Gay-rights bill falls 1 vote short of becoming state law

Legislation banning discrimination against gays and lesbians reached the floor of the Washington Senate yesterday for the first time in history, but fell one vote short of becoming law.

House Bill 1515, which has been around in some form for at least a quarter-century, lost 25-24 in a largely partisan split. Two conservative Democratic senators, Jim Hargrove of Hoquiam and Tim Sheldon of Potlatch, Mason County, joined all 23 Republicans to defeat the bill.

State law now bans discrimination by race, sex, religion, national origin, marital status and other categories. The bill, which had passed the House, would have added sexual orientation to that list.

More at decent length article. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2002249302_gayvote22m.html

As a retired Microsoftie, I have to say I am ashamed of Microsoft for doing to this and even publicly admitting that it was in response to pressure from Evangelicals...Unforgiveable in my opinion...

So there you have it folks...its okay to discriminate against people because of the personal choices made in their bedroom....And Microsoft seems to think that their customer base are all rightwing religious folks....NOT!

:grr:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002249615_gaymicrosoft22m.html
Even as the bill banning discrimination against gays and lesbians failed by a single vote in the state Senate yesterday, a sideshow was springing up around Microsoft's withdrawal of support for the measure.

Word spread quickly around the Capitol about a story in the local alternative newsweekly The Stranger, which said the software giant was withdrawing its support for House Bill 1515 because of pressure from Ken Hutcherson, pastor of Redmond's 3,500-member Antioch Bible Church.

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Hutcherson, though, said yesterday he met with Microsoft officials earlier this year, telling them he would organize a national boycott of the company's products if it did not withdraw its support of the bill.

Hutcherson also said he told the company's officials that two Microsoft employees who had testified in support of the bill should be fired because they misrepresented themselves as representatives of the company. Begasse said the two employees were testifying as individuals, not company representatives.

more...

sorry to hear WA allows whoever to discriminate against whoever based on their sexual orientation...someone start building more closets in WA.

While this may not satisfy those who worked hard on this bill/campaign, if it fell one vote short, it is likely to pass in the near future.

Firstly in the defense of MS, they are not in the business of driving social policy.

The current admin gave MS a free ticket out of the penalty phase in the DOJ lawsuit that Joel Klein and David Boies won against MS. MS pretty much has to adhere to the wishes of the party favoring them.

We are once again reminded of the power wielded by the 'vangelicals, and how they abuse it.

how sad, human rights sacrificed by a few religious bigots.

The only upside that I can possibly see is 'the masses' becoming more aware by MS' release of their reasoning that the 'ligious types are wielding a bit too much of the political power.

Here's hoping.

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Microsoft Rushes To Heal Gay Rift
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