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Saturday, April 23, 2005
Microsoft: No pressure on gay rights bill
In an e-mail to employees, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer shot down suggestions that pressure from a local pastor triggered the company's decision to not publicly support a gay rights bill before the state legislature this year.
Microsoft Corp. wanted to focus on computer privacy, education and other issues more directly related to its business, Ballmer said.
"I understand that many employees may disagree with the company's decision to tighten the focus of our agenda for this year's legislative session in Olympia," Ballmer wrote. "But I want every employee to understand that the decision to take a neutral stance on this bill was taken before the session began based on a desire to focus our legislative efforts, not in reaction to any outside pressure."
Microsoft spokeswoman Tami Begasse confirmed today that the e-mail was written by Ballmer.
A bill that would have banned discrimination against gays and lesbians in housing, employment and insurance failed by one vote Thursday in the state Senate. The House had passed the bill on a 61-37 vote two months ago.
Rev. Ken Hutcherson, pastor at Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, met with Microsoft in February, threatening to launch a national boycott of Microsoft products if the company did not take a stand against the bill. Ballmer said the meeting was held to clarify that two Microsoft employees who testified in favor of the bill were speaking as individuals, not for the company.
Nevertheless, gay-rights activists have accused Microsoft of caving in to the religious right and abandoning its long-standing support for the rights of gays and other minorities.
"As long as I am CEO, Microsoft is going to be a company that is hard-core about diversity, a company that is absolutely rigorous about having a nondiscriminatory environment, and a company that treats every employee fairly," Ballmer wrote.
Microsoft has offered domestic partner benefits to same-sex couples since the early 1990s. It also has long barred discrimination based on sexual orientation.
On Friday, The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, a gay and lesbian advocacy group, asked Microsoft to return a civil-rights award the organization gave the company four years ago.
The same day, the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington, D.C.-based gay rights group, sent an open letter to Ballmer expressing "profound disappointment" that the company did not back the gay-rights bill.
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