BOTHELL, WASHINGTON - Microsoft Corp.'s support for gay- rights legislation in Washington State has local evangelical Christian ministers readying a counterattack. One possible weapon, they say: boycotting the software maker's stock."This isn't something we intend to just let slide,'' says Joseph Fuiten, a pastor in Bothell, Washington, who leads Positive Christian Agenda, an umbrella organization for 35 religious groups. "In the view of a lot of evangelicals, they have overstepped their bounds. It's muscle time.''
Microsoft, Nike Inc., Boeing Co. and other companies urged state legislators to pass the gay-rights measure in a joint letter last week. The legislation would add ``sexual orientation'' to a state law that already bans discrimination in housing, employment and insurance based on race, national origin, gender, marital status or age.
Sixteen U.S. states have similar protections, including California, New York and Illinois, according to Equal Rights Washington, a Seattle-based group that supports the measure.
The Washington State House of Representatives passed the measure today, 60-37, and the state Senate may consider it as early as next week.
Ken Hutcherson, pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, Washington, where Microsoft is based, is coordinating the opposition, according to Fuiten. He will likely urge church members nationwide to divest shares in Microsoft and other companies that support the legislation, Fuiten says.
"There are about 63 million evangelicals in America, and so we work in a lot of mutual funds and investment portfolios,'' says Fuiten, 56. "If you could make Microsoft's stock drop by $1 a share, you cost Bill Gates $200 million.''
Shares Decline
Gates, who is Microsoft's chairman, holds shares worth about $26 billion. Microsoft shares fell 61 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $26.41 as of 4 p.m. today in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 2 percent.
Hutcherson had said he would officially call for an unspecified boycott of Microsoft during a radio program yesterday, according to a Jan. 17 Associated Press report. No such call took place on the program.
Hutcherson didn't return calls seeking comment. "There is something in the works, but I can't say what it is,'' Anne Comer, a spokeswoman for the minister, said late yesterday.
Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos declined to comment on the possible boycott. ``We stick by our points made in the letter with the other companies and support the efforts to pass this significant anti-discrimination legislation,'' he said.
Supporters say the proposal has a good chance of passing in the state Senate after one senator reversed his opposition this month. The bill lost by one vote in the upper chamber last year after the House passed it, 61-37.
We Need Moralists
"We need Christians to stand up, we need moralists to stand up,'' Hutcherson said yesterday on the radio show, a national Christian talk-radio program called "Focus on the Family'' that runs on 6,000 stations. "If this bill passes on sexual orientation, the next step will be same-sex marriage.''
The legislation has been under consideration for more than a decade. Microsoft last year changed its stance on the measure to neutral, prompting Hutcherson to say he pressured the company into dropping its support. Microsoft later said it would support the proposal in future years.
In their Jan. 11 letter, the companies said the legislation would bring state law into line with their own policies against discrimination.
In addition to Microsoft, it was signed by Beaverton, Oregon-based Nike; Boeing, which is based in Chicago and makes commercial airplanes in Washington; Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard Co., a computer maker that has workers in the state; Seattle-based Corbis Corp., a closely held photo archive and licensing company founded by Gates; Seattle-based RealNetworks Inc., owner of the Rhapsody online music service; and Seattle-based Vulcan Inc., the investment arm of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
from Bloomberg
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