Hutcherson was a vocal opponent of state anti-discrimination laws that were based on sexual orientation. On February 9, 2006, Tim Eyman lodged referendum Initiative 65, which sought a public vote to repeal the Murray Anderson Civil Rights Bill before it could take effect on June 7, 2006. Hutcherson supported the initiative[12] and conducted petition signature gathering at his home church. When the June 6, 2006 deadline arrived, the campaign announced they had failed to collect the 112,400 signatures required to qualify for the ballot.
Hutcherson proceeded to lodge his own ballot initiative on January 19, 2007. Initiative 963 proposed removing any reference to sexual orientation from existing anti-discrimination legislation. The initiative required 224,800 valid signatures be collected by the July 6, 2007 deadline in order to qualify for the ballot.[13] On January 27, 2007, The Seattle Times reported that Hutcherson had allied with a network of churches, including Watchmen on the Walls, that were tied to conservative evangelical Slavic communities in Washington State and California that had been active in opposing same-sex marriage.[14]
Microsoft
In 2005, the Seattle weekly newspaper The Stranger reported that Hutcherson persuaded Microsoft to withdraw support for the Washington anti-discrimination bill [16] that would have made it illegal to fire an employee due to their sexual orientation.[17] Hutcherson had reportedly told the Microsoft general counsel that 700 evangelical Microsoft employees attend his church, and all of them opposed the bill. He added that if Microsoft did not withdraw support of the bill, he would organize a national boycott of the software maker. Sometime after the meeting, Microsoft changed its long-held position on the issue from support to neutral stating that anti-discrimination was not a priority for that legislative session.[18]
A few weeks later, after protests from Microsoft employees and advocacy groups, Microsoft's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employee resource group, the company reversed itself and pledged to support future anti-discrimination legislation.[19]
The Anderson Murray Civil Rights Bill was passed in the Washington State House on January 20, 2006, in the Senate on January 27, 2006, and signed into law by Governor Christine Gregoire on January 31, 2006. When the bill was passed, Hutcherson again called for a boycott, but no such organized effort emerged.
On January 25, 2006, Hutcherson called for supporters to take action against Microsoft for reinstating its support of the Washington State Anti-Discrimination bill[20] by driving down the company's stock price. Hutcherson asked that supporters purchase one or two Microsoft shares over the following months with the goal of selling them on May 1, 2006. Market experts stated that the "buy-and-dump" plan had no realistic chance of affecting Microsoft stock while legal scholars warned that the plan could be considered illegal market manipulation.[21] Microsoft maintained its support of the bill and on May 1, 2006, Microsoft shares closed up 14 cents on the previous day's close.[22]
On November 13, 2007, Hutcherson addressed the Microsoft Annual Stockholders meeting. During the question and answer session, he referred to previous discussions with Microsoft executives regarding their support for anti-discrimination legislation in Washington State and threatened further action against the company without clearly specifying the policy position or activity he hopes to change. Hutcherson half-jokingly stated "I could work with you, or I could be your worst nightmare, because I am a black man with a righteous cause, with a host of powerful white people behind me...".[23]
After Hutcherson's comments, one attendee asked what shareholders could do to help the company to oppose Hutcherson. Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith responded:
As a company, we've had a clear policy with respect to the way we treat our people, and we believe in that policy. It's a policy that's founded on non-discrimination, it's a policy that we believe has served our employees well, it's served our shareholders well, and I think that was reflected last year when all of our shareholders were asked to vote on that policy, and over 97 percent of you and all of our other shareholders stood up and agreed with us. And I think that it is precisely in that form that shareholders have the opportunity to continue to make their views known, and we very much appreciate that support.[24]
On November 16, 2007, an interview appeared in The Daily Telegraph, a UK newspaper, where Hutcherson described his plan to ask millions of evangelical activists, Orthodox religious and other allies, to purchase Microsoft shares and demand a return to 'traditional values'. He described Microsoft as just the first company to be targeted in a larger campaign that would attempt to force American corporations to support only biblically-based social policy positions. In the article, Hutcherson alleged that there were "256 Fortune 500 companies alone pouring millions upon millions of dollars into pushing the homosexual agenda..." but he did not cite his source for the number.[25]
In a January 12, 2008 radio interview on Sirius OutQ with Michelangelo Signorile, Hutcherson once again claimed that Microsoft was advocating in support of same-sex marriage.[26]
On January 8, 2008, Hutcherson announced details of his "Buy Three, Donate One" campaign[27] which asked supporters to purchase three shares of Microsoft stock, donate one share to the "AGN Financial Network,"[28] and prepare to vote on a Shareholder Proposal that would be presented at the next Microsoft Stockholders Annual meeting in November 2008.
