Some Firefox users are furious over yesterday’s promotion to CEO of Brendan Eich to lead Mozilla, the company that makes the world’s second-most popular internet desktop browser, Firefox. Eich actually co-founded Mozilla, but made headlines when it was reported he had donated $1000 to support California’s anti-gay Prop 8 in 2008.
Hampton and Michael Catlin are the married co-founders of the software manufacturer Rarebit. They immediately published a notice on their company’s website announcing a boycott of Firefox, including removing their apps from Firefox’s marketplace.
Dear Mozilla,
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 anymore.
Effective today, we’re removing Color Puzzle from the Firefox Marketplace and stopping work on all of our Firefox-related applications, notably the about-to-launch Firefox version of the popular Dictionary! app for iPhone and Android.
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.
This makes us very sad, as we love the little guy fighting to make things better. But it’s because of our status as a minority that we simply can’t ignore this slap in the face of giving him a promotion to lead your organization.
The couple adds that “for us, this is very, very personal. Michael is a British citizen and so immigration is a big issue for us. Being a binational gay couple, up until this summer when the Supreme Court overturned Proposition 8, Michael was here on a temporary visa, tied to his job. Luckily, he loved working there, but we were not able to do anything on our own. If you leave your job, you lose your visa. So, due to Prop 8, Michael was unable to co-found a business with me.”
Fortunately, they note, Prop 8 was overturned, and with it, Hampton and Michael were able to marry, Michael was able to stay in the country, and they were able to start a successful company together.
But until Mozilla’s new CEO denounces his donation in support of the anti-gay law, or he leaves the company, Hampton and Michael Catlin say they’ll continue their boycott.
UPDATE:Â Firefox, The Anti-Gay Browser?
Tell Mozilla that Brendan Eich’s support of Prop 8 troubles you, and you believe its users deserve an apology — or a different browser.
Hat tip: CloudTweaks