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Seattlest Pix 09Nov06
It's fantastic that Rev. Hutcherson's pro-discrimination ballot initiative died a sad, lonely death recently. The fortunes of domestic partnerships in our state are on the rise, Democratic Presidential candidates seem to have their gay houses more or less in order and Seattle Pride just wrapped up its second go-round Downtown. Things seem to be looking up, but Seattlest likes to judge which way the wind blows by figuring out where the money goes. The local money is in Redmond. Er, Medina... Meaning Bill Gates has it. And he's investing it in PlanetOut to the tune of $26.2 million via his private investment firm Cascade Investment LLC.
PlanetOut owns legendary hook-up site Gay.com, RSVP Vacations, The Advocate (which just published a "best gay places to live" list that does not include Seattle), as well as Out magazine and a bunch of other publications, each one gayer than the last. PlanetOut has been struggling, according to the P-I's John Cook, and Gates is swooping in as an investing angel. It may or may not be the big sociological indicator we want it to be, but at least it keeps the doors open at PlanetOut.
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Do you mean PlanetOut?
I most certainly do. How I mistyped that THREE times I have no idea.
Meh. Good for him.. I wonder if the new web design on those sites will mysteriously stop working in Firefox
Jake of 8bitjoystick.com
Three cheers for Bill Gates. Sometimes he has been the guy that so many people have hated, but, Bill - please, please, please - with that tremendous fortune you have, like people like Rev Gene Robertson, Gov. Patrick of MA, etc can fire "the shot heard round the world" that will help break the back of backbone of religious hatred not unlike in a different venue the religious hatred of Islam, and end this terrible discrimination in the mind of God.
We met briefly in Santa Clara back about 1989 when I worked for intel as an FAE. I had not yet had a life altering experience. You would be thrilled to hire my brother, who almost finished his PHD in Theoretical Math at MIT. Think of what a guy like him could do for software solutions. But you can't hire him, because his life has been utterly ruined because he seemed strange, there were rumors in the family that he was gay, and I didn't know what to do. The bottom line is that because it was such a "terrible subject', it was still years later before I realized he had obsessive compulsive disorder, his life is ruined, it is too late to help him.
To finish, in March of 2000 I thought I recognized the woman one empty seat away from me on a plane flight, but I was too embarassed to question her. But through a friend of a friend who worked at the airline I've confirmed it was Matthew Shepards Mother, and we have met several other times. A one in 300 million chance, and in the same row on the plane makes it a 1 in 10 billion chance. So I guess you can guess what I'm devoting my retirement time to, and all the help you can provide is appreciated.
Good for Gates.
I guess that with his wealth, he doesn't have to preoccupy himself with any negative coverage that might result from the xtian and radical right press.
(I also would expect that this investment is not in any way considered a throwaway.)
Bill, there is a company called Triangle Multi -Media (TMM/QBID) that is need of a white knight and someone with honesty and integrety to run it.
Good for whom?
The guy only cares about money. He sees gays as walking wallets. An understandable stereotype.
Look at his other actions. All of them. He's done good. But he ain't no saint, and as he couldn't even buy his way into proper anti-virus software for Windows (never mind Microsoft's history), don't bother using the word "integrity".)
BTW: Gates' latest actions sees him hiring far more H1Bs than all those unemployed Americans, some of which his company has laid off.
While it might be great for the cause, I just cannot understand why someone would invest that much money in a business that is not doing well and which can be copied by any tom, dick or harry. I mean a Gay hook up site has about as much uniqueness as a garage sale.