Firefox Boycotted by LGBT Developers After It Hires 'Anti-Gay' CEO

Firefox Logo

By Lauren C. Williams
Firefox developers started boycotting after the Web browser’s parent company Mozilla hired a new CEO with a history of opposing marriage equality.

The Mozilla Foundation, which funds the Firefox browser, announced Monday that the company’s co-founder Brendan Eich would take over as the new CEO. But in 2008, Eich made a personal $1,000 donation to support California’s Proposition 8, a ballot initiative to ban same-sex marriage statewide.

The Javascript creator’s hiring prompted a backlash from Mozilla employees and the general public. To protest Eich’s appointment, Firefox app developer Hampton Catlin told Mozilla in an open letter that he and his partner, who is also a Firefox developer, were boycotting all Firefox projects, “until Brendan Eich is completely removed from any day-to-day activities at Mozilla.” Catlin runs the tech startup Rarebit and had developed Wikipedia’s mobile site and the Dictionary! and Color Puzzle apps. He did not immediately return a request for comment.

The developers are pulling their apps from the marketplace and won’t issue updates to existing products.

Read More