Google has announced a global campaign
in support of equal marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples.
The Internet giant announced its
Legalize Love campaign at the Global LGBT Workplace Summit
2012, which took place in London.
The campaign launches Saturday, July 7
in Poland and Singapore. Organizers plan to expand the campaign to
every country where Google has an office, focusing on countries where
anti-gay sentiment runs high.
“We want our employees who are gay or
lesbian or transgender to have the same experience outside the office
as they do in the office,” Google's Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe is quoted
by dot429.com
as saying at the summit. “It is obviously a very ambitious piece
of work.”
“Singapore wants to be a global
financial center and world leader and we can push them on the fact
that being a global center and a world leader means you have to treat
all people the same, irrespective of their sexual orientation,”
Palmer-Edgecumbe said of the decision to include Singapore in the
campaign's initial phase.
Bob Amnnibale, an openly gay executive
at Citi, applauded the effort: “The fact that Google is so virtual
and its appeal is very wide and young demographically means it can
help spread messaging very, very quickly.”
UPDATE: Google says its Legalize
Love campaign is about supporting LGBT
workers in countries where discrimination is commonplace, not gay
marriage.