New Mozilla CEO is allegedly anti-gay marriage – Firefox developers boycott

betanews.com

3 points·whitehat2k9··5 comments

Isn't this an indirect boycott? Those are illegal.

I'd guess every CEO has some opinion that many employees/vendors/clients disagree with. In a professional world, we don't use personal affects to guide business decisions. I.e. we buy groceries from the checkout guy that is anti/pro guns and don't blink. Why is this CEO any different?

Mozilla presents itself as a progressive, world-changing organisation. It deliberately attracts supporters with that messaging.

Look at the drama surrounding raising money through advertising, clearly Mozilla is considered different from a random internet business. So I think it's understandable that it might spill over into related areas of concern for progressive, world-changing types.

Having said that, I think Mozilla's CEO doesn't really have any power to apply his bigotry other than donating money he's earned from Mozilla, and he could probably earn even more elsewhere, so I'm not sure there's much need for a boycott..

Agreed. I think maybe exposure to the Mozilla crew might even broaden the guy's horizons. He might change his mind. No need to write him off.

In general this seems like a morally contentious issue. Assuming that a large majority of Mozilla employees support gay marriage, and that Mozilla has no corporate policy against gay marriage, it seems questionable whether an entire company should be boycotted due to the political views of one member of that company.

"As more and more people wake up from the slumber of ignorance and see the light in supporting gay marriage, there are still people that refuse to evolve." - what a subtle expression of a subjective point of view :).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com