Anti-Gay-Marriage CEO Stirs Debate at Tech Nonprofit Mozilla

Nonprofit technology company Mozilla, maker of the Firefox Web browser, has stirred controversy internally and online with its hire of a new chief executive who supported a California initiative to ban same-sex marriage, The New York Times and Reuters write.

Brendan Eich, a Mozilla co-founder who created the JavaScript programming language, contributed $1,000 to the 2008 Proposition 8 campaign. Since his appointment as CEO last week, three Mozilla board members have resigned and a number of employees have complained on Twitter about the hire. OkCupid, an online-dating service, is urging visitors to use browsers other than Firefox to access its site.

Mozilla said the board departures were unrelated to Mr. Eich’s hiring. A company spokesman pointed to a blog post by the new CEO stating his commitment to “ensuring that Mozilla is, and will remain, a place that includes and supports everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, age, race, ethnicity, economic status or religion.”