Nearly 10 years ago Massachusetts became the first state to legalize “gay marriage”. At the time only The Netherlands, Belgium and parts of Canada had a similar law (source). Massachusetts was ridiculed and derided and while it gave many in the LGBT community a sense of pride and hope, we all felt terrible when after a brief window of opportunity in California, Prop 8 passed (source).
One could argue it was that demoralizing vote back in 2008 that made marriage equality the social justice and civil rights issue of our day. Lines were drawn and sides were taken and ever since that day, opponents of marriage equality have watched those lines continually be redrawn as more Americans (and now a majority) support the right to marry who you love.
However, back in 2008 and certainly in the years that followed, one could never imagine that the support of such a hateful law could come back to cause one to lose their job, but that is what happened today when Mozilla’s CEO, Brendan Eich, was forced to step down after employees of that firm drew attention to political contributions Eich made in 2008 opposing same-sex marriage.
The Washington Post has more about it here.
BosGuy 
I agree – this is horrible. We who are gay and who support SSM should not go on a scalp-hunting expedition to round up all the “heretics” who didn’t support us nearly 10 years ago. Gay marriage will soon be legal everywhere. The tide has completely shifted in our favor. We run the risk of reinforcing that “gay agenda” myth if we hound those who opposed us out of the public square. By forcing him out, we leave no chance for someone like Eich to come around to our side and be a SSM supporter. (For all we know, he may have modified his position since 2008.) When we convince our enemies we were right, we build long-lasting victory. When we kick them while they’re down, we build resentment against us.
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Hi Liam
I agree we should not go on hunting expeditions, but let’s remember the uproar started with Mozilla employees (who are overwhelmingly straight) and OKCupid which went public decrying Eich’s previous support. In my haste to write the post, perhaps my meaning was not understood. I thought this was amazing because I wonder if for the first time someone has lost their job not because they are gay, but because of their public support for a law I think we can all agree is homophobic. This isn’t a journalist being chastised nor is it a politician. This was a CEO for a large, very visible technology firm. That is amazing I think.
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That’s horrible. I wouldn’t expect it from a company like that.
In the UK since last Saturday gay marriage is legal… 🙂
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