OkCupid Is Boycotting Firefox Over Its New CEO's Anti-Gay Politics
By John Boone, March 31, 2014
Honestly, we didn't know people used OkCupid on a real Internet browser, and not just on their smart phone at 3:00 a.m. when they're drunk and there's no one left at the bar, and they can't go home and cuddle a pizza...again.
But apparently people do? And OkCupid users who try to access the site on Firefox are now greeted with this message: "Hello there, Mozilla Firefox user. Pardon this interruption of your OkCupid experience," it says. "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."
The rest of the letter reads:
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.
If you want to keep using Firefox, the link at the bottom will take you through to the site. However, we urge you to consider different software for accessing OkCupid.
OkCupid's problem with Eich goes back to a $1,000 donation he made in support of Prop 8, the bill that attempted to ban gay marriage in California. His donation, made under his name and as an employee of Mozilla, is public record (sidebar: Shoutout to Jonathan Dicarlo at Mozilla, who donated the same amount in opposition of Prop 8. Good job, Jonathan Dicarlo!)
"Granted, his contribution is now six years in the past, and people can change," OkCupid writes. "But Mr. Eich's boilerplate statements in the time since make it seem like he has the same views now as he did then. Mozilla recently promoted him to CEO, hence the issue only now coming to our attention."
They continue, "His donation was known to Mozilla at the time of his promotion, and...CEOs are rewarded based on their company's performance. The CEO is the visionary for a company and its products. We are sad to think that any OkCupid page loads would even indirectly contribute towards the success of an individual who supported Prop 8—and who for all we know would support it again. We wish Mozilla's institutional commitment to freedom and openness were better reflected by their choice of leadership."
OkCupid isn't the only one speaking out against Eich. Some of his employees at Mozilla have called for him to step down as CEO, with one saying the company "stands for openness and empowerment, but is acting in the opposite way."
Eich responded in a blog post, writing, "I know there are concerns about my commitment to fostering equality and welcome for LGBT individuals at Mozilla...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."
He gives what could be described as one of those sorry-if-you're-offended apologies, but continues, "I know some will be skeptical about this, and that words alone will not change anything. I can only ask for your support to have the time to ‘show, not tell'; and in the meantime express my sorrow at having caused pain."
So, now we wait and watch. And OkCupid users will have to switch over to Chrome to troll for their hookups. Which you should be doing anyway. Aside from anything having to do with marriage equality, it's just a better browser.
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