TL;DR: Of he can be (and IMHO should be) criticized, he is on the wrong side of history. He made a public statement (money as speech), and now the community ca

TL;DR: Of he can be (and IMHO should be) criticized, he is on the wrong side of history. He made a public statement (money as speech), and now the community can (and will) hold him accountable for it. The bottom line is -- being homophobic is starting to reach the same point in popular culture as racism and sexism. Our society as a whole is becoming far less tolerant of such nonsense, being against gay marriage is treated like being against interracial marriage. Even 61% of young Republican leaning 18-29 year olds are in favor of marriage equality. It follows a similar trend to interracial marriage (slow start, then a rapid increase in acceptance). In 1986, less than 35% of American's "approved" of interracial marriage. A mere 5 years later, the number was about 50% .. and 20 years later that vast majority approve of interracial marriage, with more than 30% having a family member involved in an interracial relationship. That is when it hits home for people, when a friend of family member comes out (today, being in love with the same sex... in the 80s, being in love with another race) -- it becomes personal, and when it becomes personal, you can no longer abstract 'those' people -- now it is your friend, your sister, your cousin, the best man at your wedding, etc. You can rail against marriage being crap (it is, I agree) -- but that isn't the point. If you are against marriage, I am with you 100% -- lets get rid of it as a government regulated institution! But, if it is around, it has to be an option for all. I think it is far too close to religion to be certified by government, but that ship has sailed long ago... gotta work within reality. Also, undemocratic to demonize one side of the vote, are you kidding? That is the oldest democratic tradition! As for why it gets more "marketing" than the death penalty and gun control. It gets more "marketing" than the death penalty because it touches more peoples lives. It gets FAR less "marketing" than gun control, gun control just has lots of marketing on both sides, a massive constitutional question, and is not trending towards consensus... marriage equality unequivocally is trending towards consensus... it will be a decided issue before it ever has the "marketing" of gun control. While I am freaking ranting... this quote is idiocy "Beliefs that are protected, that include political and religious speech, are generally not something that can be held against even a CEO." -- NO. Just NO. If you believe something that society finds laughable or horrible (Lizard people run the world, X race is superior, Z are bad at math, the Holocaust didn't happen, etc)... and you support it out loud, with money, in public. Of COURSE it can be held against you -- you don't have a goddamn right to that job, and part of your job is to be the face of the company. /rant