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San Francisco -- and the tech industry -- are beaming with Pride this weekend.
The United States Supreme Court on Friday ruled same-sex marriage a constitutional right, one day before San Francisco begins its famous Pride festivities, one of the largest celebrations of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender -- aka LGBT -- culture in the country. The tech industry is practically euphoric, especially after high-profile executives this year, from Apple CEO Tim Cook to Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff, publicly advocated advancing gay rights. But that advancement works both ways, said Gary Virginia, board president of SF Pride, which organizes the celebration. Speaking out is not just a personal decision for tech execs; it makes good business sense too, he said.
"They attract a younger population for their workforce, and it's been proven that social attitudes are changing," said Virginia. "So it behooves them to have progressive policies to attract LGBT employees. I think they see the benefit of it."
The celebration caps off a landmark year for the gay rights movement. In September, Apple's Cook wrote an essay saying he's gay, making him the first openly gay CEO of a Fortune 500 company. A month later, he allowed for his name to be attached to an LGBT anti-discrimination bill in his home state of Alabama. In March, Benioff said he had cancelled all Salesforce events in Indiana after its governor signed a law that would allow businesses to refuse service to anyone in the LGBT community on religious grounds. Less than a week later, dozens of executives from Airbnb, Ebay, Jawbone, Lyft, PayPal, Twitter and other companies signed a joint statement in The Washington Post against the religious freedom laws either passed or being considered in several states.
The tech industry is a relatively recent ally. LGBT leaders point out it's taken decades to achieve Friday's Supreme Court decision. New York City, for example, is commemorating the anniversary of the 1969 riots at the Stonewall Inn, which many consider the jump start of the movement. The 1978 assassination of Harvey Milk, an openly gay San Francisco board supervisor, galvanized the national LGBT community.
Original Submission
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @01:55PM
The gay couple has no right to demand another person's service (that would be called "slavery"). A tattoo artist can refuse to create a tattoo that the artist dislikes, a baker can refuse to create a cake that the baker dislikes, a programmer can refuse to write a program that the programmer dislikes.
The fact that you think refusing to sell to specific types of people is the same as refusing to create something for anyone really shows how poorly you understand the issue.
(Score: 2) by curunir_wolf on Monday June 29 2015, @05:35PM
Actually, I think it is you that poorly understands the issue. It doesn't matter to the tattoo artist who is asking for the offensive tattoo - it's the act of creating it. Same with a wedding cake - the patron isn't being discriminated against, they don't want to put 2 grooms (or 2 brides) on a wedding cake. No different than a baker refusing to make a Nazi themed swastika cake.
For another example, I would not create an application to help someone send out millions of spam emails. But for some reason, some people think that if I refuse to create an application to help send out millions of spam emails promoting the LGBT agenda, then I am unfairly discriminating against certain people. It's not true, it's just a way to claim victimhood status to force someone to do something they do not freely choose to do.
I am a crackpot
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @06:15PM
> Same with a wedding cake - the patron isn't being discriminated against, they don't want to put 2 grooms (or 2 brides) on a wedding cake.
And if it is a wedding cake without any tacky figurines [brides.com] - as are the overwhelming majority of modern cakes?
You and I both know that they would still refuse to make it if they knew who it was for.