vicente
23rd April 2005, 11:48 AM
REDMOND, Wash. April 22, 2005 - Microsoft Corp. denied Friday that it had succumbed to pressure from a prominent evangelical minister in deciding not to lobby for a bill that would have broadened Washington state protections against discrimination to include gay men and lesbians.
A weekly newspaper in Seattle, and The New York Times reported that Microsoft withdrew its support for the bill, which failed Thursday by one vote in the state Senate, after the Rev. Ken Hutcherson of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond threatened in two recent meetings with Microsoft officials to engineer a national boycott of the software company’s products because of its past support for the measure.
The reports created an uproar among advocates for gay and lesbian rights and in the blogosphere, where Microsoft was portrayed as having abandoned its gay and lesbian employees.
“They threw us to the radical right dogs and now are risking every other company in America withdrawing its support for our civil rights legislation as well,” wrote “John in DC” on the widely read Americablog, while another writer, identified as “Angry Desi” wrote on The Minority Report: “Any way you look at it, Microsoft is leaving gays out in the cold.”
Tami Bergasse, a senior corporate spokeswoman for Microsoft denied that it was because of pressure from Hutcherson, who said in the New York Times article that the company “backed off” after a meeting this month with Bradford L. Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel. Hutcherson did not return calls for comment, but he was quoted in the Times as saying, “I told them I was going to give them something to be afraid of Christians about.”
Bergasse insisted that “this decision was not influenced by external factors.” She said “We understand that this is a very controversial issue with emotions on all sides,” she said. “Yes, we made a decision to take the neutral stance, but we remain very committed to providing the strongest anti-discrimination protections to our employees.”
A weekly newspaper in Seattle, and The New York Times reported that Microsoft withdrew its support for the bill, which failed Thursday by one vote in the state Senate, after the Rev. Ken Hutcherson of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond threatened in two recent meetings with Microsoft officials to engineer a national boycott of the software company’s products because of its past support for the measure.
The reports created an uproar among advocates for gay and lesbian rights and in the blogosphere, where Microsoft was portrayed as having abandoned its gay and lesbian employees.
“They threw us to the radical right dogs and now are risking every other company in America withdrawing its support for our civil rights legislation as well,” wrote “John in DC” on the widely read Americablog, while another writer, identified as “Angry Desi” wrote on The Minority Report: “Any way you look at it, Microsoft is leaving gays out in the cold.”
Tami Bergasse, a senior corporate spokeswoman for Microsoft denied that it was because of pressure from Hutcherson, who said in the New York Times article that the company “backed off” after a meeting this month with Bradford L. Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel. Hutcherson did not return calls for comment, but he was quoted in the Times as saying, “I told them I was going to give them something to be afraid of Christians about.”
Bergasse insisted that “this decision was not influenced by external factors.” She said “We understand that this is a very controversial issue with emotions on all sides,” she said. “Yes, we made a decision to take the neutral stance, but we remain very committed to providing the strongest anti-discrimination protections to our employees.”