Google Challenging Proposition 8

theodp writes "Coming the day after it announced layoffs and office closures, Google's California Supreme Court filing arguing for the overturn of Proposition 8, which asks the Court not to harm its ability to recruit and retain employees, certainly could have been better timed. Google's support of same-sex marriage puts it on the same page with Dan'l Lewin, Microsoft's man in Silicon-Valley, who joined other tech leaders last October to denounce Prop 8 in a full-page newspaper ad. But oddly, Microsoft HR Chief Mike Murray cited religious beliefs for his decision to contribute $100,000 to 'Yes On 8', surprising coming from the guy who had been charged with diversity and sensitivity training during his ten-year Microsoft stint. "

Comments

Re:I don't get it

[FireStormZ]

Many companies in states without same sex marriage provide same sex benefits. And Google is more than welcome to recognize any marriage it pleases, it can even have anniversary parties..

This is just a cooperation pushing its personal politics and just because many agree with it does not make that any more acceptable.

Re:I'm against the state marrying anyone

[Fulcrum of Evil]

States don't marry people, churches do. When a couple goes before a justice of the peace and get married, they're really just entering a civil-union.

No, they're getting married; states have a concept of marriage and churches do too - they're called the same thing, they're just separate because the institutions are.

Re:you don't understand how it's bad for hiring?

[causality]

Seriously? Jesus, try not to be completely dense. Imagine for a second that you have polka-dot skin, and place you'd like to work for happens to be in Plaidlandia, where people with polka-dot skin are reviled and discriminatory laws are written into the books against them. Would you take the job in Plaidlandia?

You can fill in other involuntary attributes, places, and such above as needed until a light dawns in your head. (The part of me that thinks that subtly is lost on the clueless really wants to mutter something about being a Jewish, German-speaking chemist in 1933 and immigrating to Germany here, but that seems over the top. :P)

Hell, I'm as straight as an arrow and Prop 8 gives me pause regards moving to silicon valley. I left Texas partially because I was tired of my work and income supporting an economy full of bigots with a government happy to cater to them, and moving to where a pile of assholes just wrote discrimination (of any sort, regardless of whether I would be affected by it) into their state constitution isn't high on my list of Good Moves.

What I don't understand is how this comes up at all. I'm straight, too, but I don't discuss my sex life with coworkers. It's just not their business. So, how are they being discriminated against unless they are bringing very personal and non-work-related matters to the office? Do homosexual people want to be able to discuss their intimate sex lives at work without repercussions? Because straight people cannot do that without fear of a sexual harassment lawsuit. Seems to me that equal, non-discriminatory treatment would mean that everyone leaves sexual, non-business matters at the door when they walk into the office. I suppose you can't have political movements and protests and large organizations and campaigns and controversy if it were done this way, and we act like we need those things for their own sake sometimes, so perhaps that's too simple?

The only thing I can think of would be if there is a civil union or some other marriage analog that affects taxes or benefits like health insurance. In that case, however, the matter is between the individual employee and the company HR department. If anyone at the HR department cannot respect the privacy of employees, they need to be fired. Otherwise, I'm at a loss as to how this even comes up at all. To me this is very simple and seems to be much ado about nothing, perhaps just because the subject itself tends to be controversial.