Google targets so-called "anti-gay" countries says Legalise Love
by Josh Taylor
Google's technology puts it in a key position to influence social policy across the globe.
Google launched its "Legalise Love" campaign at a July 2013 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) conference in London, firstly *targeting Singapore and Poland to decriminalise homosexuality and campaign rights for the recognition of same-sex couples. The company explained on its website https://www.google.com/diversity/legalise-love.html that *it is calling to eliminate homophobia and decriminalise homosexuality around the world.*
"At Google, we encourage people to bring their whole selves to work. *In all of our 60 offices around the world, we are committed to cultivating a work environment where Googlers can be themselves and thrive," the company said. "We also want our employees to have the same inclusive experience outside of the office as they do at work, and for LGBT communities to be safe and to be accepted wherever they go."
In addition to the Google Legalise Love Conference In our Warsaw office, we hosted politician and LGBT activist Kystian Legierski for an office-wide talk and discussion lunch on the importance of civil partnership laws. At Google London, we'll host a gathering of LGBT activists from over 40 countries on behalf of the Kaleidoscope Trust https://www.kaleidoscopetrust.com/, to develop a roadmap to achieve an inclusive British Commonwealth. We sponsored the production of Stonewall's latest Workplace Guide Global Working: Supporting LGB Staff Overseas https://www.stonewall.org.uk/at_work/research_and_guides/4907.asp and hosted a seminar at our London office for Stonewall diversity champions, exploring *how organizations use their global influence to promote better workplaces for lesbian, gay and bisexual staff around the world."
Singapore wants to be a global financial centre and world leader, and we can push them on the fact that being a global centre and a world leader means *you have to treat all people the same, irrespective of their sexual orientation", Google's head of diversity Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe is reported to have said. As a tech giant, Google has the ability to be much more influential in pushing for decriminalization than foreign governments. Its influence is enormous through its search engine, Gmail, Android and countless other Google services. Countries that would boycott Google for advocating the decriminalization of homosexuality would face cutting their citizens off from a lot of services that they use each and every day. Not to mention that it would be difficult to find suitable alternatives, as most of Google's rivals adopt similar positions.
The same concept *stymies the boycotts that are encouraged by right-wing groups like the Australian Christian Lobby, which does not want same-sex marriage legislation currently being considered in Australia to go through. It is unlikely to be passed at this stage, despite coalition MPs like Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull https://www.malcolmturnbull.com.au/media/speeches/reflections-on-the-gay-marriage-
issue-michael-kirby-lecture-2012/ speaking for it.
IBM came under fire from the lobby group last year https://www.acl.org.au/2011/02/acl-calls-for-anz-and-ibm-to-explain-attempt-to-censor-
on-line-opinion-website/, when it withdrew advertising from an online opinion website that published an anti-same-sex marriage article. On the other side, Australian coffee chain Gloria Jean's also recently found itself in hot water for donating money to the Australian Christian Lobby.
https://www.samesame.com.au/news/local/8554/Gloria-Jeans-We-are-not-homophobic.htm. But boycotting a coffee franchise is easy. *Google, along with other tech giants, finds itself in a position where advocating same-sex marriage is not only easy to do because it has popular opinion on its side, but those who are against it will also find it difficult to boycott it. That's why Google is in the best position to encourage Singapore to decriminalise homosexuality, and *will be in the best position to weigh in on marriage issues farther down the track in Western countries.
..It is a little frightening that one company can have such power.
ED: Google's policy is an excellent example of how public mind control functions as developed by the Tavistock Institute. More importantly, it's a foretaste of the kind of control that will be exercised by a global government already in the works. No one is safe in the world wide acceptance of homosexuality, it's practioners are racked by virulent disease, mental illness and suicide rates far above the normal population. If Google's policy of advocationg its acceptance isn't evil, I don't know what could ever quality.