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.
OkCupid, the online dating site that bills themselves as being about “creating love”, is asking you to not use Mozilla Firefox to access their site. That is because, says OKCupid, Brendan Eich, Mozilla’s new CEO, is anti-gay, and “an opponent of equal rights for gay couples.” [NOTE: On April 3rd, Eich stepped down as CEO of Mozilla – you can read about that here.]
People who go to the OKCupid website using Firefox are greeted with this note:
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’s a 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 frustration are our enemies, and we wish them nothing but failure.
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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 Exploder | Opera | Safari
Thank you,
OkCupid
The note goes on to say that “In 2008, Mr. Eich supported the passage of California’s Prop 8, a statewide initiative to ban gay marriage, with a $1000 donation. Granted, his contribution is now six years in the past, and people can change. But Mr. Eich’s boilerplate statements in the time since make it seem like he has the same views now as he did then. Mozilla recently promoted him to CEO, hence the issue only now coming to our attention. His donation was known to Mozilla at the time of his promotion, and, furthermore, CEOs are rewarded based on their company’s performance. The CEO is the visionary for a company and its products. We are sad to think that any OkCupid page loads would even indirectly contribute towards the success of an individual who supported Prop 8—and who for all we know would support it again. We wish Mozilla’s institutional commitment to freedom and openness were better reflected by their choice of leadership.”
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I wonder what percentage of business they will lose due to their “tolerance”hypocracy
WOW! A whole 1,000 dollars, 6 years ago!
To a corporate CEO, that is barely pocket change. Especially since we do not know the circumstances at the time. Was the law poorly written? Has he some religious restrictions? Did he give the $ as a favour to a friend? Has no one any political rights? Or rights to donate one’s money to whom one likes? Maybe ALL donations of any kind should be banned. Or at least NONE should be tax deductible.
There might be a thousand reasons or questions! But we have no answers, or data, merely a few opinions…. and actions in what I might loosely call “restraint of trade”. Since when do social groups have the right to tell companies who to hire and fire (unless they are significant shareholders)? This sort of thing can backfire too easily. Oy Vay! The old “Law of Unintended Consequences” may be at work, here….
Funny, how political correctness is flava of the day. The whole “issue” seems badly played from all sides involved….
When those who beg for tolerance, are intolerant, this is not good…. I can see this “every group fighting for its rights” thing coming to a head soon. Two large well funded, opinionated groups will come to clash…..
Given that state of the world today, and the foolishness of humanity, and how badly we have made a mess of the world….
Well, maybe they will kill each other off, instead of nuking the rest of us. We only used to have to worry about nation states. Today…
What I find interesting, is that CEO’s usually have nice golden parachutes written into their contracts, in case things do not work out. This guy is a corporation manager. Not a social worker. The two jobs are very different. He’ll likely go off to another cushy job, having pocketed a few grand. He may even be better off because of this. And another corporation may prosper under him. In the tech sector… And they have not made a friend with their actions. BAAAD MOVE! Who knows what will now result?
I prefer my opponents, like my friends: Out in the open. Up front. Known, and honest, and understood.
So what do these various social groups do now? Do they crucify every one they do not like? They tried that a while back. If I recall, the whole affair, within 100 years, ended up going off very disastrously. And, even, a few hundred years later, was partly responsible for the downfall of the Roman Empire. It is still causing oodles of trouble in the world.
Perhaps, we should learn from history. But, then, we nevver do.
It will be interesting to see what happens next.
Interestingly, today Eich stepped down. In the announcement on their blog, Mozilla said:
“Brendan Eich Steps Down as Mozilla CEO
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.
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.”
https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/04/03/brendan-eich-steps-down-as-mozilla-ceo/
Oh yeah, one more thing. Why did IP find it necessary to call Mr. Eich “homophobic” simply because he opposes gay marriage. Simply opposing something does not, in and of itself, mean that one is afraid of it. As far as I know Mr. Eich is not homophobic, he simply opposes it. Please avoid labels.
One wonders if the “…then roughly 8% of the relationships we’ve worked so hard…” statement is the root of the reason. Try reading it: “…we would have lost 8% of our business…”
Kinda explains why they would get political when they claim that politics isn’t normally part of their business.
Besides, I just love the hypocrisy of the intolerant tolerant!
I don’t use OKCupid (is it for gays?) anyway, but if I did I would ditch OKCupid.