Even 800lb gorillas occasionally cave to threats ...

[unixronin]

...In this case, it appears Microsoft,  in response to threats from an Antioch Bible Church pastor of a national boycott of Microsoft products, withdrew its support for House Bill 1515, Washington State's anti-gay-discrimination bill.  Other corporate sponsors of HB1515 including Boeing, Nike, Coors, Qwest Communications, Washington Mutual, Hewlett-Packard, Corbis, Battelle Memorial Institute, and Paul Allen's company Vulcan Inc appear so far to be maintaining their support.

Comments

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, first point, such laws don't say you can't basically hire whom you like. They just say you cannot make race, religion, gender etc the criterion for that decision. The other side of this coin, though is that if such laws don't exist, and the insurance industry has the ability to refuse you medical coverage or auto insurance because they dislike something about your lifestyle, then they have, de facto, the power to dictate your lifestyle to you unless you're willing and able to live your life without a motor vehicle or medical insurance. Or, maybe, those and a joband a bank account.

Secondly, anti-discrimination laws do not apply to private transactions like who you rent your house to or who you sell your car to. They apply to business transactions, government policies, and so on -- and, IMHO, rightly so.