Florida AG accuses Microsoft of discrimination against faith-based nonprofits, demands change
Caroline MolloyFlorida Attorney General James Uthmeier sent a letter to Microsoft’s CEO last week and demanded that the company cease its religious discrimination practices against faith-based nonprofit organizations.
In his Nov. 4 letter to CEO Satya Nadella, Uthmeier said that Microsoft has been violating its own nondiscrimination and inclusivity policies by refusing to give religious nonprofits — including Christian schools, churches, and faith-based pregnancy resources centers — a discount that it gives to other nonprofits.
According to its policy for the nonprofit program, Microsoft withholds the discount from organizations that have “a policy or mission of discrimination in … training, programs, activities, and/or services based on race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, gender identity or expression, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, political affiliation, union membership, or veteran status.”
The company claims that it makes an exception from the criteria for religious organizations. However, Uthmeier says that Microsoft “has quietly enacted some sort of tacit religious or ideological litmus test to determine institutions’ eligibility,” which violates Florida’s Civil Rights Act.
The attorney general stated in the letter that faith-based nonprofits were not given specific reasons for Microsoft’s refusal to apply the discount. Some were told that their charitable work was outside the “philanthropic scope” of the nonprofits eligible for Microsoft’s program. Pregnancy resource centers were told that they did not qualify for the program because they do not provide “full women’s health services,” which Uthmeier called a euphemism for abortions.
Uthmeier pointed out that even though Microsoft has changed its mind in some instances and offered the discount to nonprofits after previously withholding it, the company has not taken steps to ensure that the discrimination does not continue against other nonprofits.
“If Microsoft is pro-abortion and hostile to the pro-life community, then make that position plain. If Microsoft harbors some hostility to Christian educational institutions, then come out and say it,” he stated in his letter. “Don’t hide anti-life and anti-Christian biases behind a mellifluous nondiscrimination policy that suggests an all-comers policy to the nonprofit community.”
