Brendan Eich, the co-founder of Mozilla Corp. and its
newly appointed CEO,
resigned his position Thursday after less than two weeks on the job. Eich stepped down following a controversy over his $1,000 donation in support of Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage in California.
Since Eich became CEO, both Mozilla employees and external groups registered their discontent with his appointment. The dating website OkCupid
supplanted its regular landing page for users of Mozillas Firefox browser and encouraged them to download another browser instead.
My purpose here is not to weigh in on the ethics of Eichs resignation or the protests of his appointment (see
Andrew Sullivan and
Will Oremus for different views on those topics). But I can provide some context about just how unusual Eichs financial support of Proposition 8 was in Silicon Valley.
Proposition 8
passed with 52 percent of the vote in 2008, although it was opposed by 56 percent of voters in Santa Clara County and 62 percent of voters in San Mateo County, which are the two most associated with Silicon Valley. However, technology companies have a reputation for being liberal or libertarian on social issues, even by California standards.
