Tag Archives: Proposition 8

Protect Marriage attorney Charles Cooper, who last year argued against the overturn of Proposition 8 before the Supreme Court, says his opinion on gay marriage is “evolving” now that his own daughter is planning to marry a woman. The revelation is an unexpected footnote in the years-long debate over Proposition 8, the California measure struck down by the Supreme Court …

“Losing your job for being gay is different from losing your job for opposing gay marriage. Unlike homosexuality, opposition to same-sex marriage is a choice, and it directly limits the rights of other people. But the rationales for getting rid of Eich bear a disturbing resemblance to the rationales for getting rid of gay managers and employees. He caused dissension. …

The Family Research Council today launched a petition campaign which calls on its followers to demand that the US Senate block the confirmation of pro-gay lawyer Michelle Friedland, who was nominated to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals by President Obama last August. Friedland represented several gay couples on behalf of Equality California’s failed challenge to Proposition 8 and Tony …

“A decade ago, I made a contribution to Representative Chris Cannon because he was the ranking Republican on the House subcommittee that oversaw the Internet and Intellectual Property, matters important to my business and our industry. I accept responsibility for not knowing where he stood on gay rights in particular; I unequivocally support marriage equality and I would not make …

Mother Jones reports that that ten years ago OKCupid CEO Sam Yagen  donated to the campaign of a GOP member of the House who went on to vote for a federal ban on same-sex marriage. The dating website’s boycott of Mozilla pushed the flap about former CEO Brendan Eich into the national headlines. Yagan donated $500 to Rep. Chris Cannon …

“Here this man at Mozilla, Eich, had given $1,000 about six or seven years ago – $1,000 – to a proposition .And somebody came around and said, ‘Will you contribute?’ And he said, ‘Here’s a grand, get off my back.’ I mean, that’s probably all that it amounted to. But instead of that, he’s being forced out by gay activists, …

Out in Teabagistan some are declaring that Brendan Eich’s Prop 8 donation was leaked by the IRS, a ridiculous claim that even some fellow baggers are shooting down. Twitchy today provides the newest meme and, of course, fails to mention that California law stipulates that donations to ballot measures are public record.  UPDATE: The right wing Townhall is pushing the …

Yesterday Andrew Sullivan acknowledged that the resignation of Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich was not the work of gay activists but came as the result of pressure from the “techie straight left.” (Ben Shapiro appears to concede that point as well.) But Sullivan remains outraged. A civil rights movement without toleration is not a civil rights movement; it is a cultural …

On Friday, Breitbart editor Ben Shapiro launched a boycott petition and uninstall campaign against Mozilla and its browser Firefox on his website Truth Revolt. Today Shapiro claims that his campaign has resulted in thousands of complaints on Mozilla’s website. Mozilla publishes its feedback at the URL http://input.mozilla.org. The record dates back to April 2012. In that time, there has never …

“A leading supporter of gay marriage, [Andrew] Sullivan warned other supporters not to practice ‘a fanaticism more like the religious right than anyone else.’ I can’t get quite as worked up as he did. For one thing, prominent gay rights groups weren’t part of the Mozilla fray. For another, Mozilla isn’t the first company to make leadership decisions (or reconsiderations) …

“Would Sullivan rush to this guy’s defense if it turned out he was a Grand Wizard in the KKK? Of course not. We are allowed to be intolerant of people who operate outside the bounds of civil decency. This wasn’t governmental action infringing on any Constitutional rights. This was Mozilla developers saying they refused to do work with a bigot, …

“Why not demand that those who oppose gay marriage relinquish the right to own property? Why not take away their right to vote? Why not take away their children? Why not just throw them in jail? Why not force them to work in chain gangs? Why not call for public floggings? Or better yet, let’s just strap them down on …

Using a Los Angeles Times database of donations to the 2008 Proposition 8 campaign, stats guru Nate Silver has compiled a list of how the staffers of major Silicon Valley tech companies weighed in with their wallets. The list includes Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Cisco Systems, Apple, Google, Sun Microsystems, eBay, Oracle, Yahoo, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Symantec. I limited the …

Mozilla’s Firefox account on Twitter has 2.4M followers and they have responded to many complaints today.

Courage Campaign “Across the country, the LGBT community and progressive activists are heartened by Mozilla’s decisive action to remove Mr. Eich as the CEO of their for-profit and nonprofit ventures. It is a testament to the power of online grassroots organizing. The decision to hold its CEO to the same high standards of inclusion and equality that the company advocates, …

Yesterday Andrew Sullivan denounced the campaign against now-former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich, declaring that if the Eich controversy represents the gay rights movement today, he no longer wants any part of it. Michelangelo Signorile responded to Sullivan this morning in a post which contends that it wasn’t Eich’s donation to the Prop 8 campaign that did him in. An excerpt: …

“The guy who had the gall to express his First Amendment rights and favor Prop 8 in California by donating $1,000 has just been scalped by some gay activists. Will he now be forced to walk through the streets in shame? Why not the stocks? The whole episode disgusts me – as it should disgust anyone interested in a tolerant …

In a statement published this afternoon to her corporate blog, Mozilla chairwoman Mitchell Baker announced that CEO Brendan Eich has stepped down. Baker’s statement opens: Mozilla prides itself on being held to a different standard and, this past week, we didn’t live up to it. We know why people are hurt and angry, and they are right: it’s because we …