Mozilla Staff Urge Their CEO To Step Down Because He's Anti-Gay Marriage
Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich
Some employees at Mozilla, the non-profit organization behind the Firefox browser, are calling on new CEO Brendan Eich to resign.
Mozilla workers are upset with Eich because he supported Proposition 8 and donated to the politicians who backed it.
Prop 8 was a Californian ballot-proposition banning same-sex marriage. It was officially rejected in February 2012.
But some employees at Mozilla, such as design researcher Emily Goligoski, feel that Eich's decision to back Prop 8 goes against Mozilla's core values as a company. Goligoski posted the following on Twitter.
To me, @Mozilla is about openness & expression of freedom. I hope to see us have leadership that represents those values in their actions.
— emgollie (@emgollie) March 27, 2014
Kat Braybrooke, curator and co-design lead at Mozilla, had the following to say:
Like many @Mozilla staff, I'm taking a stand. I do not support the Board's appointment of @BrendanEich as CEO. #Prop8 http://t.co/msKVNjuhgR
— Kat Braybrooke (@codekat) March 27, 2014
Mozilla's Open Badges project lead Chris McAvoy sparked the Twitter conversation with the following tweet, which was initially spotted by Ars Technica.
I love @mozilla but I'm disappointed this week. @mozilla stands for openness and empowerment, but is acting in the opposite way.
— Chris McAvoy (@chmcavoy) March 27, 2014
It's a bit surprising that Mozilla employees are speaking up about Eich now. He cofounded Mozilla in 1998, and prior to being CEO, he served as the company's chief technology officer. He also widely respected for inventing the JavaScript Web scripting language in 1995.
Eich hasn't hid from the fact that he supported anti-gay marriage legislation. Following his appointment, Eich said the following regarding the LGBT community at Mozilla on his personal blog:
At the same time, I know there are concerns about my commitment to fostering equality and welcome for LGBT individuals at Mozilla. I hope to lay those concerns to rest, first by making a set of commitments to you. More important, I want to lay them to rest by actions and results ... I know some will be skeptical about this, and that words alone will not change anything. I can only ask for your support to have the time to “show, not tell”; and in the meantime express my sorrow at having caused pain.
Mark Surman, executive director of the Mozilla Foundation, issued the following statement to Business Insider concerning the situation. The company also published a blog post on the importance of diversity within the company earlier this week.
Our culture of openness extends to letting our staff and community be candid about their views on Mozilla’s direction. We're proud of that inclusiveness and how it distinguishes Mozilla from most organizations. We expect and encourage Mozillians to speak up when they disagree with management decisions, and carefully weigh all input to ensure our actions are advancing the project’s mission
We spoke with a Mozilla employee who seemed surprised by the uproar. This employee said there's been no internal craziness — " It's being made out worse than it really is" — and our source expects it to blow over.
"H e’s addressed it at all company meetings," o ur source says. "He's not changing his position. But I haven't seen it get in the way of anyone advancing at Mozilla."
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