GLAAD last week honored Marc Benioff,
chairman and CEO of Salesforce, for his LGBT activism.
At the group's Gala San Francisco,
Benioff was presented with GLAAD's Ric Weiland Award, which honors an
innovator in tech and new media and is named after philanthropist and
software pioneer Ric Weiland. One of the first five employees at
Microsoft, Weiland took his own life in 2006.
Benioff has been a leading voice in the
corporate world against state laws that target the LGBT community,
speaking out against bills and laws in North Carolina, Mississippi,
Georgia and Indiana.
In accepting his award, Benioff took
aim at Indiana Governor Mike Pence, who was pressured by the business
community to rewrite one such law.
“We are on the verge of a major
election,” Benioff
said. “And little did I know that that person we came up
against 18 months ago, who was so willing to express his hate into a
law and rally his countrymen against the LGBTQ community would be on
the ticket for vice president of the United States.”
“So, If you really believe that we
need move love in this world … then it is absolutely critical for
you to vote against Mike Pence, against that ticket with Donald Trump
and to vote for Hillary Clinton in just a few weeks,” he added.