Mozilla Boss Felled by Past Opposition to Same-Sex Unions

The chief executive of nonprofit technology company Mozilla resigned under pressure Thursday amid an outcry over his support six years ago for a California ballot initiative to ban same-sex marriage, reports The New York Times.

Brendan Eich, who co-founded Mozilla and developed the JavaScript programming language, donated $1,000 to the 2008 Proposition 8 campaign. The anti-gay-marriage measure passed but has been struck down in court. Mr. Eich has not repudiated the donation but said he pursued inclusiveness at Mozilla and has never engaged in discrimination.

Mr. Eich’s hiring as CEO two weeks ago triggered criticism within Mozilla and prompted a dating website to ask users not to access it with Firefox. In a blog post announcing the resignation, Mitchell Baker, executive chairwoman of the Mozilla Foundation, said the organization “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.”