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Comment by sremani | Hacker News Reader

Brandon Eich episode speaks volumes, esp. since he was at the winning side of the Popular Vote. Tinder did not walk away for CA after Prop 8 was won. I really do not know a single state including CA and OR, where gay marriage actually garnered Popular majority. Now the debate about whether something like that should be up for Vote is different and one I have no much domain knowledge. The fact was Brandon Eich's political belief were not fringe or extremist and more alignment to the times, is the case for NOT bullying him out of his Executive Office in Mozilla. For a organization that wants to stand up against Big Bad Governments and Corporations, Mozilla capitulated to a PC vocal minority. This has emboldened "Crybullies" of all shapes and forms including the ones in Yale.

note:I am for Gay Marriage but I am against bullying people who are not for it.

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"I really do not know a single state including CA and OR, where gay marriage actually garnered Popular majority."

It's interestingly how strong your opinion is when it could be easily improved upon by just reading wikipedia[3]. Here are states that actually passed SSM by popular referendum:

* Maine [1]

* Washington State[2]

* Maryland

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine_Question_1,_2012 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Referendum_74 [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland_Question_6 [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_the_Unite...

I also disagree with how the Brendon Eich was handled and it's important to have a diversity of views within an organization. Ultimately I think if Eich had been a stronger leader he would have been able to move past the incident, but there were already issues of confidence in his leadership BEFORE the incident happened.[5]

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Eich#Mozilla

"On March 24, 2014, Eich was promoted to CEO of Mozilla Corporation. Gary Kovacs, John Lilly and Ellen Siminoff resigned from the Mozilla board after the appointment, some expressing disagreements with Eich's strategy and their desire for a CEO with experience in the mobile industry."

Not OP, but I read his remark to mean "at the time Prop 8 was passed". To that argument, if that was indeed his intent, I believe he would have been correct.

Post Prop 8, we've seen some massive enlightenment on the subject.

You are correct. In my argument I was pointing out about how things were at the time of Prop 8, which I think is around 2008. The gay marriage debate got much needed momentum in 2012. In 2008 even Barack Obama was not for Gay Marriage.

Yea, sorry for the snark, comes naturally. I also think that if Eich had the same change of heart he would still have been booted. I really think the people protesting him didn't have as much influence as it seemed. Btw, Obama was against Prop 8 in 2008 for what it's worth[1].

[1] http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Obama-opposes-proposed-ba...

I was of the opinion that people should have at least given him a chance, he stated that he would respect the Mozilla policies of openness and put his personal beliefs aside and I would have liked to at least see him try.

The "PC vocal minority" were Mozilla's own employees and contributors. You can say what you like about the California electorate as a whole but to be against gay marriage in San Francisco is to be an asshole. Eich should have known he was endangering Mozilla's ability to attract and retain talent and outside contributions.

Let's not rewrite history:

https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/04/05/faq-on-ceo-resignat...

Q: Was Brendan Eich forced out by employee pressure?

A: No. Mozilla employees expressed a wide range of views on Brendan’s appointment as CEO: the majority of them positive and in support of his leadership, or expressing disappointment in Brendan’s support of Proposition 8 but that they nonetheless felt he would be a good leader for Mozilla. A small number (fewer than 10) called for his resignation, none of whom reported to Brendan directly. However media coverage focused disproportionately on the small number of negative comments — largely ignoring the wide range of reactions across the Mozilla community.

Mozilla’s culture of openness extends to encouraging our staff and community to be candid about their views on Mozilla’s direction, including during and after Brendan’s appointment as CEO. We’re proud of that openness and how it distinguishes Mozilla from most organizations.

I guess that's something I don't grok. How are his personal beliefs some reason to not work at Mozilla? He is not Mozilla. Do you refuse to work for companies where someone has differing opinions? You must not work then. Now, if he was using his position to proselytize to his fellow Mozilla employees, then I could see the point. But he wasn't.

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