By Lisa Keen
In a stunning reversal, the Microsoft Corporation announced May 6 that it will not remain "neutral" in the fight for equal rights for gays.
Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive officer, sent an email to employees saying the corporation would include gay civil rights in its corporate legislative agenda both federally and in the company's home state of Washington.
"After looking at the question from all sides," said Ballmer, "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."
A spokesperson for Microsoft, Kent Hollenbeck, said the company would support federal legislation to "extend existing law to prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation." He said Microsoft would also support the Washington state non-discrimination bill "should it come up" in the future.
Supporters of the statewide bill, which failed by only one vote last month, said they would bring the legislation up again next year.
Microsoft's decision to support equal rights for gays in the workplace represents a victory for gay civil rights supporters and an illustration of the ability of gays and their supporters to make their case in the face of threats from right-wing opponents
"Clearly, this shows that diversity is a crucial issue for business," said Selisse Berry, executive director of Out & Equal, a San Francisco-based organization that promotes equality in the workplace for gays. "Successful business leaders know what is good for business and the marketplace, and that is fairness and equality for everyone, including the LGBT community."
Tina Podlodowski, who was a senior manager at Microsoft in the 1980s and 1990s and helped form Microsoft's gay employee group GLEAM, said she believes GLEAM and "a wide variety of folks" were instrumental in convincing Microsoft to change its position. Podlodowski, who is now head of a Seattle AIDS service group, said she believes Microsoft's initial decision to stay "neutral" concerning the Washington state gay civil rights bill was the result of "bullying" by a local evangelical pastor.
The controversy erupted nationally last month when the company told its employees that it would remain "neutral" on the bill to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in Washington State. Company officials initially said they made this decision because the county where most of its employees work already has non-discrimination protection and because the corporation wanted to focus the short legislative session "on a limited number of issues that are directly related to our business." After Microsoft said it would take no position on the bill, the legislation was defeated by only one vote in the Washington state senate. That vote, said Equal Rights Washington Executive Director George Cheung, had been sewn up until Microsoft took its pressure off the Republican minority leader who, in turn, "put a lock" on the Republican vote, forcing two or three supporters of the bill to vote against it.
Soon after the vote, a Seattle weekly newspaper, The Stranger, reported that a senior Microsoft vice president acknowledged to a group of gay employees that a local evangelical Christian pastor had threatened to organize a national boycott of Microsoft products unless the company withdrew its support of the bill.
Then, that pastor, Ken Hutcherson of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, Washington, told the New York Times that Microsoft "backed off" from the bill after he threatened to stage a national boycott.
Initially, Microsoft tried to defend its neutrality, but criticism from gays and their supporters mounted quickly. The Human Rights Campaign expressed "profound" disappointment. The Gay & Lesbian Center in Los Angeles asked Microsoft to return its "Corporate Vision Award."
Within a week, Microsoft's world famous founder, Bill Gates, was promising to take another look at the decision. By the end of last week, Microsoft had changed the decision.
Microsoft spokesperson Hollenbeck said the company received "considerable" employee input and that its decision to support gay civil rights legislation in the future was based on "what's best for Microsoft's business."
Podlodowski, who said she wrote a letter to top Microsoft officials, noted that other major corporations with offices in Seattle supported the legislation, including Nike and Boeing. She said that, during her tenure at the corporation, it had a long history of "doing the right thing for GLBT employees." She said she attributes its initial decision to remain "neutral" on the Washington state bill to "somebody getting scared" in the face of a "bully."
"Even the best of us, when confronted with a bully, can be taken aback and not act in way we would normally act," said Podlodowski. She said Ballmer's May 6 email was "absolutely the right resolution."
"The company went back to its true values – what's right for employees and customers," said Podlodowski.
Other gay groups agreed, applauding Microsoft for returning to its supportive position.
"Few of us have not made a misstep," said Lorri Jean, executive director of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center. "This was a misstep. It was a big one. But Microsoft has done the right thing, and we would be proud to have them keep our award."
