Family group threaten Google boycott

The American Family Association (AFA) have announced that it may boycott Google because of the tech giant’s recently launched ‘Legalise Love’ campaign.

Buster Wilson, host of the AFA’s Today show, said during its broadcast on Monday that a boycott was in order but may prove difficult.

“We are a part of boycotting efforts similar to this with other businesses — this is going to be a hard one for a lot of us,” he said.

“It’s more than just a search engine. Many of us have Android phones… many of us use Google Calendar, Google Tasks, and Gmail… YouTube, and all the other things, it’s not just the search engine.”

The AFA recently boycotted the Oreos cookie brand over Kraft Food’s support of gay rights.

Google announced the launch of the Legalise Love campaign against anti-gay laws worldwide at the Global LGBT Workplace Summit in London last week, with Singapore and Poland to be its first targets.

“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 told the summit.

“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.”

Many of the major US tech companies support gay rights, including Microsoft and IBM. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and co-founder Bill Gates recently donated $100,000 each to uphold Washington state’s marriage equality law, which will go to voters in November.

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook is also believed to be gay but has never spoken publicly about his sexuality.