VOICE OF THE MAJORITY

By Elizabeth M. Gillespie, Associated Press Writer
Microsoft Branded Corporate Coward for Dropping Support for Gay Rights Bill in Home State of Wash. (SEATTLE)
AP) -- Microsoft Corp., one of the earliest companies to extend benefits to gay employees, now finds itself in the crosshairs of angry activists for rescinding support for gay rights legislation in its home state. Critics say the world's No. 1 software maker caved to pressure from an NFL linebacker-turned-local pastor who had threatened to launch a nationwide boycott, and tried to tiptoe away from a bill it had previously supported. Last week, the measure failed in Washington state's Senate by a single vote. Bloggers branded Microsoft a corporate coward, and a prominent gay rights group asked the company to return a civil rights award it had bestowed on the tech giant four years ago. It's an unusually sticky spot for a brainy company that has taken pride in its progressive employment policies. Sensitive to employees as well as image concerns, the company's top executives were forced to do some very public soul-searching. "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?" CEO Steve Ballmer wrote in an e-mail to employees on Friday. "What message does the company taking a position send to its employees who have strongly held beliefs on the opposite side of the issue?" A few days later, Chairman Bill Gates said he was surprised by the negative reaction and said the company may rethink its position. "Well, we didn't expect that kind of visibility for it," Gates told The Seattle Times. "After all, Microsoft's position on a political bill -- has that ever caused something to pass or not pass? Is it good, is it bad? I don't know." Microsoft contends it decided before the current legislative session to take a neutral stance on a gay rights bill it had once championed so it could focus efforts on a shorter list of issues, like computer privacy, education and transportation. Daryl Herrschaft, a deputy director of the workplace project at the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights group, says Microsoft's behavior ran against the grain in the business world. The Boeing Co., Nike, Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., Molson Coors Brewing Co., and Levi Strauss & Co., are among businesses that supported the Washington state bill, which would have banned discrimination against homosexuals in housing, employment and insurance. Asked why Hewlett-Packard supported it, John Hassell, the computer maker's director of federal and state governmental affairs said: "One word: competitiveness." HP started offering domestic partner benefits to gay employees in 1996 -- three years after Microsoft did -- and, like Microsoft, has an anti-discrimination policy that protects gays. "It's not just a nice-to-do thing. It's a requirement to be successful in the private sector," Hassell said. Bradley Googins, executive director of the Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College, said he expects more businesses to be faced with the same kind of PR problem that's fallen on Microsoft. "Businesses today are right square in the middle of all sorts of real thorny dilemmas because of the shifting nature between the role of business in society and business in government." The pressure on Microsoft recalls criticism of The Walt Disney Co. by conservative Christian groups for the Gay Days gathering held at the company's theme parks. The groups have since the mid-1990s urged consumers to boycott the company, which cooperates with organizers of the gatherings, but does not sponsor them. Disney has repeatedly refused, though, to disassociate itself from the Gay Days events. Microsoft didn't blink when it had to stare down the U.S. Justice Department on antitrust, which has left many people wondering why the company appears to have gotten nervous about a threatening minister. The local former Seattle Seahawk turned evangelical pastor, Ken Hutcherson, had threatened the boycott in a meeting with Microsoft a few months ago. Hutcherson, who is black, said he never had a problem with Microsoft's own anti-discrimination policies -- even though he believes gays don't belong in the same group as African Americans and other minorities who have fought for equal rights. "When they stepped out and tried to make their policy my policy and other companies' policy and the state's policy, they stepped into a den of snakes and I was the main cobra," Hutcherson said. He's accused the company of lying about when it decided not to support the bill. Microsoft has called it a big misunderstanding. "In hindsight, we clearly should have communicated more proactively about this position," said Microsoft spokesman Mark Murray. And Gates' statement that Microsoft might reconsider its position next year was considered a mixed message by some. "We're going to continue to put pressure on Microsoft until they definitively come out in support of this bill again," said George Cheung, executive director for Equal Rights Washington, the state's largest gay rights group. Tina Podlodowski, a former Seattle City Councilwoman who heads up the Lifelong AIDS Alliance, once worked for Microsoft and helped persuade executives to offer domestic partner benefits to gays and lesbians, like herself. She said she's angry now but hopeful the company will give her a reason to be proud of it again. "I fundamentally believe that this is a company that does the right thing," she said, "not just because it's right but because it's also good for business."
AP Business Writer Adam Geller contributed to this story from New York.

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