Related news across the pond: “Several Spanish mayors have said they will refuse to marry same sex couples despite a bill passed by deputies which would allow gay couples to wed.” Spain’s lower house passed the bill last week; it now goes to the Spanish Senate.
Ralph Reed’s association with Microsoft has been known for some time, but Equal Rights Washington, a LGBT group, is using it against Microsoft, which backpedaled on a state gay rights bill:
demanded today that Microsoft Corporation sever its
relationship with the Former head of the Christian
Coalition Ralph Reed, who according to news reports,
earns $20,000 a month from the company. ..
Writes the Seattle Post-Intelligencer today in “Microsoft defends ties to Ralph Reed”:
Reed’s history with Microsoft, coupled with Microsoft’s reversal on a gay rights bill for the state, unleashed a vocal backlash against the company yesterday. The bill, which would have made it illegal to discriminate against gays and lesbians in housing, employment and insurance, failed in the state Senate last week by a single vote. Supporters said that Microsoft’s shift tipped the scales. …
More below:
A Seattle Times article from 2002 — about Reed’s offer to represent Enron — says that Reed dropped Microsoft as a client in 2000. Salon has details about the story: “Microsoft’s hired gun
Former Christian Coalition frontman Ralph Reed was lobbying for Microsoft while he was serving as a chief advisor to the George W. Bush campaign.”
More from the Seattle PI article today:
[Microsoft spokesman Mark] Murray confirmed that the invoices, which were first reported by the Web log Americablog, were authentic.
But he disputed suggestions that Reed had any part in the company’s decision to withdraw its support for the gay rights legislation.
“Microsoft has worked with Century Strategies for the past several years on trade and competition issues,” Murray said. “Century Strategies has never advised Microsoft on any social policy issues — nothing related to anti-discrimination legislation.”
Though the company publicly supported a gay anti-discrimination measure last year, Murray said the change in company philosophy came in December after an internal review of the bill.
Microsoft, at the forefront of corporate gay rights for decades, came under fire from gay rights groups, politicians and its own employees after it withdrew its support for the bill.
From the Equal Rights Washington press release:
payroll Ralph Reed, the founder of the Christian
Coalition. Mr. Reed’s policies are not the policies of
Washingtonians, nor should they be the policies of a
world class leader like Microsoft,” said George
Cheung, Executive Director of Equal Rights Washington.
“Having Ralph Reed on the payroll certainly puts into
question Microsoft’s commitment to equal rights.”
Recent news reports highlighted Microsoft’s decision
to withdraw support of HB 1515, the Anderson-Murray
Anti-Discrimination Bill, that failed by just one vote
in the State Senate. “Microsoft needs to come clean
about its relationship with Ralph Reed. Having Ralph
Reed on the payroll, coming on the heels of
Microsoft’s decision to withdraw support from the
Anti-Discrimination Bill, certainly looks bad.”
“Microsoft’s reputation as a fair-minded company is
rapidly slipping away … if Bill Gates and
Steve Ballmer are really interested in running a
fair-minded company, they would fire Ralph Reed
today.”
Earlier today, Equal Rights Washington also demanded
that Microsoft take immediate steps to improve its
relationship with the LGBT community in Washington
State. For a copy of the letter sent to Microsoft, go
to: equalrightswa shington.org.
Equal Rights Washington is the largest political LGBT
organization in Washington State. For more information
about Equal Rights Washington, please visit
equalrightswa shington.org
Do you have the feeling that, yet again, Microsoft is three or four years behind everyone else? If a megacorporation was going to hire Raplph Reed and reap any benefits from his insider connections, it would have been in 2000. Now’s the time to get as far away as possible from Reed and the rest of the crew. This is just plain dumb.
He was useful in 2004 as well. And he is undoubtedly useful for D.C. legislation favorable to Microsoft and other large corporations.
I KNEW there was something familiar about Microsoft’s attacks on open-source/free software. I’m surprised they didn’t go with the “God wants you to pay a lot for crappy programs” scam.
that’s probably what microsoft wants everyone to think, which is why they fancy they’ve got God’s own lobbyist in r. reed.
“BENNINGTON COUNTY — Karen and Linda Carman-Reid, of Arlington, celebrated July 4, 2000 not only with fireworks but with one of the state’s first civil unions after then-Gov. Howard Dean signed Act 91 into law five years ago Tuesday. The act, which became effective July 1, 2000, meant thousands of couples like the Carman-Reids could enter civil unions that provided many of the same legal benefits and protections married couples have. Joyce “Birdie” Wyman, Arlington’s town clerk, hosted the Carman-Reid’s civil union at her own home in an attempt to give the couple some sanity in a nation that had been particularly polarized about the issue of civil unions. “At that time, it was such a hullabaloo with all the attention, no one wanted the press out here,” she said, pointing through a window to the street outside town hall. Wyman said 2003 seemed to be a time when people were registering in droves.
While she had roughly a dozen people register between 2000 and 2002, in 2003 there were a whopping 27 civil unions. In that year alone, couples came to Arlington to register from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Arizona, and California.
In the years since Vermont’s law took effect, Wyman said she has become somewhat indifferent to civil union paperwork requests, none of which have been from Arlington residents. “At first, it seemed different,” she said. “But now …”-from the story today in the Bennington Banner.
from http://www.seattlefordean.com and http://www.howieinseattlefordean.com
has been on the defensive for so long now that it’s an entrenched mentality for him; he gives in only when he is forced to, and even when he wins, he ends up losing. Who can even stand to use Explorer now? Microsoft is losing out slowly but surely, and keeping the likes of Reed on payroll and going “neutral” on partner rights only shows that microsoft is a “get it while you can” company that relies less on original ideas and innovation, but instead on coercive market manipulation to keep customers. Freeware, Gates, freeware. You can’t keep up.