Brendan Eich steps down as Mozilla CEO over past support for Proposition 8
Thu. April 3, 2014 10:58 PM by Carlos Santoscoy
Less than two weeks after his appointment, Brendan Eich on Thursday resigned as CEO of Mozilla.
Eich's ascent to CEO prompted a backlash over his $1,000 donation to the campaign to approve Proposition 8, California's 2008 voter-approved constitutional amendment restricting marriage to heterosexual couples. Proposition 8 stood until last year, when the Supreme Court left in place a lower court ruling knocking it down.
"Brendan Eich has chosen to step down from his role as CEO," Mozilla said in a blog post. "He's made this decision for Mozilla and our community."
Multiple employees publicly asked Eich to resign and at least one developer said it would no longer develop apps for the browser as long as Eich is in charge. Dating site OkCupid on Monday called on users to dump Mozilla's popular Firefox Web browser.
On Thursday, Mozilla apologized for not staying true to itself: "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."
Eich had expressed his "sorrow at having caused pain" and pledged to reach out to the LGBT community.But in a recent CNET.com interview he said that he would prefer not to discuss his stance on marriage equality.
"One of the things about my principles of inclusiveness is not just that you leave it at the door, but that you don't require others to put targets on themselves by labeling their beliefs, because that will present problems and will be seen as divisive," he said.
Eich's ascent to CEO prompted a backlash over his $1,000 donation to the campaign to approve Proposition 8, California's 2008 voter-approved constitutional amendment restricting marriage to heterosexual couples. Proposition 8 stood until last year, when the Supreme Court left in place a lower court ruling knocking it down.
"Brendan Eich has chosen to step down from his role as CEO," Mozilla said in a blog post. "He's made this decision for Mozilla and our community."
Multiple employees publicly asked Eich to resign and at least one developer said it would no longer develop apps for the browser as long as Eich is in charge. Dating site OkCupid on Monday called on users to dump Mozilla's popular Firefox Web browser.
On Thursday, Mozilla apologized for not staying true to itself: "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."
Eich had expressed his "sorrow at having caused pain" and pledged to reach out to the LGBT community.But in a recent CNET.com interview he said that he would prefer not to discuss his stance on marriage equality.
"One of the things about my principles of inclusiveness is not just that you leave it at the door, but that you don't require others to put targets on themselves by labeling their beliefs, because that will present problems and will be seen as divisive," he said.
Article provided in partnership with On Top Magazine