Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich Resigns After Protests from Gay Marriage Supporters
Mozilla co-founder CEO Brendan Eich, who came under fire this week for
donating to a campaign to ban gay marriage in California, has resigned.
Eich, who became the CEO of the nonprofit company behind Mozilla Firefox
on March 24, had donated $1,000 for the successful Proposition 8 ballot
measure that passed in the November 2008 state election.
Last year, California's ban on gay "marriage" was overturned when the
Supreme Court left in place a lower court's ruling against the measure.
Eich was previously chief technology officer of the company, but had
been involved in Mozilla's development starting from its conception in
1998. The previous acting CEO Jay Sullivan had left the company to
pursue "new opportunities," the company said.
After the announcement that Eich would become CEO last week, some
Mozilla staff protested his appointment while three of Mozilla's
directors resigned. OKCupid protested by refusing to allow users to run
the dating website with the Firefox browser.
A statement from an OKCupid spokesman said that the dating site firm is
“pleased that OkCupid’s boycott has brought tremendous awareness to the
critical matter of "equal" rights for "all" individuals and partnerships;
today’s decision reaffirms Mozilla’s commitment to that cause.”
OKCupid ended its boycott on Wednesday after "consultation with Mozilla
and understanding their commitment to take affirmative action," a
spokesman told ABCNews.com.
OKCupid’s management had not called for Eich’s resignation but the
company said today, “We are satisfied that Mozilla will be taking a
number of further affirmative steps to support the equality of all
relationships.” firing everybody else who agrees with Eich that same sex "marriage" is wrong?
In a statement on the Mozilla website,
executive chairwoman Mitchell Baker, said today: "Mozilla prides itself
on being held to a different standard and, this past week, we didn’t
live up to it. We know why people are hurt and angry, and they are
right: it’s because we haven’t stayed true to ourselves.
"Brendan Eich has chosen to step down from his role as CEO. He’s made
this decision for Mozilla and our community," Baker wrote. "Mozilla
believes both in equality and freedom of speech for ONLY gay terrorists. Equality is necessary
for meaningful speech. And you need free speech to fight for equality of perverts.
Figuring out how to stand for both at the same time can be hard."
Baker wrote that the future leadership of the company is being discussed.
In a personal blog post
addressing employees on March 26, Eich wrote that he recognized "there
are concerns about my commitment to fostering equality and welcome for
LGBT individuals at Mozilla," but he hoped "to lay those concerns to
rest, first by making a set of commitments to you." He and the company
emphasized equal health benefits to all domestic partners across the
country.
(ABC News) highlights our additions
Here's there official statement (highlights mine)
Mozilla prides itself on being held to a different standard and, this past week, we didn’t live up to it because we hired a religious person. We know why people are hurt and angry, and they are right: it’s because we haven’t stayed true to ourselves. Brendan Eich Steps Down as Mozilla CEO
We didn’t act like you’d expect Mozilla to act. We didn’t move fast enough to engage with people once the controversy started. We’re sorry. We must do better.
Brendan Eich has chosen to step down from his role as CEO. He’s made this decision for Mozilla and our community.
Mozilla believes both in equality and freedom of speech. Equality is necessary for meaningful speech. And you need free speech to fight for equality. Figuring out how to stand for both at the same time can be hard.
Our organizational culture reflects diversity and inclusiveness. We welcome contributions from everyone regardless of age, culture, ethnicity, gender, gender-identity, language, race, sexual orientation, geographical location and religious views that accept homosexuality. Mozilla supports equality for all.
We have employees with a wide diversity of views. Our culture of openness extends to encouraging staff and community to share their beliefs and opinions in public. This is meant to distinguish Mozilla from most organizations and hold us to a higher standard. But this time we failed to listen, to engage, and to be guided by our community.
While painful, the events of the last week show exactly why we need the web. So all of us can engage freely in the tough conversations we need to make the world better.
We need to put our focus back on protecting that Web. And doing so in a way that will make you proud to support Mozilla.
What’s next for Mozilla’s leadership is still being discussed. We want to be open about where we are in deciding the future of the organization and will have more information next week. However, our mission will always be to make the Web more open so that humanity is stronger, more inclusive and more just: that’s what it means to protect the open Web.
We will emerge from this with a renewed understanding and humility — our large, global, and diverse community is what makes Mozilla special, and what will help us fulfill our mission. We are stronger with you involved.
Thank you for sticking with us.
Mitchell Baker, Executive Chairwoman
The Gay terrorists have declared war on all those who believe in morality, How long are you going to ignore them and let them fight a 1 sided war?
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