Last week Washington state House Bill 1515 which would have banned discrimination based on sexual orientation was defeated in the House by a vote of 25-24.
Microsoft has been caught up in this for allegedly withdrawing support after being threatened by a local religious figure. Steve Ballmer is now trying to explain Microsoft's position (orginal text here, basically that while Microsoft was no longer endorsing the bill, the company
remains strongly committed to its internal policies supporting anti-discrimination and industry-leading benefits for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees.
And, I'd like to believe MS on this one (that they were not pressured to drop support because of external pressure), since despite their sometimes questionable business practices, their track record supports what they state here.
Meanwhile the menacing religious leader has stated that he will move on to express his lack of happiness with some companies that supported the bill. While no companies were named, companies that supported the bill include Boeing, Nike, Washington Mutual, Vulcan and Hewlett-Packard.
it is all aboutmaking the workplace conducive to those of all backgrounds, and if you can't do that, you lose the creative class type of workers that work for you. If it gets too out of hand, those companies may move, so state lawmakers need to keep their religion to themselves. Internal policies can help out in the meantime, but they can't do it all.