Microsoft Supports Gay Rights Legislation

[KoS PY.nq.ict]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7762073/

SEATTLE - In a turnaround Friday, Microsoft Corp. chief executive Steve Ballmer said the company will support gay rights legislation.

Ballmer made the announcement in an e-mail to employees two weeks after gay rights activists accused the company of withdrawing its support for an anti-discrimination bill in its home state after an evangelical pastor threatened to launch a national boycott. The bill died by a single vote in the state Senate in late April. (MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.)

“After looking at the question from all sides, I’ve concluded that diversity in the workplace is such an important issue for our business that it should be included in our legislative agenda,” Ballmer wrote.

The bill that failed in the state Legislature would have banned discrimination against gays in housing, employment and insurance. Microsoft had supported the measure in the past, but more recently took a neutral stance on the bill.

Critics of Microsoft called it a corporate coward, and a prominent gay rights group asked the company to return a civil rights award it had bestowed on Microsoft four years ago.

Late last month, Ballmer said the company had decided to take a neutral stance on the bill and focus instead on a shorter list of legislative priorities that had a more direct impact on the company’s software business.

He said that decision was made well before executives met with the Rev. Ken Hutcherson, pastor of a Redmond church who has organized anti-gay-marriage rallies.
© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

© 2005 MSNBC.com

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7762073/

[Brutha]

Well, one right out of endless wrongs don't make a good company...

[KoS.Rebel]

Gay rights is not right nor will it ever be.

[Typhy]

Gay rights is not right nor will it ever be.

Rebel's right, and the freeing of the slaves is the low point in our nations history, along with women's right to vote.

[BFG]

lol typhy, im guessing that Rebel was being ironic though?... no

[bronto]

i dunno, rebel has proven his lack of grey matter in the past.

[BTs_Mysterio]

You mean when he said its impossible to hack xbox live?

[crypt]

Maybe not impossible, but the developers have much more control over cheating than any PC or Mac game.

[BTs_Mysterio]

Indeed, but the worst of them are the ones who devote their sad lives to this pursuit of ruining games. The point is he said it was impossible 

["Sixhits"]

There's more to the story than M$ backing gay rights. For the past fifteen years they've been one of the most progressive companies in regards to civil rights for gays. Every year they have come out,heh, in support of gay rights legislation in Washington state.  This year, after being attacked by a solitary fundamentalist wingnut, one of their big shot lawyers drafted a new policy for M$ -- no policy on social issues. Which effectivedly killed the civil rights legistation in Washington - the bill lost by one vote. Then, a bunch of activists jumped on M$s back, right has they started to promo the new bullshit os of theirs, and instead of the media coverin the OS, they covererd the ass-fucking they gave the gays. And lo! Their policy has gone back to progressive.

That's a win for the good guys. One of the last places in our society that proudly supports gay rights is corporate America. M$ jumping ship because of one wing nut might have back-slid us all at the workplace, since a lack of protection for some Americans means there is no really protection for any of us.

[KoS.Rebel]

To answer the question of if im joking, im not. I dont believe gay people serve a purpose on the planet. The purpose of the human is to live, do something to benefit mankind, reproduce, and die. Then the cycle continues. Gay people cannot reproduce, therefore they are a waste of human. If you feel differently then so be it, but my views will never change.

[Croosch]

And that's one thing I can finally agree with Microsoft on... afterall, this is the "land of the free"

[*NADS Lo$eMoney]

To answer the question of if im joking, im not. I dont believe gay people serve a purpose on the planet. The purpose of the human is to live, do something to benefit mankind, reproduce, and die. Then the cycle continues. Gay people cannot reproduce, therefore they are a waste of human. If you feel differently then so be it, but my views will never change.

rebel knows the meaning of life therefore he can't be wrong 

[Typhy]

To answer the question of if im joking, im not. I dont believe gay people serve a purpose on the planet. The purpose of the human is to live, do something to benefit mankind, reproduce, and die. Then the cycle continues. Gay people cannot reproduce, therefore they are a waste of human. If you feel differently then so be it, but my views will never change.

And you show, once again, that your mind is as simple as that of a worm.

You would've made a kick ass Nazi, deeming people unworthy of life.

So, Adolf, you think that people are unworthy of life, and serve no purpose if they can't reproduce? That's such a shallow attitude, that it's hard to know how to respond to it, other than to say, strap your swastica on your arm, and join the American Nazi Party.

[Croosch]

To answer the question of if im joking, im not. I dont believe gay people serve a purpose on the planet. The purpose of the human is to live, do something to benefit mankind, reproduce, and die. Then the cycle continues. Gay people cannot reproduce, therefore they are a waste of human. If you feel differently then so be it, but my views will never change.

you must feel the same way about people who are sterile? or just choose not to reproduce, right? no?

[DarK.]

NO rebel beleives that people whø are sterile are reincarnations of evil people like hitler and Elton John (when he Dies)

[Brutha]

My god, there are ppl that still have medieval values. Guess BFG and I have to visit him and do the "looove doctor" on him.

[BFG]

To answer the question of if im joking, im not. I dont believe gay people serve a purpose on the planet. The purpose of the human is to live, do something to benefit mankind, reproduce, and die. Then the cycle continues. Gay people cannot reproduce, therefore they are a waste of human. If you feel differently then so be it, but my views will never change.

OK so if we get into all this we're probably going to go way of the Microsoft end of the topic, and its probably going to degenerate into something nasty. But i just can't leave this one alone.

First i don't want to presume so are you religious, christian?
You list a cycle, to live, do something to benefit mankind, reproduce, die.

My question is very simple. If you regard a gay man/woman to be a 'waste of a human' you surely value the reproduction of people over what a person does to benefit makind. So could we perhaps assume for one moment that Ghandi was gay, that Martin Luther King was gay, that Charles darwin was gay.  Now, If these three men were theoretically gay which is more inportant, the fact they love and care for other men, or their unique and immense lives that have changed the world?

The reason im going into this is although your welcome to your own opinion, my opinion is that it is a uneducated, bigoted, and well obviously homophobic.

Gay people cannot reproduce

So what if your gay do you think that a guy suddenly becomes infertile? Are you perhaps totally unaware of the role of surrogate mothers?

Its not a matter of not being able to reproduce, its a matter of choosing not to reproduce with the opposite sex. So do you feel that heterosexual couples who choose not to have children are a waste of human life? Is a Catholic priest a waste of human life because he follows a life of chastity? Why is the mass reproduction of our race more important than anything else?

I have several friends who are openly gay. I don't believe they are worthless human beings.... And im not even going to go down the nazi topic here, i expect you get the jist of who what you sound like.

Its not a personal attack at you, i guess its your parents or school or community or society that i blame... ok and you a bit.

[Mr.Mellow]

So, basically, our infallible God put gay people on this earth simply to be humiliated and treated like shit? Right.

[(SiX)Sheixhundt]

I could make the argument that (SET X) 10 conscientious, intelligent, gay doctors, teachers, scientists, engineers, and geneticists, has done more to advance humanity, and therefore serve GOD, than (SET Y) 3000 angry, GED-educated, right-winger, war-mongering, gay-bashin, Pat Robertson-lovin, N-hatin, beer-swillin Nascar fans.

It is indisputable that set X is not a subset of Y, so which has more right to exist??

TAKE THAT!!