Mozilla Employees Ask CEO to Resign for His Support of Prop 8 Same-Sex Marriage Ban
Mozilla's recently appointed Chief Executive Brendan Eich has comes under harsh criticism from his own employees as they are calling for his resignation as the head of the software developing company for publicly and financially supporting California's Proposition 8 back in 2008.
Prop 8 was a constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriages and was approved by California voters during the 2008 elections.
The controversy began in April 2012 when it was revealed that that the-then chief technology officer for Mozilla donated $1,000 to the Prop 8 campaign, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Eich had served as the CTO since 2005 before being named interim CEO more than a year ago. Eich is known for co-founding Mozilla in 1998 and creating the widely used programming script JavaScript, according to Business Insider.
Much of the storm surrounding Eich seemed to subside in the last year but after he was handed the reins to the company this week the controversy resurfaced. On Thursday numerous Mozilla employees took to Twitter to voice their demands.
Sydney Moyer, a member of the company's engagement team, wrote, "I'm an employee and cannot reconcile having @BrendanEich as CEO with our org's culture and mission. Brendan, please step down."
According to the Times, many more similar tweets followed and even one employee took an unpaid in protest to Eich's promotion. Furthermore, protests have begun against the company as some are choosing to boycott the use of Mozilla products such as Firefox.
Eich issued a statement in a blog post earliest this week addressing the controversy and vowing to continue his commitment to Mozilla employees.
"At the same time, I know there are concerns about my commitment to fostering equality and welcome for LGBT individuals at Mozilla," he wrote. "I hope to lay those concerns to rest, first by making a set of commitments to you. More important, I want to lay them to rest by actions and results ... I know some will be skeptical about this, and that words alone will not change anything. I can only ask for your support to have the time to 'show, not tell'; and in the meantime express my sorrow at having caused pain."
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