It Hurts When a Longtime "Friend" and Supporter Turns Its Back

I came across a story that identified Microsoft as backing down to the demands of an activist minister by withdrawing its support for Washington State legislation which would have banned discrimination against gays and lesbians in housing, empoloyment and insurance. As a result the bill was defeated last week by one vote.

Microsoft in its bullshit public statement said, through Steve Ballmer that it had met with a local minister strongly oposed to the bill who is the "pastor" of a Seattle congregation that includes "many" Microsoft employees.

Ballmer was also quoted as saying, " I don't want the company to be in the position of appearing to dismiss the deeply held beliefs of any employee by picking sides on social policy issues."
Sounds to me like Microsoft is bigoted and feels stronger about bigotry of some of its staff over others.

Darrel Cummings of the LA Gay and Lesbian Center said the firm had made a "colossal mistake"
and called upon the company to return the Corporate Vision Award it received from the group several years ago.

In a further statement, Ballmer continued the BS, saying that MS remains strongly committed to internal antidiscrimination policies protecting, "gay, lesbian, bisesual and transgender employees".

This reverand, Ken Hutchinson, threatened a nationwide boycott of MS products had the company taken a proactive stand for the legislation.

If it would do any good, I'd like to see a boycott of MS products because of their actions to not support the legislation. But that's like throwing a pebble at a 100 foot tall monster.