8 ms·
Microsoft calls for Gay Marriage in Washington State
- Serentiynow 15y agoThis is great. Discrimination makes me sick to my stomach.
- hunterjrj 15y agoSomewhere, Alan Turing applauds.
- geogra4 15y agoTuring's story is especially heartbreaking. Imagine what another 30-40 years of Alan Turing's genius would have done for computation.
- jgrahamc 15y agoGiven that Turing was working on morphogenesis towards the end of his life, a life that had already covered computation, code breaking, and artificial intelligence, I think the more interesting question is what would Turing have decided to work on given a few more decades. It might not have been computing.
- caryme 15y agoI'm graduating this June and starting work full-time at Microsoft in August. I'm gay and my boyfriend is moving to Seattle with me, where we're planning on getting a domestic partnership and would like to get married down the road. Microsoft's efforts to create a truly equal workplace and community for me played a significant role on my decision to accept an offer there (note: I don't say this at the exclusion of other companies who make similar efforts).
- technoslut 15y agoI have no doubt that MS believes in having the best workers possible, regardless of their sexual orientation. I congratulate you for getting a good job. What I do find interesting is that the Republican Party is becoming more fundamentalist as time and elections go on, especially when both Ballmer and Gates are Republican. They're not Christian fundamentalists but they do happen to vote that way due to business issues.
- pearle 15y agoI'm not that educated regarding the accuracy of this website but perhaps others can comment on it. http://www.campaignmoney.com/biography/bill_gates.asp http://www.campaignmoney.com/biography/bill_gates.asp
- geogra4 15y agoI don't know about Ballmer, but is Gates a republican? According to [0] he donates more to D than to R, although not by a great margin [0] http://www.forbes.com/profile/bill-gates/ http://www.forbes.com/profile/bill-gates/
- untog 15y agoWhether or not Ballmer or Gates are supporters, the Republican Party's shift towards fundamentalism is not supported by all of their base. The number of votes for Ron Paul in the primaries show that there is a sizable base still interested in small government and minimal taxes. I honestly do believe we'll see a third party (be it Fundamentalist of Libertarian, depending on who 'wins' the Republicans) with a decade or two. The outcome of this coming election (whether Romney wins, and how the party reacts) could be a deciding factor.
- rickmb 15y ago"shift towards"? The Republican party has been fundamentalist by all but American standards, and I'm not even talking about the more extreme tea party folks. Those are just plain insane.
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- Craiggybear 15y agoCongratulations on the new job and new life. I sincerely wish you the very best with both.
- serge2k 15y agoCongrats. Hope everything works out for you two.
- cleverjake 15y agoGoogle has been extremely pro gay rights for a while (forever?) and it has worked out quite well for what it seems. Bully for both of them, it's a great move, both as. Company and people with basic humanity.
- ryanmolden 15y agoSo has Microsoft, this isn't exactly a new stance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_and_Lesbian_Employees_at_Microsoft http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_and_Lesbian_Employees_at_Mi...
- cleverjake 15y agoOh I know, I lived a couple miles from Redmond for most of my life. I just pointed out another large company that had a similar mindset. Sorry if that came off as Microsoft jumping on a bandwagon or anything.
- ck2 15y agoOh come on - do we need logic arguments to convince people it's the right thing to do? Why is separate-yet-equal acceptable for any human being? It's a disgusting, ignorant attitude. Society needs to grow up. Do detractors think there should be separate water fountains for gays at work too?
- corin_ 15y agoI couldn't work out if I was upset that they were using business as the reason not human rights, or if I was pleased that they had figured out a way to help push for the right thing. Still not sure, really.
- ck2 15y agoIf I understand it correctly, history is repeating itself in that some business also helped push for rights in the 1950s, ie. serving everyone at the same lunch counter at some stores even though it was illegal at the time. The difference is this time at least people aren't being beaten and killed over this (at least not in mass). But it does not help at all when the President of the United States says that gay rights are okay when they need fresh bodies for the wars to kill and be killed but on gay marriage "well he's still not convinced". It boggles my mind.
- rmc 15y agoThe difference is this time at least people aren't being beaten and killed over this (at least not in mass). No, not in mass. Still lots of people bullied into suicide though.
- surement 15y ago"It boggles my mind." No it doesn't. You just showed that on the one hand he gets "fresh bodies for the wars to kill and be killed" and on the other he doesn't lose votes.
- JS_startup 15y agoFraming civil rights in a logical or business argument is the smartest avenue of approach, especially in the US. Moral or human rights arguments can easily be dismissed by religion, but an economic or practical argument? Plus Microsoft would probably be sued by its shareholders if they didn't give a good, strategic decision for taking an overtly political position.
- tmh88j 15y agoAm I the only one that notices this seems to be the case with a lot of tech companies? It seems like most non-tech industries are still full of baby boomers who are far less accepting than the younger generations who make up these types of companies.
- rmc 15y agoYeah, technology and IT are quite liberal.
- Craiggybear 15y agoGenerally. There are still assholes in every walk of life. Good that they are being challenged more and more and hopefully, eventually their outrageous prejudices will no longer have anywhere left to hide.
- tmh88j 15y agoI don't know if it's what you said as much as brainwashed religious folk who are scared of change. I find it interesting how one can justify sexual descrimination but not racial, as if you have any say in your genetics. Just listening to Rick Santorum last night made me wodner if he believes in separation of church and state.
- rmc 15y agoI find it interesting how one can justify sexual descrimination but not racial He's a politician. Racial discrimination is not political acceptable. Sexual Orientation Discrimination is political acceptable in some places.
- Craiggybear 15y ago"Just listening to Rick Santorum last night made me wodner if he believes in separation of church and state." No. Of course he doesn't. Be very afraid of people like this. "I find it interesting how one can justify sexual descrimination but not racial" I think that if you can justify sexual discrimination, scratch just a little below the surface and you'll probably also find a colour bias there as well. Along with a few others. I find prejudices tend to come in sets with a lot of a certain type of person.
- coderdude 15y agoIn 50 years it'll be robosexual marriage. Then 20 years later it'll be gay robosexual marriage (yes, I like my Futurama). I really hope we can get this issue with who-can-marry-who resolved before we get to that point. Edit: In 70 years these down-votes will be seen as ignorant and intolerant, you apes.
- johnpmayer 15y agoI'm sure you remember this http://qntm.org/gay http://qntm.org/gay
- fennecfoxen 15y agoNo, the next thing be polygamy. (You might reasonably think that is just something delusional fundamentalists cry to make a slippery-slope argument, because it is something they cry to make a slippery-slope argument, but if you hang around the right parts of the world - e.g. certain corners of San Francisco or the Internet - it's not very hard to see that it's at least plausible. The interpretation of the validity or invalidity of these potential developments and society's possible reactions to it are left as an exercise to the reader, however.)
- coderdude 15y agoThe general point I was trying to make was that something will succeed this as the next big fight for rights and that it would be related to marriage, so people who oppose these unions should just take the smart exit and stop fighting it.
- nsxwolf 15y agoI really don't understand what's wrong with polygamy. It seems good liberal minded people should support it. You could perhaps put some reasonable upper bound on the number of people that could enter into such a marriage, so people can't abuse it to form absurdly large tax shelters, but how can anyone justify denying 3 or 4 people the right to be married? What's so magical about the number 2?
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- johnohara 15y agoI think this has more to do with being able to offer competitive employment benefits than it does with any kind of social or political philosophy. Seattle's 13% LBGT population is second only to SF (15%). Attracting talent north is a practical matter.
- mgkimsal 15y agoAny "gay marriage" bills should have been argued as "jobs bills". At the very least, by not voting against gay marriage, you are hurting people in the wedding industry (photographers, fashion, bakers, halls, etc). Never understood why that angle was not brought up against hardcore republican/conservative voters - the type who are usually all "pro jobs/work/smallbusiness" types. Perhaps because it makes sense, and logic/reason isn't typically being employed by people when the "gay marriage" legislation topic floats around.
- tzs 15y agoIt should be noted that Washington does currently provide registered domestic partnerships, which provide nearly all of the legal benefits of marriage. The last expansion of the domestic partnership laws was basically an "everything but marriage" bill. Here are some of the things covered: Health care decision making and visitation Inheritance and other death-related stuff Spousal immunity in court Community property Domestic violence laws apply Tax breaks on property transfers between the partners Veteran benefits Sick leave can be used to care for partner Adoption, child custody, and child support same as marriage Same sex marriages from other states are treated as Washington domestic partnerships. Note: I'm not suggesting that this means there is no need for marriage. Just pointing out that Washington is already very gay friendly.
- serge2k 15y agoso quit with the bs and just let people get married.
- api 15y agoGlobal economic meritocracy: the way social conservatism dies. Socially conservative or otherwise authoritarian societies always find themselves on the losing side of the brain drain equation.