As many on this blog know, I have long been a supporter of same-sex marriage and gay rights. However, I have qualms about a story this morning that Mozilla Chief Executive Brendan Eich has been forced to step down after a campaign by an online dating service. The campaign revealed that Eich had made a donated $1,000 in 2008 in support of California’s Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in the state before it was struck down in the federal courts. The controversy raises again the tension between free speech and corporate identity.
On Monday, OkCupid sent a message to visitors suggesting that they use browsers such as Microsoft Corp’s Internet Explorer or Google Inc’s Chrome: “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.”
Eich, who invented JavaScript, apologized for causing “pain” and promised to promote equality for gay and lesbian individuals at Mozilla. However, the campaign continued to call for his ouster.
We previously discussed this issue in relation to the Chick-Fil-A controversy. In this case, Eich was targeted for a small donation to the campaign in 2008. Many people oppose same-sex marriage out of deeply held religious or political views. I do not agree with them but this remains a deep divide in our country.
Eich was exercising his free speech rights in a matter of great public debate. I happen to view many current laws as discriminatory. However, the Supreme Court has yet to rule that states cannot prohibit same-sex marriage and there is no indication that Eich would refuse to comply with such a ruling if it were handed down. Indeed, there is no allegation that Eich has been in any way discriminatory toward employees or associates based on sexual orientation.
However, Mozilla Executive Chairwoman Mitchell Baker indicated that, if anything, it took too long to can Eich: “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.”
That is what concerns me. Should companies now move quickly to can officials for religious or controversial personal views? There was a time when people would be fired for supporting gay rights. What about giving money to presidential candidates like Rick Santorum who oppose gay rights generally? Notably, President Obama’s Administration spent the first few years in office defending the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in court. Obama himself refused to endorse same-sex marriage for years in office 00 during the year period of this donation. To this day, the Obama Administration refuses to treat discrimination against homosexuals as the same a race for the purposes of constitutional interpretation. So why is Eich not allowed to hold such personal views in making donations?
I do not question the right of all citizens to launch such a boycott and to use their market power to influence corporate policy. Clearly, many people stopped going to Chick-Fil-A in such a protest. However, I have concerns over the basis for such a campaign when there is no evidence of political or personal views having any connection to the company. Indeed, the company appears a leader in non-discriminatory practices. Where do we draw the line in such cases? What about corporate executives below the CEO or contributions to political parties or candidates viewed initial to same-sex marriage?
Source: Yahoo
Nick,
Why ignore Markos Moulitsas?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/04/1289639/-Brandon-Eich-was-a-victim-of-market-forces-conservatives-should-applaud#
Ending with…
Nick,
Sulli isn’t the ONLY gay commenter published out there… FYI.
Paul,
Mr. Eich has given to other anti-gay groups and orgs.
There is a pattern there.
Say Paul,
Do I have to use a product who’s CEO core values do not support mine?
What again, is the free market, anyway?
And, does a person like Mr. Eich, have to stay in a position in a company who’s core values are NOT in alignment of his own?
Again, how does this honor the free market?
Max, Andrew Sullivan expressed very well my thoughts on this subject. We obviously disagree on this. To each their own.
Paul,
Do pro-gay people regularly give money to causes that seek to limit the Rights of gay people?
Max-1 – you are assuming the same sex marriage is a right. Prop 8 was a vote by the people of California to decide if, in California, that would become a right. And the people voted against it. It only became a right because of the federal courts. Oddly, the trial judge who ruled on it was gay and had a boy friend he wanted to marry, which should have been considered a conflict of interest, but wasn’t. I think they did marry. Did the judge have an agenda? I sure think so.
Sadly, the people who gave money to Prop 8 had their names exposed to gays who have made it their cause to attack some of them. Militant or not militant, it is still censorship and ruinous to the elective process. In this case, it cost a man his job and will cost Mozilla money, first from gays and the OkCupid group and now from conservatives who will stop using it. Since Mozilla depends on ad revenue, fewer views, less money. Less money, few jobs, etc.
At this point a lot of conservatives have read Saul Alinsky and know how to fight back. They are using Alinsky techniques against the left and the left has not figured out how to combat their own techniques.
This article is from a liberal magazine:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/04/mozillas-gay-marriage-litmus-test-violates-liberal-values/360156/
Paul,
How much money did Obama give to PROP8?
There is a browser for conservatives, but I use Duck Go Go as a search engine and Google for my browser. Duck Go Go gives me a cleaner search result. I participate in the weekly Google SearchReseach but use Duck Go Go to get the info. 🙂
Annie,
When people toss out dog whistle terms like “gay agenda” and “militant”…
… I have to laugh at the level of hatred behind such dehumanizing tactics to keep a fellow human being downtrodden. I was gonna add that LZ should be in combat boot to make it more militant, and all…
Paul Schulte
Max-1 – I said it was a guess, not that I knew your heart. However, you talk like you voted for Obama and are a solid supporter.
= = = =
Obtuse observation…
… I’m a life long Obama supporter that actively has been calling for his impeachment over the last 4 years for crimes against the American people and the war crimes his drones commit each time he say’s so.
I just don’t get how all that adds up for you…
OK honest… never voted for Obama and was shunned at our local primary in ’08 for supporting someone other than Obama or Clinton… Then advocated awareness of Dems when he got the Nomination, about his immunization of the telecoms that funded the ’08 DNC!
Max, thanks for posting that Ted Talk, about that evil Gay Agenda, especially the official version.
ans the comment to samantha got eaten, too.
samantha,
“Max, you seem a person with a thoughtful, compassionate, kind heart, someone who is not a disciple of the extremist, militant suspects waging a war against anyone and everyone who is in the way of attaining absolute power and domination, by whatever means, even if it means destruction of one’s reputation and livelihood. Am I right?”
I do not belong to an Evangelical organization, as they’ve closed their doors to me… (what so ever you do unto the least of your brother, so too, you have done to me. -J.C.). Nore do I belong to ANY organized religious organization (see the J.C. quote again) I have found kind Christians here or there, but avoid the brainwashing religious Christian front groups, that’s what they are… front groups to avoid paying taxes while ripping off church goers of their last dollar. I have stood in many anti-war circles and environmental circles over the past decade.
Personal Responsibility… I embrace it.
It appears Mr. Eich did too. He left an organization that he no longer could be CEO of and hold competing core values. I applaud him for being able to recognize this within himself. He did the correct thing by leaving.
Was he supposed to stay in position with such obvious conflicts of core values? Free market system says… NO!
I hope this answers your question.
I’ll be as compassionate toward people as they are compassionate towards me.
If someone seeks to oppress me, what should I do? Roll over?
REMEMBER:
It’s never hateful when Right Wing Religiously funded hate groups restrict my Rights… in the name of Jesus, and all.
It’s only hateful when I stand up for my Rights…
YES?
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/04/04/bill_maher_there_is_a_gay_mafia_if_you_cross_them_you_do_get_whacked.html
The Gay Agenda
Hubert,
militant homosexual agenda?
Is that anything like the militant religious agenda?
You know the one that says I’m a bad person and I’m akin to everything that is wrong in the world? Like really bad criminals like baby killers and dog rapists?
You know… militant like?
um… reply pending to Nick.
Really long one, too.
Nick,
So is NOM and Brian Brown…
https://actright.com/petitions/74#myIframe
This now TWO religiously funded Right Wing websites and organizations organizing a boycott because…
… Free Market?
But it’s never free market when I spend my dollars where companies don’t promote bigots? I find these charges ridiculous. Free Market enterprise is about choices… and choices are made best by a well informed public.
But whatever… one blogger from one website suggests a boycott because Mozilla promotes an ant-gay bigot to be their CEO. The Right Wing Religious (RWR) cry foul and how it tramples their religious freedom…
Yet, no where do I see anyone from the RWR suggesting Mr. Eich stay in a position which his core values are NOT in alignment of the company he was promoted into.
The guy started the company… Who’da thunk someday he’s become CEO?
Obviously the staff and Board knew of issues and attempted to work them out. And couldn’t. Thus, his resignation. It works that way in any Corporate world.
People spin it as ‘forced out’…. should ha have stayed?
He left. And LGBT people are to blame for that?
Max-1 – Eich was anti-same sex marriages, something he held with the President of the United States and his wife and minister (who was and still is anti-gay). At no time has Eich every been accused of being anti-gay. The two are separate issues. And being against the Religious Right is also a type of bigotry of which you appear to be guilty.
Just to clarify things for you. It is only a right when the Supreme Court says its a right and that can change. People claim a lot of rights that really are wants but not rights.
Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall weighs in
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-few-thoughts-on-brendan-eich
Brendan Eich “not forced out”:
http://blog.gerv.net/2014/04/your-ire-is-misdirected/
“I am assured by sources I trust that Brendan decided to leave of his own accord – he was not forced out. My understanding is that the senior management of Mozilla (many of whom disagree with him on this issue) worked very hard to support him, even if I would not agree with all the actions they took in doing so. However, he eventually felt that it was impossible for him to focus on leading if he was spending all of his time dealing with the continued, relentless news and social media storm surrounding the donation he made. In other words, he wasn’t forced out from the inside – he was dragged out from the outside.”
From the same group that touts “tolerance” once again is intolerant of someone with differing viewpoints of the militant homosexual agenda. Thanks to this idiocy, I now have to find another browser and email client.
Thanks a lot, you pathetic, intolerant group of hateful people.