The online dating site OkCupid is blocking users of a popular web browser because the company’s new CEO once made a contribution to a ballot initiative against gay marriage.
“Mozilla’s new CEO, Brendan Eich, is an opponent of equal rights for gay couples,” reads the message which immediately greets visitors using Firefox, the web’s second most popular browser. “We would therefore prefer that our users not use Mozilla software to access OkCupid.”
Eich’s appointment as CEO generated outrage when it was announced last week.
In 2008, Eich donated $1,000 in support of California’s Prop 8, a ballot initiative defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Several members of Mozilla’s board resigned after Eich’s appointment, though it was reported that the exodus may have been unrelated to his stance on gay marriage.
Eich’s backing of the gay marriage ban also caused controversy in 2012 when it first came to light.
“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,” read the statement from OkCupid, which was acquired in 2011 by the Match Group, the owners of Match.com.
“Granted, his contribution is now six years in the past, and people can change,” the OkCupid site reads, “but Mr. Eich’s boilerplate statements in the time since make it seem like he has the same views now as he did then.”
Eich, who co-founded Mozilla in 1998 and created the popular JavaScript web scripting language, has not commented about his current views on gay marriage. But on his website last week, he said that he plans to lay concerns “to rest by actions and results.”
“I know there are concerns about my commitment to fostering equality and welcome for LGBT individuals at Mozilla,” he wrote. “I hope to lay those concerns to rest, first by making a set of commitments to you.”
Mozilla also released a statement after Eich’s hiring reiterating its support of the LGBT community.
Despite their opposition to Eich and Mozilla, in its past, OkCupid has not come out as strongly against all gay marriage opponents. According to campaign donation records, the matchmaker’s co-founder, Sam Yagan, donated $500 to the presidential campaign of Barack Obama in 2007 and 2008.
Yagan, who is currently CEO of the Match Group, which owns OkCupid, also donated $500 to former Utah Republican Rep. Chris Cannon in 2004. Cannon voted in favor of a constitutional ban on gay marriage.
Christian Rudder, another OkCupid co-founder, donated $1,000 to Obama’s 2012 campaign.
Obama has said that his views on gay marriage are “constantly evolving” and only officially came out in favor of gay marriage in 2012. Before that, Obama had said he believed marriage was between a man and a woman.
In a 2004 Senate debate, Obama said “I’m a Christian, and so although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe that tradition and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman.”
OkCupid did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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