Key Points
- Microsoft has settled a dispute with a conservative legal group over software discounts for faith-based nonprofits.
- The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) had accused Microsoft of discriminating against groups with certain religious views.
- Microsoft clarified that its discount program does not require a non-discrimination attestation and has fixed the issue for the affected groups.
- Florida’s Attorney General had also threatened legal action against Microsoft over the issue.
Microsoft has signed an agreement to resolve accusations that it was using a “litmus test” to deny software discounts to conservative faith-based groups. The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a legal advocacy group, had alleged that Microsoft withheld discounts from ADF itself and other nonprofits. These included groups that don’t hire LGBTQ people for religious reasons and pregnancy resource centers that don’t offer abortions.
Investors represented by ADF were planning to use these allegations to push for a report on Microsoft’s discounting practices at the company’s annual meeting on December 5.
However, after Microsoft clarified that nonprofits do not need to agree to non-discrimination policies to get the discounts and will not need to in the future, the investors agreed to withdraw their proposal.
In a statement to Bloomberg, Microsoft said its discount program is intended for “a broad group” of nonprofits. “We don’t think it’s desirable to pick and choose among these organizations based on ideological orientation. In this instance, we found that a small number of organizations that should have been eligible for these discounts were not receiving them. We’ve fixed this, and those organizations are now eligible.”
This agreement comes as many companies are re-evaluating their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. Since President Donald Trump returned to office and launched a campaign against what he calls “illegal DEI,” LGBTQ inclusion efforts have become a major point of contention. Many large employers have announced changes, such as dropping funding for pride events and eliminating references to gender pronouns, due to regulatory concerns.
“Corporations are coming back to being neutral, profit-seeking entities, which is ultimately what we’d like to see,” said Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in an interview.
The pressure from conservatives is showing how fragile recent gains for LGBTQ rights have been, said Fabrice Houdart, founder of the Association of LGBTQ+ Corporate Directors. “As soon as the wind changed, the vibe changed,” he said.
