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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 VLM on Monday June 29 2015, @06:43PM
But... wedding cakes? That seems a very weak justification for slavery.
Maybe if the wedding cake market were a closely regulated government monopoly with government guaranteed profit margins then some justification could be made that the government intentionally destroying the market would imply the government has an obligation to keep it cookin in a fair-ish way for all. Think of health care, for example, or the postal service, or anything else the .gov has Fed up for us.
The artist aspect rather than commodity seems to be a very serious issue too. I can see some minimal justification for the government declaring and regulating a commodity and requiring it to be sold to all equally because its an interchangeable commodity. I'd sell anyone an options contract for 50 kilobushels of tribbles at 534 credits of gold pressed latinum, but you're a ferengi and I don't do business with ferengi seems a bit harsh. But we're talking art here not commodities. Greasy sugary fluffy art, but, none the less, art.
VLM draw me a pix of sponge bob for $5. Nah I feel more like drawing a hobbit. OK dude but you're not getting my $5.
VLM draw me a pix of a 6502 microprocessor for $5. Nah not today, just not my thing, was always more a 6809 programmer back in the day. OK dude but you're not getting my $5.
VLM draw me a pix of that christian church for $5. Sorry I am drawing spaghetti monsters today because my religion requires they be drawn on this day. OK dude whatever but you're not getting my $5.
VLM draw me a pix of a happily married gay couple for $5. Nah not today, just not feeling it in my artistic bones. (Insert SJW's being paradropped to utterly destroy VLM and his family for political correctness reasons). I'm just not seeing the point of that kind of utter political extremism, that level of hatred. I guess not being able to sympathize and empathize with blind vicious hatred points to good mental health on my part.
Michelangelo did a nice job on that CATHOLIC church roof, but if he ever turned down a Lutheran church commission we should dig up his bones and burn them, which sounds pretty ridiculous.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2015, @01:46PM
> But... wedding cakes? That seems a very weak justification for slavery.
I read that fully expecting it to mean that anyone calling non-discrimination wedding cake sales slavery was making a very weak argument.
And then I read the rest of your post.
The fact that you have to go to such extremes to illustrate your point really proves just how extreme your position is.