Breitbart Joins Mozilla Boycott

Sullivan Doubles-Down On Mozilla Flap

Yesterday Andrew Sullivan acknowledged that the resignation of Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich was not the work of gay activists but came as the result of pressure from the "techie straight left." (Ben Shapiro appears to concede that point as well.) But Sullivan remains outraged.

A civil rights movement without toleration is not a civil rights movement; it is a cultural campaign to expunge and destroy its opponents. A moral movement without mercy is not moral; it is, when push comes to shove, cruel. For a decade and half, we have fought the battle for equal dignity for gay people with sincerity, openness, toleration and reason. It appears increasingly as if we will have to fight and fight again to prevent this precious and highly successful legacy from being hijacked by a righteous, absolutely certain, and often hateful mob. We are better than this. And we must not give in to it.

Sullivan says he's gotten hundreds of emails from readers who "overwhelmingly disagree" with him about the controversy.

NOM Launches Mozilla Boycott

On Thursday hate group leader Brian Brown launched a petition in support of former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich. Late Friday afternoon he launched a boycott of Mozilla.

"When Brendon Eich made his modest contribution to support Proposition 8, Barack Obama was on the ballot as a candidate who said he believed marriage was the union of one man and one woman. Now Eich has been the target of a vicious character attack by gay activists who have forced him out of the company he has helped lead for years. This is a McCarthyesque witch hunt that makes the term 'thought police' seem modest. We urge all consumers to remove Mozilla's Firefox web browser from their computers as a sign of protest. This attack to deny Mr. Eich his livelihood for supporting true marriage is a continuation of the shameful pattern we have consistently seen from gay activists. It basically says to all those in America and around the world who believe in a view of marriage that is consistent with the teachings of their faith that they are all bigots and haters and there is no place for them in civil society. This is the totalitarian worldview we will all be under if marriage ultimately is redefined in the law."

VERY FUCKING RELATED: Two years ago NOM launched their continuing boycott of Starbucks after the company issued a statement endorsing marriage equality in Washington state. Several months after the boycott started, hate group leader Tony Perkins declared to his national radio audience that NOM's boycott had cost Starbucks over $10B in stock value.

It didn’t take long for Starbucks to lose bucks over marriage. Hello, I’m Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council in Washington. In January, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said endorsing same-sex marriage would be good for business. Boy was he wrong! Siding with radical homosexuals has its price in this country. And in Starbucks case, the cost is about ten billion dollars. That’s how much the coffee giant’s lost in stock value since the campaign to Dump Starbucks got underway. In the last eight months, the company's missed sales projections and watched stocks dive from $61 to $48, for a loss of more than $10.2 billion. How many companies will fall for the lie that endorsing same-sex marriage will help business? J.C. Penney’s tried it. Target’s tried it. Now Starbucks. And every time, there’s a reason to believe that alienating millions of customers will directly affect a company’s bottom line. On the flip side, look at Chick-fil-A. They found out that supporting traditional values pays just as many cultural dividends as financial ones.

Brian Brown and his clown car of evil are trying to sell the claim that they are super concerned about evil homofascsists destroying the livelihood of Brendan Eich, but they bragged about having caused a $10B stock loss that may have devastated the investment portfolios of uncountable retirees, families, and pension funds. So what if thousands of people who also oppose same-sex marriage suddenly saw their nest eggs dwindle? And if a dive in stock price prompted Starbucks to enact massive layoffs among straight minimum wage workers? Serves them homos right.

The truth, of course, is that NOM's boycott had nothing to do with the price of Starbucks stock and everything to do with the volatility experienced by much of the restaurant sector at that time. In early 2012 at the start of NOM's boycott, Starbucks traded at $43. It closed today at $71.55. That's a 66% increase. Other companies are probably lighting candles in the hope of a boycott from NOM.

But all that is only part of the story.

Shortly after NOM's boycott of Starbucks began in America, Brian Brown posted a gloating update in which he announced that NOM had purchased Arabic-language banner ads to promote the boycott on websites based in several Middle Eastern countries that carry the death penalty for homosexuality. His intent, obviously, was to whip up anti-gay sentiment in places where our brothers and sisters already lead lives of quiet terror at best. Perhaps he even hoped for a madman to take out the entire staff at one of those overseas Starbucks. THAT would send a message back home, huh?

REMINDER: When major national Christian groups with millions of followers call for boycotts, that is a righteous use of the free market in order to preserve morality, marriage, family, and the American way. But if a gay keyboard activist tweets a call for a boycott, THAT is homofascist intimidation, intolerance, bullying, a stifling of religious liberty, and an attempt to deny the freedom of speech. And don't you forget it.

Mozilla: Eich Jumped, Wasn't Pushed

Mozilla's Firefox account on Twitter has 2.4M followers and they have responded to many complaints today.

Activist Groups React To Mozilla News

Courage Campaign

“Across the country, the LGBT community and progressive activists are heartened by Mozilla’s decisive action to remove Mr. Eich as the CEO of their for-profit and nonprofit ventures. It is a testament to the power of online grassroots organizing. The decision to hold its CEO to the same high standards of inclusion and equality that the company advocates, Mozilla once again reaffirmed its credibility as a thoroughly progressive institution. Let this be a clear message to those at other progressive institutions around the country -- homophobia and bigotry are not progressive values, and will not be tolerated.”

CREDO

“We applaud Mozilla’s announcement and its strong stand for equal rights,” said Becky Bond, CREDO’s Political Director. “Mozilla is not just company, it’s a movement supported by tens of thousands of volunteers around the world. Mozilla is a non-profit organization fighting to keep the web open and free for all of us. They put people above profit, and fight for user choice and privacy. Mozilla’s mission is vitally important to every grassroots movement, including the work that we do here at CREDO.”

NOTE: There have been few public reactions to the Mozilla story by LGBT groups, who seem have largely left the issue to grassroots activists. GLAAD has issued a one sentence statement: "Mozilla’s strong statement in favor of equality today reflects where corporate America is: inclusive, safe, and welcoming to all."

OkCupid Drops Mozilla Boycott

Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich Steps Down

In a statement published this afternoon to her corporate blog, Mozilla chairwoman Mitchell Baker announced that CEO Brendan Eich has stepped down. Baker's statement opens:

Mozilla prides itself on being held to a different standard and, this past week, we didn’t live up to it. We know why people are hurt and angry, and they are right: it’s because we haven’t stayed true to ourselves. We didn’t act like you’d expect Mozilla to act. We didn’t move fast enough to engage with people once the controversy started. We’re sorry. We must do better. Brendan Eich has chosen to step down from his role as CEO. He’s 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.

Baker concludes:

What’s next for Mozilla’s leadership is still being discussed. We want to be open about where we are in deciding the future of the organization and will have more information next week. However, our mission will always be to make the Web more open so that humanity is stronger, more inclusive and more just: that’s what it means to protect the open Web. We will emerge from this with a renewed understanding and humility — our large, global, and diverse community is what makes Mozilla special, and what will help us fulfill our mission. We are stronger with you involved. Thank you for sticking with us.

Today's move comes ten days after Eich was named Mozilla's CEO. LGBT groups, gay Mozilla staffers, and gay developers immediately called for a boycott of Mozilla over Eich's apparently unrepentant donation to the Proposition 8 campaign in 2008. But when Eich issued a statement expressing solidarity for the LGBT community (albeit without publicly reversing on marriage equality or apologizing for the donation), calls for his resignation and boycotts of Mozilla spread into the anti-gay, Christian, and Tea Party worlds, creating a bizarre and unprecedented situation in which groups that are regularly tearing into each others' throats were suddenly and unwillingly thrust onto the same side. Almost everybody (noted exception: Brian Brown) wanted Eich gone - but for very different reasons.

Today's move will surely satisfy many LGBT activists. But don't think for a minute that this story is over, because the screams of "homofascism" that we regularly hear are now going to grow much louder and the Eich saga will surely echo into future battles. Some of us may even come to view today as having been a Pyrrhic victory as Eich will doubtlessly be canonized by our enemies and his name will become a rallying cry.

As least we'll have the short term amusement of watching hate group leaders who last week called for Eich's head turn swiftly on their heels to scream about the intolerant gaystapo.

Brian Brown Backs Mozilla CEO

"Brendan Eich, the CEO of Mozilla, which created and maintains the Firefox web browser, is under fire for having donated $1000 to Proposition 8 in California. Prop 8 was against changing marriage to make homosexual unions equal to heterosexual unions. Among many protests against Brendan's 'politics', the dating site okCupid is blocking visitors to its site using Firefox and asking them to ditch the Mozilla browser as a way of punishing Mozilla and Brandon for his views. The champions of tolerance once again have turned into bullies to harass and punish all who disagree with their opinions. okCupid claims that 8% of their customers are gay. Well, 52% of California voters supported Prop. 8. Sign our petition in support of the free speech and conscience rights of the Mozilla CEO and everyone's right to free political action free of harm and harassment." - Hate group leader Brian Brown, in a petition launched on his ActRight fundraising site. (Via Good As You)

UPDATE: I should have noted that on Tuesday former NOM chairman Robert George called for a boycott of Mozilla in protest of Eich not hating gays hard enough. Infighting is funny!

Mozilla CEO Speaks To CNET

Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich has spoken to the tech site CNET in his first interview since controversy erupted over his 2008 donation to the backers of Proposition 8. Eich declined to discuss his personal views or say if he now supports marriage equality, but he repeated last week's expression of sorrow for causing pain to LGBT people. CNET asked Eich if he thinks the furor is an "existential threat" to the company:

I don't know. If it is, the vision of Mozilla will be lost. I don't think anyone else will carry the user-first agenda above all other considerations. I understand big commercial corporations can't do it. They have to ultimately answer to their shareholders. They can have founders with large shares and that can say they're willing to take a hit in order to be long-term thinkers, and I admire that, but in no way can they do what Mozilla does. We bled for the user. We did Firefox when nobody thought the browser was a competitive market or ever would be again. We did Firefox OS when people said there was no need for a mobile OS but there was obviously a gap below the market. And we're doing a user-centric approach to services that involve identity and choice and control of data. Mozilla has to uphold its principles, has to have integrity to advance its mission.

I feel strongly about what's happened, and I feel I'm still the best CEO for the job. I've got lots to contribute and I'll help us turn some corners. The corners that need me as CEO, not just founder or CTO, are a big mobile turn that involves services [and] user identity and agency in the cloud. If we get our message out about inclusiveness and how Mozilla cannot succeed without being truly globally inclusive, then we'll have trouble. I expect I'll be helpful there, too, in the long run. We're in a struggle now, but if we get through it, we'll be stronger for it. That's been true of all our struggles at Mozilla. When we pull everybody together for common mission, that's when we really succeed.

Eich also mentioned that the company is planning to take actions to emphasize its support for the LGBT community, but he gave no specifics.

Maggie Gallagher Suffers Amnesia Regarding Mozilla Boycott Campaign

"Does a commitment to diversity and inclusiveness include people who oppose gay marriage? Not to many who are unequivocally insisting new Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich endorse gay marriage or be fired. Over at the appropriately named 'CREDO' action website, more than 65,000 have signed their names to this call for conformity and exclusiveness, or else. Eich gave money to the Proposition 8 campaign and now joins a growing number of people who face threats to their livelihoods unless they support gay marriage." - Maggie Gallagher, writing for the National Review.

Amnesiac Maggie doesn't seem to remember that one week ago today dozens of leading evangelicals threatened the livelihood of World Vision's CEO when he (briefly) agreed to hire legally married gay people. Also wiped from Maggie's mental hard drive are memories of the Christian calls to boycott Chick-Fil-A that erupted earlier this month when CEO Dan Cathy announced that he was shutting up forever about gay marriage. Gone too, apparently, are any recollections from just a couple of weeks ago when pretty much every leading anti-gay crackpot called for a boycott of Guinness beer. Those frantic emails from One Million Moms with their literally weekly demands to boycott everything from snack products to salad dressing? Deleted. Didn't happen. Perhaps most interesting is that Maggie's convenient amnesia has also fogged over the fact that the very organization she once headed is still calling for boycotts of Starbucks and General Mills.

REMINDER: When anti-gay and Christian groups call for nationwide boycotts, that is a righteous use of the free market in order to preserve morality, marriage, family, and the American way. But when LGBT groups or citizens use or threaten the use of a boycott, THAT is homofascist intimidation, intolerance, bullying, a stifling of religious liberty, and an attempt to deny the freedom of speech. And don't you forget it.

OKCupid To Users: Boycott Firefox

As the Mozilla controversy seem to gain even more steam despite several pro-LGBT statements from company officials, dating site OKCupid is asking its six million users to boycott Firefox.

Anyone accessing the popular dating site OKCupid with Firefox today is in for a surprise. Instead of the homepage, OKCupid.com is serving Firefox users with a message calling out Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich for his support of California's Proposition 8, highlighted by a $1000 donation made in 2008. "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." The message allows OKCupid users to continue to the site via a link at the bottom, but not before they've seen download links for the other four major browsers and a very strong call to action: "Those who seek to deny love and instead enforce misery, shame, and frustration are our enemies, and we wish them nothing but failure."

Mozilla has responded to OKCupid, again declaring that as an organization they are "staunchly in support of marriage equality and LGBT rights." (Tipped by JMG reader Chris)

Mozilla: We Support Marriage Equality

Internet giant Mozilla, the makers of the popular Firefox browser, have issued a statement which emphasizes their support for same-sex marriage. Controversy erupted last week when Mozilla appointed CEO Brendan Eich, who in 2008 donated to the backers of Proposition 8. An excerpt from the statement:

Mozilla’s mission is to make the Web more open so that humanity is stronger, more inclusive and more just. This is why Mozilla supports equality for all, including marriage equality for LGBT couples. No matter who you are or who you love, everyone deserves the same rights and to be treated equally. We realize that not everyone in our community or who uses our products will agree with this. But we have always maintained that as long as you are willing to respect others, and come together for our larger mission, you are welcome. Mozilla’s community is made up of people who have very diverse personal beliefs working on a common cause, which is a free and open internet. That is a very rare and special thing.

Hampton Caitlin, a Firefox developer who with his husband last week announced a boycott of Mozilla, has tweeted his pleasure with this development.

UPDATE: Mozilla Foundation executive director Mark Surman today weighed in on the flap. His statement concludes:

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. If you are a Mozillian, I ask that you help the people around you understand who we are. And, if you have supported Mozilla in the past are frustrated or angry with us, I ask you for kindness and patience. What Mozilla is about is working through these things, even when they’re hard. Because the web need us to. It’s that important.

Mozilla Staffers Launch Twitter Campaign Demanding Resignation Of New CEO

Technology news site ArsTechnica reports that numerous Mozilla staffers are today tweeting demands for the resignation of CEO Brendan Eich.

This morning, a number of Mozilla employees took to Twitter with a united, nearly simultaneous message to new Mozilla Foundation CEO Brendan Eich: "Step down." Brendan Eich's Prop 8 donations come to light, and internal response is mixed. 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." 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. McAvoy added that he feels fortunate to work at a company like Mozilla, "where I can say that without fear of retribution."

(Tipped by JMG readers Joel and Marc)

Mozilla CEO Expresses "Sorrow" About Proposition 8 Controversy, Makes No Mention Of Changing Position On Marriage

"I am deeply honored and humbled by the CEO role. I’m also grateful for the messages of support. At the same time, I know there are concerns about my commitment to fostering equality and welcome for LGBT individuals at Mozilla. 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. A number of Mozillians, including LGBT individuals and allies, have stepped forward to offer guidance and assistance in this. I cannot thank you enough, and I ask for your ongoing help to make Mozilla a place of equality and welcome for all. [snip] 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." - Recently named Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich, in a blog post that does not mention his 2008 donation to the Proposition 8 campaign or if he now supports same-sex marriage.

Mozilla Chair Mitchell Baker: Our Corporate Identity Is Based On Equality For All

On Monday, internet giant Mozilla named Brendan Eich as its new CEO, drawing howls of protest and boycott threats due to Eich's 2008 donation of $1000 to backers of Proposition 8. Some have demanded that Eich be fired or demoted. Yesterday Eich's boss, Mozilla chairwoman Mitchell Baker,  responded to the furor on her blog.

Mozilla’s commitment to inclusiveness for our LGBT community, and for all underrepresented groups, will not change. Acting for or on behalf of Mozilla, it is unacceptable to limit opportunity for *anyone* based on the nature of sexual orientation and/or gender identity. This is not only a commitment, it is our identity. This commitment is a key requirement for all leadership within Mozilla, including for the CEO, and Brendan shares this commitment as the new Chief Executive Officer. [snip]

The CEO role is obviously a key role, with a large amount of authority. The CEO must have a commitment to the inclusive nature of Mozilla. This includes of course a commitment to the Community Participation Guidelines, inclusive HR practices and the spirit that underlies them. Brendan has made this commitment.Finally, I’ve been asked a few times about my own personal views, and so I’ll add a short comment.

I am an avid supporter of equal rights for all. I support equal rights for the LGBT community, I support equal rights for underrepresented groups, and I have some pretty radical views about the role of underrepresented groups in social institutions. I was surprised in 2012, when his donation in support of Proposition 8 came to light, to learn that Brendan and I aren’t in close alignment here, since I’ve never seen any indication of anything other than inclusiveness in our work together.

In 2005 TIME Magazine named Baker one of the 100 most influential women in the world.

Married Gay Tech Developers Announce Boycott Of Mozilla Over New CEO

On Monday, Mozilla appointed a new CEO who in 2008 donated $1000 to the Prop 8 campaign. Yesterday a boycott was announced by a married gay couple that runs a development company that produces products for Mozilla's Firefox browser.

Hampton Catlin, creator of Wikipedia Mobile and CSS extension language Sass, said he would no longer develop apps for Firefox after Eich's appointment. 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.”

It wasn't until the Supreme Court overturned Prop 8 that the couple married. Catlin was also able to sponsor a visa for his British husband with the overturn of DOMA. The couple married at San Francisco City Hall on the very day of the Prop 8 ruling, landing their story on the front page of the New York Times. Read Catlin's blog post about the boycott and his open letter to Mozilla.

Prop 8 Donor Named Mozilla CEO

The newly named CEO of Mozilla, the makers of the Firefox brower, is Brandon Eich, who gained headlines in 2008 when it was revealed that he had donated $1000 to the backers of Proposition 8.  From his personal blog:

A donation that I made in support of California Proposition 8 four years ago became public knowledge and sparked a firestorm of comments in the last few days, mostly on Twitter. People in other countries or other U.S. states do not know why “Mozilla” was listed in the donation data. Donors above a certain amount are required by the State of California to disclose their employer. Mozilla had nothing to do with the donation. I’m not going to discuss Prop 8 here or on Twitter. There is no point in talking with the people who are baiting, ranting, and hurling four-letter abuse. Personal hatred conveyed through curse words is neither rational nor charitable, and strong feelings on any side of an issue do not justify it. In contrast, people expressing non-abusive anger, sadness, or disagreement, I understand, grieve, and humbly accept.

For someone who is "not going to discuss Prop 8", he manages to go on for several more paragraphs. (Tipped by JMG reader Chris)

If You Can't See Disqus Comments...

A couple of JMG readers have reported that Disqus comments haven't shown for them in a few days. Members of this Mozilla forum appear to have sourced the problem to a recent update to the AVAST anti-virus program. The issue appears limited to Firefox and IE.  If you're having this problem, hit the link and try their suggested fix. Thanks to JMG reader Enzo for the help.

Not Again!

A reader sends us a screencap of what his "Christian Anti-Porn Blocker" thinks about JMG. Apparently, by reading JMG you are "crucifying Christ again." From its Firefox Add-On page:

Christian Anti-Porn will filter links and alert the user if any porn websites are clicked. This will not completely block but rather display Bible verse with the crucified Jesus Christ and to remind every Christian that he is going to crucify Jesus Christ again if he proceeds to such websites. This add-on is not an ultimate filter for porn. God is the ultimate filter and only He can guard you and give you enough grace to overcome sin. Hence, pray to Jesus Christ who died for our sins.

The add-on page links out to this. Joke or no joke? Poe's Law?

RELATED: And speaking of Poe's Law, do check out ChristWire's latest missive about Glee. Another classic.

Firefox-YouTube Fix

Firefox users know that YouTube often freezes every few seconds, especially if you've got more than a couple of tabs open. A few days ago a reader offered up this fix, which seems to work pretty well. I'm still getting an occasional freeze, but the fix appears to reduce the problem by about 90%. Remember to restart Firefox to see the change.