I'm the owner of a few items of Really Right Stuff gear, most notably lens plates but I also use their BH-55 head which has its issues but is a fairly good ball head. However I've stopped buying new products from them, not for hardware performance reasons, but for philosophical reasons.
It was when I was researching the replacement clamp for the BH-55 that I came across a snippet of news, as shown in this thread: http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/956293 . The owner of RRS had donated a substantial amount of money in support of the "Yes on 8" campaign. California Proposition 8 aimed to ban same-sex marriage in California via constitutional amendment. For a while it succeeded. Privately-owned company, and the company as a whole does not have anything on its website concerning this but nevertheless it came to light because of California reporting laws.
In a country where discrimination of this type is still a big factor, and where I also have multiple choices for hardware (Kirk, Markins etc), it's difficult for me to justify buying from a company like RRS.
