Posted on 03/25/2014 1:23:18 PM PDT by markomalley
A pair of gay developers have launched a boycott of Firefox in protest against the Mozilla Foundation's decision to appoint a CEO who appears to be an opponent of same sex marriage. Mozilla co-founder and Javascript creator Brendan Eich was awarded the top job yesterday.
Hampton Catlin, creator of Wikipedia Mobile and CSS extension language Sass, said he would no longer develop apps for Firefox after Eich's appointment.
The dev cited a six-year-old database of donor contributions to campaigns in support and opposition of Proposition 8 listing Brendan Eich, (Employer: Mozilla) as a $1,000 contributor to a campaign in support of the anti-gay marriage California ballot proposition.
Prop 8 was struck down after being ruled unconstitutional in 2010 and the final appeal was put to bed in June last year.
Catlin and his husband run a development firm called Rarebit which makes a game called Color Puzzle and was set to bring a dictionary app to Firefox Marketplace.
In a blog post, Catlin wrote: "As a married gay couple who are co-founders of this venture, we have chosen to boycott all Mozilla projects. We will not develop apps or test styles on Firefox any more.
"This is in protest of the appointment of Brendan Eich to the position of CEO of the Mozilla Foundation, where he had previously served as CTO. We will continue our boycott until Brendan Eich is completely removed from any day to day activities at Mozilla, which we believe is extremely unlikely after all he’s survived and the continued support he has received from Mozilla.”
Catlin and his British husband Michael were unable to get married in California until recently.
The pair always dreamed of starting a company together, but Michael's visa was tied to his employment status. As it was not possible to marry, they were unable to found a new firm.
When the Supreme Court repealed Proposition 8, the lovers immediately rushed to San Francisco City Hall to get married. A post-nuptials picture of them was then published on the front page of the New York Times.
“Today, Michael has a green card and we’re able to pursue this venture in the US,” said Catlin. “These days, I am so damn proud of my country for making this all possible. So, that’s why it’s personal for us. Brendan Eich was an active supporter of denying our right to be married and even to start this business."
We have contacted Mozilla to ask them for a statement on their position regarding Eich's contribution, but there has been no response. We'll update this article if we hear back.
Eich himself blogged about the controversy over his donation last year on his website, maintaining that "Mozilla had nothing to do with the donation" and "Donors above a certain amount are required by the State of California to disclose their employer". ®
“...and his husband...”
Does not compute. Must stop reading this article. Must wash hands.
Here we go again...
I run Ubuntu.
Ah, yes, the OS named after the Southern African philosophy of ubuntu (literally, "human-ness"), which often is translated as "humanity towards others" or "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity".
Glad to see you are not PC.
Homosexuals are perpetually angry.
Hey I’ve got Windows 8.1 on a drive anyway.
The drive is in a box, in my closet. But I’ve got it.
:D
Mine too—now it will stay for sure.
If a gay business owner has the right to refuse service to an anti-gay customer then certainly anti-gay business owners have the right to refuse service to gay customers, particularly where the constitutionally enumerated rights of anti-gay business owners are concerned.
I am sick of these intolerant homo nazis.
So a rump ranger is getting his/hers panties all in a wad over a contribution?
Some people just need to get over themselves.
How dare he have unapproved opinions!
Because the liberals have decided to make homosexual marriage a key cause of theirs.
If liberals had not done so, then we would be free to have differing opinions on how to define marriage, or whether to define marriage at all by government.
The liberals drive the train on this crap. Whatever cause they push, needs to be pushed into every corner of society and business, even into the hiring decisions of technology companies. That’s the world we live in. We live in a politically correct world now.
The good news is, opposition by liberals doesn’t have to be a death penalty. Chick Fil A is alive and well.
> Catlin and his British husband Michael were unable to get married in California until recently. The pair always dreamed of starting a company together, but Michael’s visa was tied to his employment status. As it was not possible to marry, they were unable to found a new firm.
IOW, based on this article, their entire story is BS — not getting married has NOTHING to do with starting a company together. This is just more anti-hetero hate speech from a couple of demagogues.
Thanks markomalley.
They never promised to be tolerant, in the same way Islamists demand you bow to them it is a one way street
Related, from the perpetual offendees themselves:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3137211/posts
Download Firefox — Free Web Browser — Mozilla
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
Thanks for cementing the decision, fudge packers.
That's as may be, but by using Ubuntu I'm not contributing a penny to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
This rooster sucker can go to hell.
Well I guess they will have to cruise the queer, freak and pervert sites using Internet Explorer “Ate”.
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