to put our thinking caps on. If Dr. Laura could be stopped, Microsoft can, too.

Julie

[sui generis]

19. exactly - this requires a measured and reasoned response

Truly, there is nothing anyone can do that will hurt MicroSoft. The fact that they caved to this loon is a result of ignorance, and the worst kind of ignorance:

If this church could threaten to boycott MicroSoft for supporting this bill, then this church will eventually threaten them again to get something else, like, firing all unmarried workers who have had sex.

MicroSoft needs to wake up and realize they were blackmailed and blackmailers NEVER stop once they've squeezed you, until they're in jail or until you don't care what power they claim to have over you.

[customerserviceguy]

20. I used to live in WA

and while it's properly thought of as a blue state, there are only two reasons why. First, there are the people who live in the major cities up and down I-5, plus there is support of union jobs out in some parts of the hinterlands. Between the two groups, statewide Democrats do just fine.

Then, there's the 'burbs. Redmond is located squarely in a rich-ass region called "the Eastside", and fundie preachers have amassed a buttload of money from people who want to suck up the good life of Seattle without having to pay taxes to the municipalities that take care of poor people. They also think they have a lot of political power, too, and they're flexing their muscle with a weak flank that apparently exists within Microsoft.

Persuade MS to purge itself of the fundies, and you solve the problem.

[SKKY]

15. Wait, wait, wait just one second! A world-wide movement that...

...threatens to change the very way software is developed, used and distributed (Open Source) barely shakes Microsoft. European countries all over the world are dumping MS Products in favor of Open Source solutions, nary a peep. Yet, some backwards-ass TV Evangelist with a few thousand like-minded followers says "Boo!" and they run like pussies? Does anyone else think the Reporter from the Stranger was, oh, I don't know, SMOKING CRACK????

[BadNews]

22. The evangelicals threatened, but that doesn't mean they were the cause.

Microsoft pulled out becasue of other reasons. It will take more digging, but in this case article pretends this church has more power than it really does. Don't get me wrong, they probably did threaten. I just don't think they had any real impact on this decision.

[rocktivity]

16. Contact Info (from Americablog)

- Jim Desler,
Microsoft US
425-703-6061
[email protected]

- Dirk Delmartino,
Microsoft Europe
[phone]
[email protected]

- The firm handling public policy for Microsoft in DC:
The Glover Park Group
Washington, DC
202-337-0808

- The firm handling Microsoft's "rapid response" to questions:
Waggener Edstrom Rapid Response Team
[email protected]
503-443-7070

- Media Relations for Microsoft
Global Communications & Television
[phone]
[email protected]

- Microsoft Investor Relations
Curt Anderson
[phone]

- Walt McGraw, Edelman, [phone], [email protected]

- Shon Damron, Edelman, [phone], [email protected]

- Carlos de Leon,tel. [phone], or [email protected]

- Katie Goldberg, tel. [phone], or [email protected]

- Shoreen Maghame, Edelman, [phone]

- Sean Durkin, Edelman, [phone]

You're welcome.

:headbang:
rocknation

[sui generis]

21. my letter to Microsoft

Dear Gentlemen,

Regarding your decision to withdraw support for the HB 1515 issue:

Rather than protecting your company with the decision to back down to these bullies, you have established that you are willing to negotiate with your blackmailers. You have failed to take a strong moral stance, instead borrowing someone else's "morality" and support of tacit cooperation with policies that discriminate against some Americans.

As a business owner I want to remind you that if you don't take a non-neutral position on discrimination based on sexual orientation, there is nothing in the law that prevents me from firing any or all of my employees for being heterosexual.

If an employee has no recourse against an employee for being fired for sexual orientation, including for being heterosexual, then that employee does not have a right to pension, retirement, golden parachutes, and even simple unemployment.

I ask you to consider the impact to your families and personal life if you were fired for being heterosexual, by a heterosexual who didn't wish to pay your separation benefits. Now then, please take a real moral stand on this issue.

Michael -----------,

[UCLA Dem]

23. The next computer I buy will be a Mac!!

[SharonRB]

24. I have a gay friend at Microsoft who used to work for my company

I'm sure he's none too happy about this.

[Realityhack]

25. What a load of BS

Yeah sure people are going to boycot merkysoft... whatever. There is just about zero chance of that.

I would say "how fast can we get together a GLBT and frends boycot" but its unrealistic to say the least. What a spinless bunch of posers.

[cprise]

29. It's 2005. Here's what you lose

...when you dump Windows:

Games. And not even all of them.

For $499 you can get a nice Macintosh. Or if using your current hardware is preferable, you can install Xandros Linux for free. Even without a political motivation, Mac and Linux are now chipping away at Windows.

So the GLBT community has choices. And in case you hadn't noticed it has political will. Not a single GLBT person I know gasses-up at Exxon Mobil because of the boycott, and that has been going on for years.