Yesterday, Microsoft posted a lengthy blog post on their support for marriage equality and the reasons they do. The company says that it prides itself on their products and services, but their greatest asset has always been their employees.

To be successful, it’s critical that we have a workforce that is as diverse as our customers. Every day, the national and global economies are becoming more diverse. The lifeblood of a business is its ability to understand and connect with its customers. We’re no exception. Now more than ever, the most effective workforce is a diverse workforce.

The company states that it employs people from every state and almost 150 countries around the world. They say that this diversity is reflected in their work and that they use this creativity in developing new products.

They claim that Microsoft was the first Fortune 500 company to provide same-sex domestic benefits to their employees. The resulting support from their LBGT employees could has been very beneficial for the past two decades.

To that end, Microsoft is throwing their support behind two bills in Washington State that would give marriage equality to their employees and everybody in the state.

They claim that Washington’s employers are at a disadvantage as long as they can’t offer an inclusive environment to their employees. They claim that marriage equality would be Washington businesses on par with the six states that already have marriage equality laws in the books. They say that such laws that provide marriage equality would allow them to hire talent in the highly competitive tech field.

They do stress though that they don’t want this to be turned into a religious issue. They want a bill that’s similar to the one passed in New York that preserves religious freedom while ending discrimination in Washington law.

“Like the New York bill, we believe Washington’s legislation should be passed into law. It will make our state and our economy stronger,” the blog stated.

Some might call this an obvious diversion, while others will see the two issues as unrelated.  In any event, Google is “really pleased about our strong performance in the U.S. Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Corporate Equality Index for the second year in a row.”

The HRC supports people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, and in its index, the organization gave Google a 100 – the highest possible score.  It also noted that Google holds the number one position on Fortune’s list of the 100 best places to work.  “A+”s all around, eh?

Well, except for the age thing.  It seems odd that Google’s Gaygler-oriented post would so quickly follow a development in the age discrimination suit and yet not mention it.  So far as I can tell, there’s not even an implicit rebuff – both Megan Smith and Nicholas Creswell, who made the blog post, are young people.

Ah, well.  Google has a lot going on, and maybe we can’t expect it to take care of everything at once.

This legislation would, according to a press release on the matter, “save Internet radio from a recent royalty hike that threatens to bankrupt the industry.”  The threat: “a Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) decision to increase fees webcasters pay to play music online by a devastating 300 to 1200 percent.”

All right, so the language they’ve used is a little overblown, but it’s for a good cause.  If you doubt the importance of this issue, visit SaveNetRadio.org, where there are testimonials from around 400 different artists.

And the Roots Music Organization, “an international organization representing more than 2200 independent artists and labels,” has said, “[W]e are very pleased by the introduction of the Internet Radio Equality Act in the Senate today.”

It looks like the Roots Music Organization has a lot to be pleased about; given the forces amassed by opponents of the CRB decision, vacating it may not be too hard.

In fact, “companion legislation” to the Internet Radio Equality Act has been introduced (again, by one Democrat and one Republican), and it “has already garnered the support of more than 60 cosponsors.”

Given the current political climate, Democrats and Republicans can be expected to disagree on just about every issue.  Since they’ve teamed up to support the Internet Radio Equality Act, well . . . it may deserve your backing, too.