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Tweet this storyGoogle is flexing its political muscle on the issue of gay marriage. Specifically, the search engine giant is against protecting traditional marriage in its home state of California.
Proposition 8, the proposed constitutional amendment that would protect marriage in California as the union of one man and one woman, is under fire from Google's co-founder.
"As an Internet company, Google is an active participant in policy debates surrounding information access, technology and energy," says Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder and president of Technology.
Brin pointed out that Google has a great diversity of people and opinions Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, all religions and no religion, straight and gay and does not generally take a position on issues outside of our field, especially not social issues.
When Proposition 8 appeared on the California ballot, it was an unlikely question for Google to take an official company position on, Brin says. But the tech leader felt so strongly about it that he's voicing his opinion anyway.
Beyond what he deems further government encroachment on personal lives, ambiguously written text, Brin says it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8.
"While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality," Brin said. "We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 we
should not eliminate anyone's fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love."
The Liberty Council, a nonprofit litigation, education and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, predicts Google will hear objections from the general public, as news of its position circulates. Many traditional marriage supporters and pro-family groups will be "googling" for alternative search engines, the conservative Christian group contends.
"Google should focus on technology instead of warring against marriage and family values held by the majority of people worldwide," says Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law.
"Marriage between a man and a woman is the norm throughout the world."
The Liberty Council is offering an alternative: GoodSearch.com. Good gives half of its advertising revenue to charities designated by people using the search engine. GoodSearch reports on its website that searchers have raised
$18,000 for one nonprofit organization, the USPCA.
Of course, Google is not the only search engine available to consumers. Washington Mutual became an active supporter of the homosexual agenda. But a competitor has since bought out the bank. As the Liberty Council sees it,
Corporate America has learned the hard way that anti-family policies are bankrupt in more ways than one.
"Google executives should be searching for ways to make the Internet more usable rather than promoting a radical redefinition of marriage. Companies that promoted anti-family policies have learned the hard way that such
policies are bankrupt. K-Mart learned its lesson several years ago," Staver says. "Washington Mutual and Wachovia, both of which actively promoted the homosexual agenda, have come to realize that anti-family policies will
bankrupt the bottom line."
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