Mozilla CEO Resigns After Uproar Over His Anti-Gay Politics

Brendan Eich, creator of Javascript, has chosen to resign from his briefly-held post as Mozilla’s CEO, according to a company blog post signed by executive chairperson Mitchell Baker.

Eich's resignation comes after a controversy sparked by the not-so-secret secret that Eich donated $1,000 to the anti-same sex California Proposition 8 campaign​. The organization's announcement that Eich would take the CEO position detonated a PR powder keg, despite some of Eich's donations having been uncovered several years ago.

Just yesterday, a Guardian report detailed a further series of donations to politicians on the “fringe” of the Republican party in the 1990s. Pat Buchanan—a pro-gun, anti-abortion evolution denier—and libertarian hero Ron Paul received donations from Eich of $1,000 and $2,500, respectively.

The Guardian report, coupled with the Proposition 8 donation from more than a decade later, has been taken as proof by opponents that Eich is a supporter of discriminatory politics that Mozilla itself has said it strongly opposes within the workplace and more generally.

“We didn’t move fast enough to engage with people once the controversy started," the statement signed by Baker reads. “We’re sorry.”

At first Eich took the position that his private views and political activities had no bearing on his commitment to running an LGBT workplace—several LGBT Mozillians even supported the former CEO’s attitude toward members of that community. At the office, at least.

Still, other Mozilla employees believed that Eich’s appointment was a mistake, and several penned blog posts indicating, among other things, that the Javascript creator’s contribution to a campaign aiming to deny equal rights to the LGBT community very much has to do with Mozilla’s image.

The controversy only worsened when OkCupid—a site that sees about ten million unique visitors a month—asked all incoming traffic using Mozilla’s Firefox browser to boycott the company by downloading another browser, prompting further media coverage of Eich’s donations.

So far Mozilla hasn’t announced another candidate, and a company representative wouldn't reveal figures concerning how much damage has been done by the OkCupid boycott or others simply switching to another web browser in protest.