OKCupid may be in the business of love, but the online dating site has anything but tender feelings for Mozilla and its newly-appointed CEO.
In a letter published Monday on OKCupid.com but viewable only to those who try to enter the site using a Mozilla Firefox Internet browser, the company called out CEO Brendan Eich's past support of Proposition 8, a 2008 ballot initiative that aimed to ban same-sex marriage in California.
"Those who seek to deny love and instead enforce misery, shame, and frustration are our enemies," the letter reads in part. "[W]e wish them nothing but failure."
You can see a screengrab of OKCupid's message if you click here, but we've also reproduced it in its entire below:
"Hello there, Mozilla Firefox user. Pardon this interruption of your OkCupid experience.OKCupid does provide Firefox users with a link through to the actual site at the bottom of the page, but nevertheless urges people to use alternate browsers:
Mozilla's new CEO, Brendan Eich, is an opponent of equal rights for gay couples. We would therefore prefer that our users not use Mozilla software to access OkCupid.
Politics is normally not the business of a website, and we all know there's a lot more wrong with the world than misguided CEOs. So you might wonder why we're asserting ourselves today. This is why: we've devoted the last ten years to bringing people—all people—together. If individuals like Mr. Eich had their way, then roughly 8% of the relationships we've worked so hard to bring about would be illegal. Equality for gay relationships is personally important to many of us here at OkCupid. But it's professionally important to the entire company. OkCupid is for creating love. Those who seek to deny love and instead enforce misery, shame, and frustration are our enemies, and we wish them nothing but failure."
In an statement emailed to The Huffington Post late Monday, Mozilla asserted that it is no way an anti-gay institution.
"Mozilla supports equality for all, including marriage equality for LGBT couples. No matter who you are or who you love, everyone deserves the same rights and to be treated equally," a Mozilla spokesperson wrote. "OkCupid never reached out to us to let us know of their intentions, nor to confirm facts."
Eich's appointment as Mozilla's new CEO last week led to an outcry among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights advocates. At the heart of the criticism against Eich is a $1,000 donation the Mozilla co-founder and JavaScript inventor made in support of Proposition 8 six years ago.
In its letter to Firefox users, OKCupid wrote that while Eich's contribution is six years in the past, "Mr. Eich's boilerplate statements in the time since make it seem like he has the same views now as he did then."
Eich himself last week addressed concerns about his "commitment to fostering equality and welcome for LGBT individuals at Mozilla" on his personal blog.
In it, he said:
"I am committed 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."Harry Bradford of HuffPost Gay Voice contributed to this report.
civil rights yes, I wonder if this guy's reason for supporting prop 8 was something religious. It's ironic that a country founded by those seeking religious freedom becomes one where it's better to keep those beliefs to yourself or face the economic penalty wherever you may be employed. I was just reading another gay blog site about this which included the disclaimer "The views expressed on this blog belong to me -- and me alone -- and are not a reflection of my employers past, present or future." What a difference between blogging or publicly supporting the wrong side of a state vote and that gets carried over to the work place.
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