Welcome to the year 2014 where even your actions of six years ago have consequences, especially if you are on the wrong side of history.
On March 24th, Mozilla named Chief Technology Officer Brendan Eich the new CEO for the tech-based company best known for its cloud services as well as its Firefox operating system and web browser. Initially, the hire did not make much news as Eich had been with the company since 1999 and it was well-known that he was a strong candidate to replace Jay Sullivan, who was acting CEO during the executive search. However, things quickly went downhill as Eich’s past began to make headline news.
It all started last Friday when The Wall Street Journal reported that three of Mozilla’s six executive board members resigned over the promotion of Eich. As if those resignations weren’t bad enough, several hundred Mozilla employees took to Twitter to express their dissatisfaction with the Eich selection. For the majority of employees, their main concern was the fact that Eich had donated $1,000 for Prop 8, the 2008 constitutional amendment that was passed in California making gay marriage illegal in the state that was eventually overturned by the Supreme Court. According to California state law, it is legal to provide public information on anyone who donates more than $100 to a ballot measure which made Eich’s donation a matter of public record.
Then on Monday, dating website OKCupid posted the following message on its homepage:
Hello there, Mozilla Firefox user. Pardon this interruption of your OKCupid experience.
Mozilla’s new CEO, Brendan Eich, is an opponent of equal rights for gay couples. We would therefore prefer that our users not use Mozilla software to access OKCupid.
Politics is normally not the business of a website, and we all know there’a s lot more wrong with the world than misguided CEOs. So you might wonder why we’re asserting ourselves today. This is why: we’ve devoted the last ten years to bringing people–all people–together. If individuals like Mr. Eich had their way, then roughly 8% of the relationships we’ve worked so hard to bring about would be illegal. Equality for gay relationships is personally important to many of us here at OKCupid. But it’s professionally important to the entire company. OKCupid is for creating love. Those who seek to deny love and instead enforce misery, shame, and misfortune are our enemies, and we wish them nothing but failure.
If you want to keep using Firefox, the link at the bottom will take you through to the site.
However we urge you to consider different software for accessing OKCupid:
Google Chrome Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Thank you,
OKCupid
With pressure mounting, Eich responded in a blog post where he expressed his intentions to ensure that Mozilla would be a welcoming company for people from all walks of life. Eich’s blog stated that he was “committed to ensuring that Mozilla is, and will remain, a place that includes and supports everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, age, race, ethnicity, economic status, or religion.” However, nowhere on the blog did it mention Eich’s support of prop 8, nor did it offer any sense of remorse that Eich might have felt for his previous support of the ballot measure. When all was said and done, Eich was left with only one option.
On Friday, Brendan Eich resigned as CEO of Mozilla.
What the episode of Brendan Eich tells us is that a person’s consequences have actions, even if those actions occurred many years ago. Public opinion is now clearly on the side of supporting gay marriage and opponents of the movement are beginning to realize they are on the wrong side of history. The public outcry of Mozilla’s three executive board members, the Mozilla employees that took to Twitter, the OKCupid website, and the public at large was enough to oust Eich from his position as ECO after less than two weeks on the job. Because Eich’s donation was of public record and he was unable to take responsibility for his donation, Mozilla had no choice but to ask him to resign from his position.
As the nation slowly moves toward marriage equality it is examples like these that reinforce how far the nation has come. Social media has become and will continue to be a powerful voice for those in favor of marriage equality. For people like Brendan Eich, ignorance is no longer an excuse for supporting policies that deny Americans equal protection under the law. In the year 2014, those that openly oppose marriage equality are slowly and steadily becoming pariahs in today’s open and accepting society.
Unfortunately for Brendan Eich, he just learned this lesson the hard way.
That is what makes the internet such a valuable tool. It makes it more difficult these creepy little people to hide. I applaud OKCupid for it’s actions. Mozilla should have gotten the idea sooner. When board members are walking out and employees are slamming you on social media you would think they would have said, “Hmm, maybe we have an issue?”.
What does this have to do with Search Engines?
The revelation of Eich’s donation for Prop.8 and his resignation has suddenly morphed into a “free speech” issue. His supporters are saying that he shouldn’t be punished for using his money to support causes he believes in. I agree, and he wasn’t punished. He just couldn’t take the public outcry about his opposition to LGBTQ Americans having the same rights as the rest of us! He had the right to donate for Prop. 8, but at the same time, those of us who opposed Prop. 8 have the right to call him out for doing it. It appears that his supporters want to call us meanies for voicing our concerns about his suitability to be Mozilla’s top CEO. Free speech works both ways. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone sued Mozilla so that Eich could get his job back by claiming that his 1st Amendment right to free speech was infringed upon, and it wouldn’t surprise me if our Supreme Ct. would rule in his favor should the case get that far since it appears we now have 5 corporatist SCJs…
Mozilla’s search engine is called Firefox. I, and millions of others, use Firefox, not Google. Eich had been promoted to head CEO of Mozilla, which owns Firefox, the search engine Trevor refers to in his title.
Got it now?
I Think some Twitter technicians have it out for liberals. I have known so many accounts that have been brusquely suspended and not given a reason. I was suspended last Friday and given no reason other than “,continued violation of twitter rules” rules–which are vague about retweeting too much, too many mentions, too many posted links to articles, I never use threatening and abusive language, yet I constantly see overt threats on right wing tweets that dong get suspended or deleted. Many liberal accounts have been hacked and spam generated from them. I get many followers who have had to start all over with new accounts. I am beginning to screen shot all these, and cataloging them to send to twitter CEO.
It’s also very suspicious that the day after my suspension we get an offer to use twitter’s professional promotion.
If you have been suspended tweeting while liberal and got suspended let me know.
Astor
Prop 8 – the 2008 constitutional amendment that was passed in California making gay marriage illegal in the state
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Prop 8 was only about RESTORING THE DEFINITION OF the word *MARRIAGE* (as a man and a woman), not making “gay marriage illegal”, per se.
Prop 8 didn’t take away any rights or benefits of gay or lesbian domestic partnerships. Under California law, “domestic partners shall have the same rights, protections, and benefits” as married spouses. Proposition 8 would NOT have changed that as it was not a ban on gay marriage, just a refusal to redefine the meaning of the word “marriage”.
Too many people don’t get it.
“Too many people don’t get it.”
You’re the one who doesn’t get it, Charlie. Prop H8 DID take away rights and benefits from gays and lesbians. It took away LGBT people’s right to marry (they had it before Prop H8 – didn’t have it after – not a difficult thing to figure out). Also domestic partnerships never had the same rights as marriages (try filing a joint federal tax return with a domestic partnership).
Bob
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domestic partnerships never had the same rights as marriage
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I never said they were exactly the same. I said Proposition 8 didn’t take away any legal rights of gay domestic partnerships and that California law (Family Code § 297.5.) states “domestic partners shall have the same rights, protections, and benefits” as any spouse.
Domestic partnership laws in California grant gay couples BASICALLY the same rights as a married couple and many consider the differences between a domestic partnership and marriage to be minor enough – depending on perspective of course.
The ballot initiative prohibited same-sex *marriage* by codifying the historic DEFINITION of the word *marriage*. (As a result of those claiming that marriage had meant many different things over the years and had been redefined multiple times.)
Proponents of Prop 8 don’t want the WORD redefined. Like I said, that’s not a BAN on gay marriage, just a refusal to redefine the meaning of the word.
And you STILL don’t get it – or intentionally WON’T get it. “Basically” the same rights do not equal THE SAME RIGHTS – and there are some crucial ones which only marriage confers.
you STILL don’t get it – or intentionally WON’T get it.
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Peculiar, since I merely presented facts and didn’t offer an opinion or make an argument for or against the *right* of same-sex couples to marry.
“Basically” the same rights do not equal THE SAME RIGHTS
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Correct. Who said “basically” means “equal”?
and there are some crucial ones which only marriage confers.
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Not all gay people are in favor of marriage for same-sex couples. Some gay Christians, for instance, believe gay people are called to celibacy. Other gay people view marriage as an outdated or hetero-sexist institution. Some think the government should get out of the marriage business altogether. And domestic partnerships are also perfectly satisfactory for many same-sex couples, which is why I stated individual perspective makes all the difference. What some see as “crucial” differences between domestic partnerships and *marriage*, others do not.
Can you name both of those gay people who are against gay marriage?
Bruce and Jim. Good buddies of mine.
:-D
I get it, it would simply make domestic partnerships separate but equal to a “traditional” marriage… and we all know how well separate but equal worked in the past.
Or the fact that Mozilla is a browser for that matter.
you are the intolerant haters you don’t fool us you poor deceived ingrates
notice how ugly you are inside and out you distort nature LOOSERS AND beasts
POSSIBLY NARCISSIT OR LACKING SELF ESTEEM
Who are you talking to?