Mozilla Firefox Update: Co-Founder Brendan Eich Steps Down From Top Exec. Role Due to Intolerance for Gay Rights; Some Disagree w/ Decision
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Update: Once his intolerance for gay rights were revealed, Mozilla co-founder Brendan Eich stepped down only two weeks following his promotion as top executive of the company that created the popular Firefox web browser.
Outraged by the donations Eich gave to California's 2008 campaign to ban same-sex marriage, Mozilla employees used Twitter to protest Eich's promotion.
Besides triggering three Mozilla board members to quit, the controversy prompted the matchmaking website OKCupid to encourage its members to stop accessing the site by way of Firefox.
However, Eich has recieved as much criticism for resigning as he did for his intolerance for gay rights.
Gay writer Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Beast , wrote:
"The whole episode disgusts me - as it should disgust anyone interested in a tolerant and diverse society. If this is the gay rights movement today - hounding our opponents with a fanaticism more like the religious right than anyone else - then count me out."
Jim Edward of Business Insider also had something to say about the situation, implying the controversy is like a double-edged sword.
"At the heart of the move is a fundamental contradiction: Eich's foes disapproved of Eich's intolerance for LGBT people. But in the end they coud not tolerate Eich's opinions, which for years he kept private and, by all accounts, did not bring into the workplace," said Edward.
New York Times contributors Nick Bilton and Noam Cohen suggested that in Silicon Valley, a place were all types are accepted as long as their innovation is bringing in the bucks, there migth not be room for conservative views. The writers alleged that Eich's departure is a sign of the growing abundance of gay-rights advocates in boardrooms and big corporations where they were once "walled off."
While Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch, went to Twitter to congratulate Mozilla for "burning a witch," Tom Gara of The Wall Street Journal tweeted that he couldn't imagine someone losing their job due to their political views.
