Microsoft is being threatened with organised boycotts by the religious Right after twice reversing its policy on homosexual rights legislation in recent weeks.Buckling under pressure from rival powerful interest groups, the software giant - which offers generous domestic partner rights for gay employees - performed an embarrassing U-turn over a bill in its home state of Washington that would outlaw discrimination against homosexuals at work.Last month, shortly before a vote in Olympia, the state capital, it withdrew its backing for the bill after intense lobbying by an evangelical preacher, Ken Hutcherson, a former American football professional who runs one of Washington State's biggest churches. "I told them I was going to give them something to be afraid of Christians about," the Rev Hutcherson said.Yet Microsoft's change of heart prompted outrage from gay and liberal activists, and criticism from its staff and other big businesses, including Nike and Boeing, who backed the legislation.
