Mozilla Firefox CEO resigns after anti-gay flap

On Thursday, Brendan Eich, who has helped develop some of the web’s most important technologies, resigned under pressure as chief executive of Mozilla. He was named CEO of the company last month. He is a programmer known for creating the important programming language Javascript.

Last week, Mozilla employees took to Twitter to protest Eich’s promotion, angered by donations he had made to California’s 2008 campaign to ban same-sex marriage. Three Mozilla board members quit over the controversy that prompted dating Web site OKCupid to pen a political missive discouraging its members from accessing the site through Mozilla’s Firefox browser.

A spokesman from an OKCupid said to Valuewalk 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.”

He donated $1,000 in support of Proposition 8, a California measure that banned same-sex marriage. Once Mr. Eich’s support for Proposition 8 became public, the reaction was swift, with a level of disapproval that the company feared was becoming a threat to its reputation and business.

For example, OkCupid, a popular online dating service, set up a letter, visible to those visiting its site on Firefox, that castigated the chief executive. “Mozilla’s new CEO, Brendan Eich, is an opponent of equal rights for gay couples,” the letter said. “We would therefore prefer that our users not use Mozilla software to access OkCupid.”

The letter has been removed. OkCupid prevented web surfers from logging onto the site through the Firefox portal, claiming 8% of its users are gay or lesbian.

The executive chairwoman for Mozilla, Mitchell Baker, criticized the company’s slow response to the situation. She emphasized the company’s desire to interact with users and the public in order to remain a strong company. According to her, this debacle has been a learning experience that will not be forgotten and will, in fact, serve to make Mozilla a better company overall. She did not, however, announce who the board will be naming the next CEO.

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