My decision on the Microsoft gay rights incident

I've been doing a lot of soul-searching this weekend about the gay rights incident that occurred last week. It has been weighing heavily on me. I could write a long blog entry on it, but I thought the letter I wrote to a colleague just now would summarize my feelings appropriately:

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I've been thinking over the HB1515 issue a lot this weekend and done a bunch of soul searching. I think that, in the end, despite being one of the more ignominious episodes in Microsoft's long and blighted past, it's not worth making a big fuss over. I was tempted though. Microsoft is clearly in the wrong here, and it deserves to have awards from gay rights organizations revoked. It deserves to be yelled at. And, if I were ever tempted to before, this ensures that my answer to the question of whether Microsoft and its executives adhere to company values on the annual poll never approaches anything resembling "yes."

That said, corporations can't be anything but amoral. Not evil, but amoral in the literal sense of having no morals. Companies exist to make money. Period. Always have, always will. It is unreasonable to expect a corporation of Microsoft's size to "do the right thing" of its own volition. Such entities are always swayed by the winds of public opinion, and it is unreasonable to expect them to take a stand for what's right without being pushed by potential impact on their bottom line. It sucks, but this is the way the world works. Spending energy fighting this fact of life is as effective as tilting at windmills, and I don't have energy to spare.

So, what I'll probably do is write a short, relatively tame letter to Micronews alone. If I wanted to actually try to effect change I'd try to get as many signatures as possible and really get the attention of VPs, but I don't think it's worth it. Maybe someone will notice, and maybe it will passify my conscience.

Anway...sigh. This sucks. This is, it seems, one of the subtle costs of selling one's soul to corporate America.

Nick