OKCupid Asks Firefox Users To Support LGBT Rights, Switch Browsers

[Fanghawk]

OKCupid Asks Firefox Users To Support LGBT Rights, Switch Browsers

OkCupid is protesting Brendan Eich's promotion to Mozilla CEO by reminding Firefox users of his anti-LGBT views.

Anyone visiting the dating website OKCupid may discover a little more than questionnaires about relationship preferences. When accessing the website from Firefox, the page now encourages visitors to switch browsers before continuing to the main page. The reason has nothing to do with technical problems, and it's no April Fool's prank: According to OKCupid, it's to oppose Brendan Eich's promotion to Mozilla Corporation CEO. While Eich is best known for his work on Mozilla and JavaScript, he's also infamous for donating $1000 to California's Proposition 8 campaign, supporting an amendment that defined marriage as solely between a man and a woman.

"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," the message reads. "So you might wonder why we're asserting ourselves today ... 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."

Firefox users can still access the main page, but first need to scroll past the message, links to alternative browsers, and background information on Eich. And OKCupid isn't the only company upset with Eich's promotion: some Mozilla employees have started calling for Eich's resignation.

For anyone who doesn't have a Firefox browser installed, we've posted the message below in full and will keep you posted on any updates.

Hello there, Mozilla Firefox user. Pardon this interruption of your OkCupid experience.

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.

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:

Google Chrome
Internet Exploder
Opera

Thank you,
OkCupid


Background on Mr. Eich and Mozilla
In 2008, Mr. Eich supported the passage of California's Prop 8, a statewide initiative to ban gay marriage, with a $1000 donation. Granted, his contribution is now six years in the past, and people can change. 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. His donation was known to Mozilla at the time of his promotion, and, furthermore, 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.

Source: OKCupid

Permalink

 

[Tony2077]

i like firefox and i don't want to change but i don't support that anti gay nonsense

 

[Phrozenflame500]

Urg, on one hand, the company that made my browser is run by an asshole.

On the other hand, ew Google.

Yeah, I'll stick with Firefox until Mozilla as a whole does something stupid.

 

[martyrdrebel27]

...And what about those who seek to not give a shit? Must we embrace the spam of LGBT? I suppose nowadays you're either with them or against them.

yeah, kinda. if you're not fighting for justice, or at least taking the smallest measure possible by using a different browser, then you are a part of the problem. what if there was laws in place that specifically targeted you and prevented you from marrying who you wanted, for whatever reason they saw fit to enforce. the world is larger than you, and you need to think beyond just what effects you, because one day it might. it's kinda the whole idea behind that "first they came for the..." poem from world war 2.

 

[JazzJack2]

I am gay and I will continue to use Firefox until someone can offer me a better browser, I don't give a shit about the politics of their CEO.

 

[Alcaste]

I am gay and I will continue to use Firefox until someone can offer me a better browser, I don't give a shit about the politics of their CEO.

I made the switch to chrome a while ago and haven't looked back. Firefox is just too...bulky.

As far as the attitude of "ugh it doesn't involve me" - Imagine if you were persecuted constantly for something you couldn't control and people had that attitude towards you? Yeah. It fucking sucks.

 

[Xan Krieger]

Internet Exploder

That's seriously what the button says, I've seen screenshots of it.

That said, it's a private citizen donating to something he supports, doesn't affect how well Firefox works. It's not like it suddenly doesn't work if you're gay, it's just a man who has different political beliefs than some people. Not gonna hate on someone for having different political views, hate is not usually a good thing.

 

[RJ 17]

...And what about those who seek to not give a shit? Must we embrace the spam of LGBT? I suppose nowadays you're either with them or against them.

yeah, kinda. if you're not fighting for justice, or at least taking the smallest measure possible by using a different browser, then you are a part of the problem. what if there was laws in place that specifically targeted you and prevented you from marrying who you wanted, for whatever reason they saw fit to enforce. the world is larger than you, and you need to think beyond just what effects you, because one day it might. it's kinda the whole idea behind that "first they came for the..." poem from world war 2.

So because the CEO of a company holds personal beliefs contrary to your own, you should just demand that he resign and that the company be boycotted? Is FireFox going to suddenly become openly anti-gay because this man is in charge? Is the Mozilla homepage going to display a big banner "NO HOMOS ALLOWED!"? No? Then I'd prefer finding a better reason to boycott them, thank you very much. If you ask me, a company should be boycotted because of it's business practices, not due to the political/personal beliefs of the people in charge.

Boycott the Westboro Baptist Church because they're just a cover for a hate group.
Boycott the cake store that openly refused to make a wedding cake purely because the couple was gay.

When you boycott a company based purely upon the personal beliefs of the person in charge, I believe you're being hypocritical. You're discriminating against the company purely because the person in charge holds a different belief than yours. You're essentially using the exact same argument that the Bush administration used for those people protesting the war: "If you're not totally in support of this war, you might as well be rooting for the terrorists." Sorry, I didn't realize that I was no longer allowed to have a personal opinion. Just because someone disagrees with boycotting a company based on the CEO's personal beliefs does not mean they agree with or condone said beliefs. Just because I'm not out on the streets demanding gay-rights doesn't mean I believe that gays shouldn't have rights.

In short, this excerpt sums things up quite nicely:
"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." You have the right to vote, you know, and that's how such things as gay-rights are solved...not by switching web browsers.

I am gay and I will continue to use Firefox until someone can offer me a better browser, I don't give a shit about the politics of their CEO.

Thank you!

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

hmmm, pro gay rights here. but dont know if a CEO with biggotted point of view 6 years ago is enough for me to switch. Boilerplate statements aint really enough either

 

[JazzJack2]

I made the switch to chrome a while ago and haven't looked back. Firefox is just too...bulky.

I wouldn't use chrome even if google fucking paid me to.

As far as the attitude of "ugh it doesn't involve me" - Imagine if you were persecuted constantly for something you couldn't control and people had that attitude towards you? Yeah. It fucking sucks.

Erm I know that feeling all to well but what relevance does it have here? He isn't persecuting me, he is expressing an opinion that is different from mine, and frankly I don't give a shit if the CEO of a software company has unsavoury opinions on my sexuality all I care about is their software.

 

[Genocidicles]

...nah

I like Firefox and I'm not inconveniencing myself just for some bullshit slacktivism that will have no effect, for a cause I could not care less about.

Gay people have been able to get married in my country since yesterday or the day before anyway... So even if I did give a shit about gay marriage then I don't see why I'd have to do anything.

 

[martyrdrebel27]

...And what about those who seek to not give a shit? Must we embrace the spam of LGBT? I suppose nowadays you're either with them or against them.

yeah, kinda. if you're not fighting for justice, or at least taking the smallest measure possible by using a different browser, then you are a part of the problem. what if there was laws in place that specifically targeted you and prevented you from marrying who you wanted, for whatever reason they saw fit to enforce. the world is larger than you, and you need to think beyond just what effects you, because one day it might. it's kinda the whole idea behind that "first they came for the..." poem from world war 2.

So because the CEO of a company holds personal beliefs contrary to your own, you should just demand that he resign and that the company be boycotted? Is FireFox going to suddenly become openly anti-gay because this man is in charge? Is the Mozilla homepage going to display a big banner "NO HOMOS ALLOWED!"? No? Then I'd prefer finding a better reason to boycott them, thank you very much. If you ask me, a company should be boycotted because of it's business practices, not due to the political/personal beliefs of the people in charge.

Boycott the Westboro Baptist Church because they're just a cover for a hate group.
Boycott the cake store that openly refused to make a wedding cake purely because the couple was gay.

When you boycott a company based purely upon the personal beliefs of the person in charge, I believe you're being hypocritical. You're discriminating against the company purely because the person in charge holds a different belief than yours. You're essentially using the exact same argument that the Bush administration used for those people protesting the war: "If you're not totally in support of this war, you might as well be rooting for the terrorists." Sorry, I didn't realize that I was no longer allowed to have a personal opinion. Just because someone disagrees with boycotting a company based on the CEO's personal beliefs does not mean they agree with or condone said beliefs. Just because I'm not out on the streets demanding gay-rights doesn't mean I believe that gays shouldn't have rights.

In short, this excerpt sums things up quite nicely:
"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." You have the right to vote, you know, and that's how such things as gay-rights are solved...not by switching web browsers.

I am gay and I will continue to use Firefox until someone can offer me a better browser, I don't give a shit about the politics of their CEO.

Thank you!

the whole discussion and approach changes when we're dealing with corporations. as consumers, we only matter to them if we effect their bottom line. in order to discourage future propagation of intolerant views.

 

[Vivi22]

When you boycott a company based purely upon the personal beliefs of the person in charge, I believe you're being hypocritical.

People who make this argument completely miss the fact that boycotting, or even outright hating someone, for their personal beliefs, which they can change, and the actions they take based on those beliefs is a lot different than boycotting or hating someone for who the way they were born. There's no hypocrisy here. And I always get the feeling that when people say there is that they're really just afraid of taking a stand on something and probably actually believe that the solution to every problem is some compromise between differing views.

Sorry, but hating people for how they were born is always wrong if how they were born is causing you no direct harm except for whatever imaginary harm you've concocted in your own brain. And declaring that that is unacceptable and refusing to deal with those who think that way isn't hypocrisy. It's called having a sense of morality that isn't completely broken.

 

[JazzJack2]

the whole discussion and approach changes when we're dealing with corporations. as consumers, we only matter to them if we effect their bottom line. in order to discourage future propagation of intolerant views.

Alright then tell me this, if we (as consumers) boycott Firefox based on the opinions of one man within the company, what good will it do?

The most is could do is have the CEO removed which is simply pointless and will do nothing to help gay rights.

 

[hexFrank202]

Ughhhh this gets more annoying every time. Look I know you want something to fight for; I know you guys want to feel like you're a part of something important to history. And I know that being involved in something that will actually be seen as important and great in the eyes of history is hard to do (die in a war, invent a cure for something, ext).

So I understand that "the people who supported civil rights" is a very appealing role to cast yourself in, because it's a title you can attain without having to actually do anything but ***** to people.

The problem is that the LGBT "rights" movement is pretty much 100% over and done with in America. The main part that's left is to pick-off and pick-on anyone who still acts like an asshole to anyone who isn't heterosexual. But that's not Rights, that's just asshole-demoralization.

And Same-Sex Marriage isn't an issue of rights either, it's just a good idea that should probably happen. But it is not the be-all end-all final puzzle piece to topple "homophobic oppression", it's not even in the top 40 of most critical problems to solve in American Politics, and it is NOT such an important, deal-breaking invention that not approving it it warrants the scorn and rejection of everything you have done in your professional or personal life.

Seriously it's reprehensibly disgusting that people act like not agreeing with the invention of same sex marriage is like legalizing genocide or something.

Really now, while many individuals, houses and groups of people still reject the ethics of homosexuality and are often dicks about it, American culture and society at large is now abundantly tolerant, almost always accepting, and often downright embracing of the LGBT. Yet now you're going around boycotting and completely shutting off from society anyone who doesn't sign on to switching the structure up to accommodate it.

 

[Riotguards]

...And what about those who seek to not give a shit? Must we embrace the spam of LGBT? I suppose nowadays you're either with them or against them.

sure but you'd be as equally as bad as the people who remained silent when black people were deemed "lesser" people in the mid 50's or any other group of individual being openly discriminated against because of reason X

and to me and i assume many others is far worse than actually voicing an opinion

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Urg, on one hand, the company that made my browser is run by an asshole.

On the other hand, ew Google.

Yeah, I'll stick with Firefox until Mozilla as a whole does something stupid.

I have to ask, is it Google you dislike or Chrome itself?

Because if it's just Google I would recommend Comodo Dragon, a Chromium based browser without any of Google's 'features.'

 

[Eve Charm]

What is this shadow complex again? I'm sorry but I don't really care how big an ass the guy running a BETTER AND FREE WEB BROWSER is. People are allowed whatever views they'd want or I'd never listen to anyone that votes republican.