California politics directly influence Google's employees. Would I want to work for someone who refused to take a stand on whether I could visit my partner in t

California politics directly influence Google's employees. Would I want to work for someone who refused to take a stand on whether I could visit my partner in the hospital? Second, although AIDS orphans are tragic, a general "we support AIDS orphans" blog post would be considered rhetorical and would not get garner much additional support for AIDS orphans. However, voting is coming soon and Google's position on this will change votes in CA. Third, yes theoretically I suppose that Google is "spending an enormous amount of Google brand and influence" ... but practically, they're spending ten minutes of Sergey's time to write a blog post. Google is not going to lose business -- you can't use the Internet without seeing their ads. I also doubt that its brand name will be tarnished much -- some people may despise the move, but a lot of others will like Google even more (including myself). Many companies already provide full benefits to same-sex couples -- isn't this already publicly affirming them?