Prop. 8 Supporter Brendan Eich Steps Down as Mozilla CEO
http://recode.net/2014/04/03/mozilla-co-founder-brendan-eich-resigns-as-ceo-and-also-from-foundation-board/
Brendan Eich, the well-known techie who has gotten swept up in a controversy about his support of Californias anti-gay marriage law Proposition 8, is resigning as CEO of for-profit Mozilla Corporation and also from the board of the nonprofit foundation which wholly owns it.
... In an interview this morning, Mozilla Executive Chairwoman Mitchell Baker said that Eichs ability to lead the company that makes the Firefox Web browser had been badly damaged by the continued scrutiny over the hot-button issue, which had actually been known since 2012 inside the Mozilla community.
Its clear that Brendan cannot lead Mozilla in this setting, said Baker, who added that she would not and could not speak for Eich. The ability to lead particularly for the CEO is fundamental to the role and that is not possible here.
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https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/04/03/brendan-eich-steps-down-as-mozilla-ceo/
Mozilla prides itself on being held to a different standard and, this past week, we didnt live up to it. We know why people are hurt and angry, and they are right: its because we havent stayed true to ourselves.
We didnt act like youd expect Mozilla to act. We didnt move fast enough to engage with people once the controversy started. Were sorry. We must do better.
Brendan Eich has chosen to step down from his role as CEO. Hes made this decision for Mozilla and our community.
Mozilla believes both in equality and freedom of speech. Equality is necessary for meaningful speech. And you need free speech to fight for equality. Figuring out how to stand for both at the same time can be hard.