Tag Archives: Microsoft

Microsoft Halts Political Contributions After Being Exposed For Giving To Anti-LGBT Politicians

Microsoft Halts Political Contributions After Being Exposed For Giving To Anti-LGBT Politicians

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Two weeks ago we reported to you about the  Zero for Zeros campaign which is exposing and taking on the hypocrisy of businesses who say they are pro-LGBT but who donate money to anti-gay Republican lawmakers .

Microsoft, one of the business’ which was named by the group for donating money to Republican Ted Cruz among others have no announced that they will stop all political donations while they reorganize and align their Political Action Committees:

Microsoft’s CVP, US Government Affairs, Fred Humphries Jr. shared the following memo to internal employees:

We have heard from many employees that greater transparency is needed when it comes to MSPAC policies, giving criteria, and how decisions are made in terms of the candidates we support. Our operations are realigning to reflect that feedback.

First, we are creating new advisory councils based on Employee Resource Groups and geographies to increase dialogue and transparency. These groups will play a role similar to the PAC’s Advisory Council, which provides feedback to the Operating Committee on their approach to contributions. We will announce the formation of the groups later this summer.

Second, while we take some time to align operations, I’ve implemented a brief hiatus for political contributions that began July 1 and will be in effect until the fall. Employees should anticipate one additional disclosure that will show the following contributions through the end of June. This giving reflects contributions to a bipartisan group of lawmakers on their work with us on a range of company priorities, including immigration and equality [!!], and policies to promote privacy, climate [!], trade and the Cloud.

Third, moving forward, you can look forward to more communication from CELA, and from me personally, abnout the MSPAC’s political giving. As a reminder, employees can engage on Yammer and advertised in-person meetings around campus to learn more about the MSPAC. Additionally, the MSPAC website provides regular updates on events and related activities.

Zero for Zeros campaign manager Blaine Hudson said in a statement to Washington Blade of Microsoft’s decision. “We discussed their concerns, they heard ours and their employees weighed in,” he said. “We are thrilled that they have responded to our campaign.”

Hudson added, “Their plan looks strong and may ultimately be a model for how other companies can ensure that politicians that undermine the values of a company and its employees do not receive the support of their corporate PACs.”

WATCH: SNL’s ” Microsoft Gay Robot” Skit – VIDEO

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On last night’s Saturday Night Live Kate McKinnon and Fred Armisen played Microsoft employees who present a robot at a tech conference. Not only does the robot increase office productivity, but it’s gay. But the robot just can’t stop talking about how much he enjoys looking at attractive men.

When asked why Microsoft made the robot gay McKinnon responds, “Why not?”

Armisen jumps in to point out that it’s 2016 and office robots can be gay if they want to be.

Is the skit funny? Sterotping and offensive? Or just a waste of SNL airtime?

You be the judge.

 

CONsevatives Go Nuts Over Microsoft’s Christmas Ad: It “Exploits Christmas By Pushing The LGBT Agenda!” – VIDEO

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microsoft-2016-christmas-ad

Right-wing CONservatives are slamming Microsoft’s new Christmas ad that features a pro-gay marriage theme and a trangender teen arguing that the tech giant is making a pointedly political message.

The ad shows a video clip of a first-grader who held a rainbow flag up to people demonstrating against same-sex marriage in a nod to the legalization of gay marriage in the United States transgender teenager Jazz Jennings and her speech at an event for the Human Rights Campaign.

This holiday season we brought together a group of people who are making a difference in the world,” said Microsoft  “This year has been challenging for many and much of what we hear in the news can be negative. Microsoft wanted to lift people up and remind them that ordinary people can make a difference.”

“The message focuses on the spirit of the holidays, people coming together and celebrating what is good and right with the world — what unites us, instead of what divides us.”

But Bill Donohue of the non-Catholic Church affiliated Catholic League, criticizes what he sees as anti-Christian or anti-Christmas expressions in society on a number of occasions this year writes that the Microsoft’s ad seeks to “exploit Christmas by pushing the LGBT agenda.

EGADS!

“No one, of course, is shown celebrating Christmas. Nor are there any kids shown standing up to corporate bullies who rip off the Christmas season to make cheap political points,” said Donohue who claims that same-sex marriage is “one of the most bizarre ideas in human history“

“If the bi-coastal elites at Microsoft really believe in diversity, then let them have their LGBT celebrations in June during gay pride month, and leave December to Christians.”

Microsoft Christmas ad was released last week on YouTube and already has over 5.7 million views.

 

Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, and 100 Other Tech Companies Call For Full Federal LGBT Rights and Equality – Full List

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Tech Companies

 

Fed up with the the ongoing RFRA battles a coalition of over 100 major tech industry corporations including: Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Linkedin, Yahoo, Netflix, Intuit, Uber, Salesforce, Cisco Systems, and PayPal has issued a joint statement calling for full federal LGBT anti-discrimination protections.

Joint Statement from Tech Industry Leaders

The values of diversity, fairness and equality are central to our industry. These values fuel creativity and inspiration, and those in turn make the U.S. technology sector the most admired in the world today.

We believe it is critically important to speak out about proposed bills and existing laws that would put the rights of minorities at risk. The transparent and open economy of the future depends on it, and the values of this great nation are at stake.

Religious freedom, inclusion, and diversity can co-exist and everyone including LGBT people and people of faith should be protected under their states’ civil rights laws. No person should have to fear losing their job or be denied service or housing because of who they are or whom they love.

However, right now those values are being called into question in states across the country. In more than twenty states, legislatures are considering legislation that could empower individuals or businesses to discriminate against LGBT people by denying them service if it they felt it violated their religious beliefs.

To ensure no one faces discrimination and ensure everyone preserves their right to live out their faith, we call on all legislatures to add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes to their civil rights laws and to explicitly forbid discrimination or denial of services to anyone.

Anything less will only serve to place barriers between people, create hurdles to creativity and inclusion, and smother the kind of open and transparent society that is necessary to create the jobs of the future. Discrimination is bad for business and that’s why we’ve taken the time to join this joint statement.

Sincerely,

Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce
Max Levchin, CEO, Affirm
Mark Pincus, Chairman, Zynga
Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO, Yelp
Jack Dorsey, CEO, Square
Dick Costolo, CEO, Twitter
Logan Green, CEO, Lyft
Brian Chesky, CEO, Airbnb
Joe Gebbia, CPO, Airbnb
Nathan Blecharczyk, CTO, Airbnb
Ron Conway, Founder, SV Angel
John Donahoe, CEO, Ebay
Paul Graham, CoFounder, YCombinator
Rich Barton, Chairman, Zillow Group
Chad Hurley, CEO, Mixbit
Adora Cheung, CEO, Homejoy
Phil Libin, CEO, Evernote
Trevor Traina, CEO, IfOnly
Nirav Tolia, CEO, Nextdoor
Dion Lim, CEO, NextLesson
Bret Taylor, CEO, Quip
Joe Lonsdale, Managing Partner, Formation 8
Thomas Layton, Chairman, Elance-odesk
Fabio Rosati, CEO, Elance-odesk
Dave Morin, CEO, Path
Mark Goldstein, Chairman, BackOps
Kevin Rose, CEO, North Technologies
Yves Behar, CCO, Jawbone
Padmasree Warrior, CTSO, Cisco Systems
Tony Conrad, CEO, about.me
Sunil Paul, CEO, Sidecar
Michael Moritz, Chairman, Sequoia Capital
Dan Schulman, President, PayPal
Devin Wenig, President, eBay Marketplaces
Robert Hohman, CEO, Glassdoor
Laurene Powell Jobs, Founder and Chair, Emerson Collective
Mohan Warrior, CEO, Alphalight
David Spector, CEO, ThirdLove
Shervin Pishevar, CoFounder, Sherpa Ventures
David Karp, CEO, Tumblr
Reid Hoffman, Chairman, Linkedin
Kevin Ryan, Chairman, Gilt
Michael Birch, CoFounder, Bebo
Hosain Rahman, CEO, Jawbone
John Zimmer, President, Lyft
Bill Ready, CEO, Braintree
Jon Oringer, CEO, Shutterstock Images
Drew Houston, CEO, Dropbox
Bijan Sabet,  General Partner, Spark Capital
Douglas Merrill, CEO, ZestFinance
Tom Sheahan, CEO, RedOxygen
Brian Samelson, CEO, eMaint.com
Daniel Lurie, CEO, Tipping Point Community
Aaron Levie, CEO, Box
Jeff Weiner, CEO, Linkedin
Gary Moore, President & COO, Cisco
Travis Katz, CEO, Gogobot
Joe Davis, CEO, Webtrends
Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft
Brad Smith, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Microsoft
Josh Kopelman, Partner, First Round Capital
Rob Glaser, CEO, Realnetworks
Jason Goldberg, CEO, hem
Evan Reece, CEO, Liftopia
Dave Gilboa, CoFounder, Warby Parker
Neil Blumenthal, CoFounder, Warby Parker
Sean Parker, Chairman, Airtime
Reed Hastings, CEO, Netflix     
Charles Phillips, CEO, Infor
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, CEO, Joyus.com
Michael Brown, President & CEO, Symantec
Sarah Leary, CoFounder, Nextdoor
Katie Stanton, VP, Twitter
Karen Appleton, Founder, Box.org
Brit Morin, CEO, Brit + Co
Susan Wojcicki, CEO, Youtube
Melody McCloskey, Founder, StyleSeat
Brandee Barker, Co-Founder & Partner, The Pramana Collective
Greg Tseng, CEO, if(we)
David Tisch, Chairman, Boxgroup
Kristen Koh Goldstein, CEO, BackOps
Jessica Herrin, CEO, Stella & Dot
Brian O’Kelley, CEO, AppNexus
Jeff Lawson, CEO, Twilio
Steven R. Boal, CEO, Coupons.com
Gary Shapiro, CEO, Consumer Electronics Association
Kim Jabal, CFO, Path
Ryan Holmes, CEO, Hootsuite
Alison Pincus. Co-Founder, One Kings Lane
Jeremy Liew, Managing Director, Lightspeed Venture Partners
Larry Page, President, Google
Eric Schmidt, Chairman, Google
Travis Kalanick, CEO, Uber Technologies
Brad Smith, CEO, Intuit
Mike Huang, CEO, Glow
Aileen Lee, Founder, Cowboy Ventures
Kristen Koh Goldstein, CEO, Scalus
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook
Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook
Chris Nicholas, President, Asymmetrica Labs
Ken Brownfield, CTO, Asymmetrica Labs
Stacy Brown-Philpot, COO, TaskRabbit
Nick Woodman, CEO of GoPro
Tony Bates, President of GoPro
Jack Lazar, CFO of GoPro
Tracy DiNunzio, CEO, Tradesy
John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco
Lorna Borenstein, CEO, Grokker.com
Michelle Peluso, CEO, Gilt
Ben Silbermann, CEO Pinterest
Lloyd Carney, CEO, Brocade
Irakly George Arison, CEO, Shift Technologies Inc.
Evan Goldberg, CTO,  Netsuite
Zach Nelson, CEO, Netsuite
David Hassell, CEO, 15Five
Brian McAndrews, CEO, Pandora Media
Jared Fliesler, General Partner, Matrix Partners
Joshua Kushner, Founder, Thrive Capital
Marissa Mayer, CEO, Yahoo!
Bracken P. Darrell, CEO, Logitech

See Ya Soon! – Microsoft To Retire Windows Live Messenger In Favor of Skype

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Sources are saying that Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger service will be retired in the coming months and integrated into Skype.

Microsoft has slowly been moving people over to the Messenger backend for Skype over the past few months and that Microsoft will be announcing the retirement of Windows Live Messenger soon, possibly as early as this week.

Users of Skype 6.0 for Mac and Windows are now being  greeted with options to log in using a Microsoft or Facebook account.

See you guys soon!  ALL OF YOU!

Bill and Melinda Gates Give $500K To WA State Same-Sex Marriage Campaign

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Bill and Melinda Gates have donated a cool $500,000 to Washington state’s campaign to uphold same-sex marriage which is curently under attack by the Right.

The donation was announced Tuesday by Washington United for Marriage, which is working to approve Referendum 74. The donation was made on Oct. 15, but didn’t publicly post online with the Public Disclosure Commission until Tuesday. Referendum 74 asks voters to either approve or reject the law allowing same-sex marriage that was passed by the Legislature earlier this year. Bill Gates had made a $100,000 contribution to the campaign earlier this year. About $11 million has been spent on the campaign so far, with a bulk of it spent by gay marriage supporters. Washington United for Marriage has far outraised its opponents, bringing in nearly $11 million compared to the more than $2 million raised so far by Preserve Marriage Washington, which opposes the law.

NYC’s Mayor Micheal Bloomberg donated a quarter million to the effort in Washington State late last week.

R-74 leading by almost 20+ points in the polls.

Microsoft Stands Up and Supports GaymerCon 2013 – Video

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Microsoft as a whole has always stood up for LGBT Rights, but the folks on Microsoft’s Xbox Live Team has made a video pledging support for Gaymercon, the first LGBT specific gamer convention to be held AUG 3-4 2013 in San Francisco, CA and has urged others to do the same.

Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer Both Donate $100K To Washington States Fight For Same Sex Marriage

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Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer are are using their respective fortunes to help LGBT equality by each donating $100,000  to support Washington state’s campaign to uphold it’s new gay marriage law.

That law, which was passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Chris Gregoire  in February, faces a referendum vote to repeal it in November

As of this writing  51% of voters in Washington state told Public Policy Polling they support same-sex marriage. Only  42% said they oppose it.

There’s no word if the NOM, One Million Moms or any other anti-gay group intends to boycott Microsoft, throw thier computers out of the window and get off the Internet forever.  (I can dream can’t I?)

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Gives 750 Million Dollars To The Global Fund to Fight AIDS

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For those of you who think Bill Gates and Microsoft are evil.  Maybe they really aren’t that evil after all.

Via Press Release:

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today renewed its commitment to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the Gates Foundation is giving $750 million through a promissory note—a new and innovative funding mechanism. “These are tough economic times, but that is no excuse for cutting aid to the world’s poorest,” said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation. “The Global Fund is one of the most effective ways we invest our money every year.” Providing funding through a promissory note gives the Global Fund the flexibility and authority to distribute funds efficiently based on immediate needs, leading to greater impact. “By supporting the Global Fund, we can help to change the fortunes of the poorest countries in the world,” said Gates. “I can’t think of more important work.”

Up until now Bill Gates has donated over 29 BILLION DOLLARS to AIDS Education and Research