Bigot?

If you don’t support marriage equality. You are a bigot. You support discrimination and you support treating others unfairly.

Definition of Bigot: a person who strongly and unfairly dislikes other people, ideas, etc., a bigoted person; especially, a person who hates or refuses to accept the members of a particular group.

The fact of the matter is that gay relationships were treated unfairly when it came to taxation, health visitation, immigration, etc… Don’t think that isn’t serious, part of the reason the United States of America became a country was due to unfair taxation. Obviously I would also like to point out that bigots can change and America as a whole is changing.

But there was that discussion in a comment thread recently, where 52% of Californians actually bigots when they voted yes on Prop 8? Yes, they were several commenters said. It is no different then the time when a majority of Americans where racist. I made a couple videos on YouTube when Prop 8 did pass. I remember the stinging feeling, especially as someone who was still waiting for equality, especially in the terms of my immigration status in the United States.

So the huge discussion started about Mozilla’s, the creators of Firefox, new CEO Brendan Eich. You see he donated $1000 to help pass Prop 8 and donated to anti-gay politicians around the same time. And sure he is talented, helping to create JavaScript. This website wouldn’t work without JavaScript and no I’m not going to boycott such a fundamental product or even remove credit where credit is due. The question is should a bigot be a CEO? The question is clear that racists can’t be CEOs in America, so why do some think we should give a pass to anti-gay bigots? I’m not asking that he be fired from Mozilla, I just don’t think a bigot should lead a company, be the face of a company and be who all employees, gay or not, look up to. Its even more insane when you think Mozilla is headquartered near San Francisco, CA. And that both Microsoft and Apple CEOs gave money to try to stop Prop 8. So clearly I can and will boycott Firefox and use alternatives like Safari or Internet Explorer. Even Google, the makers or Chrome, had an official company policy to oppose Prop 8.

And perhaps Eich has changed like many of you. A donation to the Human Rights Campaign would be a nice apology. But instead both Mozilla and Eich have issued ‘non-apologies’ that in end are just patronizing. Today several Mozilla employees are tweeting that Eich step down. I applaud that call, but I will boycott Firefox and other Mozilla products until there is a clear message that we cannot have bigots as representatives and leaders of companies, especially ones that express themselves as being as open and progressive as Mozilla.

Lastly, since it will inevitable come up, I do respect religious freedom. I respect you’re right to any opinion. But you cannot use that opinion to suppress others equal rights. And you cannot use religion as a shield for intolerance or bigotry. So while religiously, I may not be allowed to marry at your church. You cannot use your religion to control what happens outside the walls of your church.

Update April 03 2014: Eich has resigned his post as CEO of Mozilla