Firestorm over Brendan Eich’s appointment continues unabated at Mozilla

After the announcement last week that Brendan Eich would take over the helm of Mozilla as their CEO, news reports quickly surfaced that the inventor of Java Script had made a $1,000 contribution to the Prop. 8 campaign which, for a short time, banned people of the same gender from getting married in the state of California. And while both Mozilla and Eich have since issued statements declaring their commitment to diversity – including the right of same-sex couples to get married – the fallout continues.

Yesterday, OKCupid.com, one of the popular and respected online dating sites issued the following statement: “Mozilla’s new CEO Brendan Eich is an opponent of equal rights for gay couples,” the message tells users. “We would therefore prefer that our users not use Mozilla software to access OkCupid.”

And while half of Mozilla’s board members resigned – although for reasons that had less to do with his beliefs than his qualifications for the job – employees have been up in arms over Eich’s appointment. According to Ars Technica, described as a PC enthusiast’s resource, “The internal response began this morning with two Tweets from Mozilla Open Badges project lead Chris McAvoy. “I love @mozilla but I’m disappointed this week,” McAvoy said, referring to the controversial decision to appoint Eich as CEO after he had donated thousands to both California’s Proposition 8 and political candidates who supported it. “@mozilla stands for openness and empowerment, but is acting in the opposite way.” He then made a more pronounced declaration: “I’m an employee of @mozilla and I’m asking @brendaneich to step down as CEO.” Within minutes, many other Mozilla employees followed suit, using similar language or copying each other’s statements outright. Those included Mozilla Festival curator Chloe Vareldi, partnerships lead John Bevan, designer Jessica Klein, and engagement team member Sydney Moyer.

Whether or not Eich steps down remains to be seen but  Mozilla Foundation’s Executive Director Mark Surman is worried about how this protracted conflict will play out. He lays it out in a blog post titled “Mozilla is Messy”: “I worry that Mozilla is in a tough spot right now. I worry that we do a bad job of explaining ourselves, that people are angry and don’t know who we are or where we stand. And, I worry that in the time it takes to work this through and explain ourselves the things I love about Mozilla will be deeply damaged. And I suspect others do [too].”