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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: 2) by bradley13 on Monday June 29 2015, @04:13PM
Yes, it was indeed once that way, but it isn't any longer, at least, not in any Western country that I know of.
The pendulum has swung. Governmental discrimination has been almost entirely eliminated for a long time now. These things to take time, there are certainly some last details, but the recent court decision in the US is pretty indicative of the situation. On top of that, gays are largely accepted in society; for those who don't accept them (mostly religious conservatives), well, that's their right (see my original comment about trying to legislate people's personal opinions).
The problem is: by the time the original problems are corrected, the pendulum has so much momentum that it starts causing problems by going to the other extreme. That's what I meant about activists demanding that their personal rights trump other people's personal rights. It sure would be nice if we could stop the pendulum in the middle for a change.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @10:54PM
> The pendulum has swung.
29 states where you can legally be fired simply for being gay [snopes.com]
32 states where it is legal to refuse any form of service to gays [answers.com] - not just catering a wedding, but also places like a sit-down restaurant, a movie theater, or even a grocery store.