What If There Was a Microsoft Appreciation Day? 362
theodp writes "In 2005, Microsoft came under fire after withdrawing support for an anti-gay-discrimination bill. 'I don't want the company to be in the position of appearing to dismiss the deeply-held beliefs of any employee, by picking sides on social policy issues,' explained CEO Steve Ballmer. That was then. Microsoft — like Google and Amazon — has since very publicly declared its support for gay-marriage legislation, which means it — unlike Chick-fil-A — needn't worry about the 'deeply-held beliefs of any employee' causing it to be blocked from doing business by the mayors of Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco. I guess we'll never know what Microsoft versions of 'Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day' or 'National Same-Sex Kiss Day' would have looked like."
One critical difference (Score:5, Informative)
Chic-Fil-A is a private company serving the interests of a private owner. Microsoft soft is a publicly held company which primarily exists to serve the interests of their shareholders.
The same sex marriage debate is divisive and there are strong beliefs on both sides. Does a public company exist to sell a product and provide a profit to its shareholders, or help enact social change even if it means the cost of business? Even if it hurts shareholders?
It simply does not make sense to take sides on a on a highly divisive social issue. [businessweek.com]
In Chic-Fil-A's case, Rahm Emmanuel shot his mouth off saying "Their values are not our values" and supported his alderman's postion to stop Chic--Fil-A from building a restaurant based on Chic Fil A's president stance on opposing same sex marriage. Which subsequently led to the anti-boycott and Chic-Fil-A's single biggest sales day in the history of the company Aug 1 [chicagotribune.com]
Re:Ready... set... Troll! (Score:4, Informative)
To be fair, the CEO made the comments outside the business realm to a group at a southern baptist online convention. His son repeated and clarified the remarks when asked by reporters outside that. The official company stance on the issue was somewhat agnostic as they said they didn't want o be involved in the debate and wanted to leave it to the political and government arenas.
It is really being blown out or portion to state that Chick-Fil-A itself as a company other then donating to a charity the owner's wife is involved with has an anti gay or anti gay marriage stance. Even with the controversy in the headlines, we haven't seen any gays step forward saying they were refused promotions or denied jobs because of their orientation.
Re:Ready... set... Troll! (Score:4, Informative)
The post actually presents an interesting issue (via the time.com link): why do corporations feel they have to take sides on the gay marriage issue?
As I recall, Microsoft's reasoning was made explicit at least once. MSFT believes that, by supporting issues such as same-sex marriage, it can attract the most talented gay people in the software industry as employees, who may see the company's support of such an issue as a reason to work for MSFT rather than a competitor.
Re:Ready... set... Troll! (Score:5, Informative)
In January 2011, the media reported that the American fast food restaurant chain Chick-fil-A was co-sponsoring a marriage conference along with the Pennsylvania Family Institute (PFI), an organization that had filed an amicus brief against the trial ruling striking down Proposition 8 in California (see Perry v. Brown).[1][2][3][4][5] PFI had also lobbied against a state effort to ban discrimination in Pennsylvania on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.[6] Responding on its official company Facebook page, Chick-fil-A said that support of the PFI retreat had come from a local franchisee, stating "We have determined that one of our independent Restaurant Operators in Pennsylvania was asked to provide sandwiches to two Art of Marriage video seminars."[7]
Another organization connected to Chick-fil-A through financial support, the WinShape Foundation,[8] was also quoted as stating it would not allow same-sex couples to participate in its marriage retreats.[9] Chick-fil-A gave over $8 million to the WinShape Foundation in 2010.[10] Between 2003 and 2009, the WinShape Foundation gave more than $2 million to groups such as Focus on the Family and Eagle Forum that are politically active in opposing same-sex marriage and other gay rights issues.[11][12][13] Some of these groups are also listed and recognized as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. [1]
Re:Ready... set... Troll! (Score:4, Informative)
Nope, it looks like you did us the favor of proving that you were lying, thanks for sparing us the effort. Nowhere in Obama's quotes did you find anything stating that 'God would be angry with us for redefining marriage'.
Then there's the matter of Chic's donations to the National Organization of Marriage, a right wing homophobic hate group. Unless you can find similar donations from Obama to similar groups, your false equivalence is even more dishonest.
You're lying. Again. If you're trying to gain points through consistency, it's not working.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)