“The chief executive of Microsoft, Steven A. Ballmer, sent what company officials described as an unusual e-mail message on Friday evening to roughly 35,000 employees in the United States, defending Microsoft’s widely criticized decision not to support an antidiscrimination bill for gay people in Washington State this year,” Sarah Kershaw reports for The New York Times.
“The e-mail message came as company officials, inundated by internal messages from angry employees, withering attacks on the Web and biting criticism from gay rights groups, sought to quell rancor following the disclosure this week that the company, which had supported the bill in past years, did not do so this year. Critics argue that the decision resulted from pressure from a prominent local evangelical Christian church,” Kershaw reports.
“In his message, posted on several Web logs on Saturday and confirmed by company officials, Mr. Ballmer wrote that he had done ‘a lot of soul searching over the past 24 hours.’ He said that he and Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, both personally supported the bill but that the company had decided not to take an official stance on the legislation this year. He said they were pondering the role major corporations should play in larger social debates,” Kershaw reports.
“‘We are thinking hard about what is the right balance to strike – when should a public company take a position on a broader social issue, and when should it not?’ he wrote. ‘What message does the company taking a position send to its employees who have strongly held beliefs on the opposite side of the issue?’ Mr. Ballmer described the antidiscrimination measure as posing a ‘very difficult issue for many people, with strong emotions on all sides.’ He wrote, ‘both Bill and I actually both personally support this legislation,’ adding, ‘but that is my personal view, and I also know that many employees and shareholders would not agree with me,'” Kershaw reports.
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Gay and lesbian advocacy group asks Microsoft to give back award; some call for switch to Macs – April 23, 2005
Stay out of politics!! That’s the best move. Someone will hate you.
Translation: we caved to the religious right.
Pussy.
Hairbo, the “Religious Right” IS right. Your disrespectful, disgusting use of the word “pussy” to describe them is shameful and idiotic. Learn some manner and be tolerant of majority views of social issues why don’t ya?
I don’t believe Microsoft’s explanation that they did not cave in to pressure from religious conservatives. No company likes to be boycotted. But, as I noted previously, Microsoft is basically boycott-proof. Considering Apple, like most tech firms, is just as (or more) gay-friendly than MS, conservatives who boycott diversity conscious firms have few alternatives to buy from firms that still discriminate.
I’ve heard Ballmer say some really wacky things in the past, but here he makes a lot of sense, and he’s right. Microsoft makes computer software, and it’s not their job to support gay legislation. Which is ridiculous anyway, in my opinion, because gays have the same civil rights as everyone else. Merely disliking homosexuality does not qualify as persecution, so these people need to get their panties out of a wad and leave Microsoft alone.
Think of the awful precedent it would set if special interest groups had their way with every corporation that did not bow to their whims. So kudos to Microsoft – I still think your software sucks, but you did the right thing.
MDN Magic Word – “picture” As in….
No, wait, you really don’t want to picture this…
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“What message does the company taking a position send to its employees who have strongly held beliefs on the opposite side of the issue?”
Well, by not supporting it, as they have done for similar legislation in the past, they took a position that offends deeply held beliefs.
Smack, you gotta be joking! Sure, Hairbo didn’t have to use the P-word, but if you think for one second that religious and political conservatives are civil and polite when discussing homosexuality, you’ve been living under a rock.
Secondly, ‘majority opinion’ has no business dictating the civil and moral rights of others. No one in the majority has (or should have) the right to vote for or against the inate civil rights of those in a minority. Separate and unequal has been tried before. It was wrong then, and it’s still wrong today.
The “Religious Right” is NOT in the majority.
Also, if you reread the message, I believe that Hairbo was calling Ballmer a “pussy”. I might not agree with the use of the term, but I certainly agree with the sentiment.
Smack, from now on you get to ride at the back of the bus. How’s that sound?
As I told my grandson when he questioned me regarding Gay Pride Week at his high school, “Just stand up for American Pride Week, no-one needs to know what you do in your bedroom. You can be whatever persuasion you like but keep it between yourself and your partner.”
Sex belongs in the bedroom not the boardroom.
smack, because its time now for you to be scared of us.
Unfortunately, if someone asks me what I did over the weekend I’m going to say “I went to a park, etc., with my partner.” That has NOTHING to do with sex and nothing to do with my bedroom. It has everything to do with getting your head out of the sand and realizing that your way is not the only way. I’m sure you think nothing of saying “My wife and I had a nice weekend.” And I’m proud to say “My partner and I had a nice weekend.” So I’m NOT keeping my relationship in the bedroom, because my relationship is a very significant part of my life, just as I’m sure yours is a significant part of your life. Correct yourself and tell your grandson to be proud of whatever he is and to stand up against people who want to push others into the closet.
Give me a brake! What the hell is wrong with the word ‘pussy’? as in coward. I love you guys, as in ‘one comunity’ but some of you should stick your high moral/religious views up your pussy
Equal rights for all. Be nice. World peace. Vegitarians taste better.
Balmer did the right thing. I wonder what else he found in dusty attic of his soul.
>your way is not the only way>
You can’t possibly know what my way is.
It’s the Mac way.
Enjoy yourself, you’re going to be dead a long time.
do to yourself as your name says, Smack, for several grevious uses of logic.
First, use of the word “p*ssy” was not about the religious right, but about Balmer. Please read posts before reacting.
Second, even if the religious right was the majority (which I seriously to doubt), being the majority does not make it right. Take the voices shouting on this site alone about the “majority” or computer users not using the “right” system. For a social issue, the “majority” of the southern U.S used to think slavery was “right.”
Third, the point of the bill is for tolerance. I find it very funny that you would use that concept for your argument.
Finally, you might want to learn some “manner” (sic), along with some editing skills
thebigkahuna, you really have no clue as to what you are talking about stating that, “…gays have the same civil rights as everyone else.”
Except in a few states, the following discrimations against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered persons (GLBT) are perfectly legal in America:
* Employers can fire (or not hire) an employee simply for being GLBT.
* Landlords can refuse to rent an apartment to someone simply for being GLBT.
* Hotel owners can refuse accomodations to guests simply for being GLBT.
* The US military bans service by those who openly identify themselves as GLBT. (Just try hiding your heterosexuality and remaining celibate throughout your entire enlistment!)
* GLBT couples have no legal protections or rights afforded to heterosexual couples through marriage. (How is it ‘right’ to deny long-term committed gay couples these rights when any opposite-sex couple can meet and marry the same day and instantly be afforded over 1,000 rights and protections.)
* In several countries, simply being gay is cause for the death penalty.
Anyone who thinks that GLBT persons already have the same civil rights as everyone else is an ignorant fool.
Get informed:
Human Rights Campaign (HRC)
http://hrc.org/
Freedom to Marry
http://www.freedomtomarry.org/
Human Rights Watch
http://hrw.org/doc/?t=lgbt
Amnesty International
http://www.amnestyusa.org/outfront/index.do
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network
http://www.sldn.org/templates/index.html
The Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies
http://www.iglss.org
WHO CARES!!!
…this is MacDAILYnews not MacGaylyNews…who cares what microsoft does regarding whatever. They could support seal-clubbing, it still wouldn’t change the fact that they make POS software!
g
Smack, reading someone write, “The religious right is right” and then in the next sentence telling someone to be “tolerant” was hilarious… Religion is the least tolerant thing on this planet.
Publicly held companies can and should use their money, power, and influence to affect social and legislative change that they believe benefits the company, its employees, and its shareholders.
If they don’t believe this change benefits the company, then Ballmer and Gates should contribute personally (they have and continue to do so), and encourage others to do the same, but not involve the corporation.
40 years ago some corporations backed civil rights legislation to allow blacks the right not to be discriminated in the workplace. Prior to that, you could be fired for being black. (Actually you probably would never had been hired in the first place because you could not “hide” it). That was considered brave. In retrospect, it was also right. Should those corporations have been silent about it?
Today, a person can get fired for being gay. The company may not know they were gay when they were hired, but if they were “found out”, they can be fired for that simple reason. The Bush administration initally backed that same principle for government, but later backed off. Why should you be allowed to be fired for being gay??! Should you be fired for being Christian/Catholic/Jewish/Athiest/Agnostic/Muslim, etc? NO!
Despite what has been written in this forum, gays are not looking to be MORE EQUAL. They simply don’t want their company to have the right to fire them or discriminate against them (ie promotions, raises, etc) simply for the fact that they are gay.
If you haven’t done so already, you should read the bill.
It isn’t trying to give gays any extra civil rights. It is an anti-discrimination bill intended to insure that gays have the SAME civil rights as everybody else.
It PROTECTS rights – it doesn’t grant anything new, or anything special to ANY group.
If Micro$oft isn’t going to support it now (and business shouldn’t be involved in politics) – they shouldn’t have been supporting it ever. They caved big time. Bunch of wusses.
gforce:
“…this is MacDAILYnews not MacGaylyNews…who cares what microsoft does regarding whatever. They could support seal-clubbing, it still wouldn’t change the fact that they make POS software!”
Exactly.
I’m conservative and Christian. I have gay friends. I may not agree with their beleifs (and vice versa), but they’re still my friends. And I still CHOOSE Apple over M$ and others even though Al Gore is on the board or whatever position he holds. I learned a long time ago boycotting rarely works because NO company is perfect. You can find something to hate in every company, regardless of your political, moral, religious, etc. beliefs.
MDN Magic Word: love, as in we’re all Mac users (-trolls), lets try to get along and not flame each other.
Corporations have no business in SOCIAL ISSUES. I’m sick and tired of the vocal MINORITY getting all the support in this country…. It’s high time for Social Issues to be resolved at the ballot box instead of through “preferential legislation”…..