As of last week, Washington state does not value gay rights, and one of Washington’s- and the world’s- biggest companies, Microsoft, no longer does either.

Last Thursday, the Washington State Senate voted down 25 to 24 an anti-discrimination bill which would prohibit discrimination against gays in employment, housing and other areas. Microsoft, which had publicly supported the bill for years, had pulled its support several weeks before the Senate’s decision.

After the bill failed, proponents and the media erupted, causing Microsoft’s chief executive Steve Ballmer to send an e-mail message to 35,000 employees explaining their reasoning. According to The New York Times, it stated that the company was unsure of the sort of role it should play in social debates. But critics of the move claimed that an influential local evangelical minister had threatened a boycott of Microsoft products if the company supported the bill..

Microsoft is well-known for its inclusive and fair internal policies toward gay employees. Its main policy states equal opportunity and anti-discrimination to all employees regardless of sexual orientation. Microsoft has supported the bill in the past – but Balmer wrote in the e-mail, ‘it was not including the gay rights bill in its legislative priorities,’ according to The New York Times.

Microsoft, as a company, clearly dedicates itself to upholding its values of equality and equal opportunity to all, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, age, etc. Bill Gates and other Microsoft executives strongly believe in upholding gay rights for employees, within its doors.

But Microsoft employees do not exist solely in their workplace bubble. They go home, to their families, to their homes. Their partners and gay friends may not work for Microsoft, and may face discrimination both in and outside of the work-place. If Microsoft truly believed in gay rights, it would recognize that all gays-not just its employees- deserve equal rights and would stand strongly in support of legal protection for all.

Any company which sincerely believes in and upholds certain values in its policies brands itself a hypocrite if it cannot extend those same values to greater society. It has a responsibility to protect, and respect, its employees and greater clientele, especially such an influential, powerful company like Microsoft.

JEAN STEVENS IS A JUNIOR MAGAZINE STUDIES, WOMEN’S STUDIES AND POLITICAL SCIENCE. E-MAIL HER AT JMSTEV03@SYR.

Published on April 27, 2005 at 12:00 pm