Thread: The Progressive idea of tolerance and diversity

The Progressive idea of tolerance and diversity

Posted by Michael Becker on Apr 4, 2014

Brendan Eich.
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Mr. Eich, as we noted here, made a $1,000 donation to support California Prop 8, a ballot initiative that supported traditional marriage. The measure passed in California, making it a matter for the California State Constitution that marriage was between one man and one woman.

A federal court struck the measure down and SCOTUS simply bailed on the issue by ruling that the parties who brought suit to defend the initiative didn’t have standing to bring the suit.

Last night we saw what passes for tolerance from the new arbiters of social norms, Mr. Eich was forced to resign his position as CEO of Mozilla.

In case you missed our previous post, Mr. Eich wasn’t just some guy Mozilla brought in last week to lead the company. He was the guy who invented JavaScript and who was a co-founder of Mozilla. Until his appointment as CEO last week he was Mozilla’s Chief Technology Officer.

To make matters more interesting, the offending donation was made in 2008 at a time when two politicians of national prominence had taken public stands on the issue of same sex marriage. Dick Cheney, then Vice President of the United States and Barack Obama, then the junior senator from Illinois. The position of Mr. Eich was in full accord with that of one of those men, and it wasn’t The Evil Dick Cheney.

Mr. Eich’s donation was made public several years ago, so his position on marriage has been a well-known fact for a long time. Apparently the left is in such a quandary about the current polling for their Congressional Representatives and Senators that it was time to make a point. That point being, if you want to roam away from the Progressive Line, you’re going to pay a price.

Brendan Eich just found the Gaystappo lynch mob, and the folks who run Mozilla turned their backs on one of the most talented people in the technology business.

Make no mistake about this, it’s not about Mr. Eich. He’ll do just fine. He’s a financial 1%er – and he earned every nickel of it. He’s extraordinarily talented and he isn’t likely to be unemployed long.

The point of this action is to intimidate conservatives. People are taking note that if the co-founder of a company can be cast off the roof over this, what kind of chance does your average guy have? They’ve squelched free speech and freedom of association in the same way the IRS set out to destroy the Tea Parties.

Welcome to 1984.


Read more at http://joeforamerica.com/2014/04/pro...mQzkBOXzEU3.99

Friday, 04 April 2014 12:41 Mozilla CEO Resigns Over Pressure From Homosexual Activists

Written by Dave Bohon






Conservative commentators and champions of free speech are speaking up after homosexual activists were successful in forcing the resignation of the CEO of Mozilla, the company which markets and maintains the popular Firefox web browser.

Brendan Eich, who co-founded Mozilla in the late 1990s and served as its chief technologist for several years, was named the company's CEO in March. But controversy erupted almost immediately when it was revealed that in 2008 Eich had donated $1,000 to California's Proposition 8, the grassroots initiative that led to a voter-approved state constitutional amendment defining marriage as only between a man and a woman.
According to the Guardian newspaper, in the early 1990s Eich also contributed $1,000 to the presidential campaign of Patrick Buchanan, and between 1996 and 1998 donated a total of $2,500 to Texas Congressman Ron Paul.


The news about Eich's personal opinions prompted a core of homosexual activists associated with Mozilla to demand that the company and foundation remove Eich because of his “hateful” attitude toward gays. Among those leading the attack was Hampton Catlin, a software developer who founded the tech firm Rarebit with his gay partner Michael Lintorn Catlin. Catlin was quoted by the Guardian as saying that as a “gay couple who were unable to get married in California until recently,” he and partner Michael refused to “support a Foundation that would not only leave someone with hateful views in power, but will give them a promotion and put them in charge of the entire organization.”
While Eich expressed “sorrow” for causing pain over his support of traditional marriage, and insisted that he was committed “to fostering equality and welcome for LGBT individuals at Mozilla,” such rhetoric was insufficient to stem the tide of opinion against him. On April 3, Mozilla announced that “Brendan Eich has chosen to step down from his role as CEO. He’s made this decision for Mozilla and our community.”
Eich himself said that Mozilla's “mission is bigger than any one of us, and under the present circumstances, I cannot be an effective leader. I will be taking time before I decide what to do next.”
With an unintended bit of irony, Mozilla's announcement included an assurance that the company “believes both in equality and freedom of speech,” adding that its “organizational culture reflects diversity and inclusiveness. We welcome contributions from everyone regardless of age, culture, ethnicity, gender, gender-identity, language, race, sexual orientation, geographical location and religious views. Mozilla supports equality for all.”
Homosexual activists and organizations were strangely silent at their victory for inclusivity and tolerance. However, a broad range of conservative commentators and champions of free speech offered their take on Eich's resignation. “The outrageous treatment of Eich is the result of one private, personal campaign contribution to support marriage as a male-female union, a view affirmed at the time by President Barack Obama, then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, and countless other prominent officials,” wrote Ryan Anderson of the Heritage Foundation. “After all, Prop 8 passed with the support of 7 million California voters.”
Writing in the American Conservative, Rod Dreher challenged Mozilla's insistence that it “supports equality” across the board. “You don’t want contributions from anyone who doesn’t subscribe to gay-rights orthodoxy,” wrote Dreher. “You don’t care how they behave, or how they treat others. All you care about is what they think — or how they once thought, even after they have long since ceased being a threat to you and your political goals. You don’t want them in your workplace. No traditional Christians, Jews, or Muslims need apply — or if they do, they had better stay deeply closeted.”
Even openly homosexual commentator Andrew Sullivan found Mozilla's treatment of Eich despicable, writing that the “whole episode disgusts me — as it should disgust anyone interested in a tolerant and diverse society. If this is the gay rights movement today — hounding our opponents with a fanaticism more like the religious right than anyone else — then count me out. If we are about intimidating the free speech of others, we are no better than the anti-gay bullies who came before us."




http://www.thenewamerican.com/cultur...7e94-287785873

WND

'Gay'-rights icon scorches allies for 'hounding' Mozilla CEO

'It's a bad, self-inflicted blow, and all of us will come to regret it'

Published: 2 days ago

A leading homosexual-rights figure and advocate of same-sex marriage is chastising his own movement for forcing the resignation of a prominent Silicon Valley executive who contributed to the California voter initiative to protect traditional marriage
Andrew Sullivan, a pioneer political blogger who writes frequently of his disgust for the “Christianist” right, said the effort that pushed out Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript and co-founder of mozilla.org, from his new position as CEO of Mozilla only harms the cause of “gay” rights.

He shot back with particularly pointed words for advocates of same-sex marriage who insisted Eich could have kept his job if only he would have apologized for making a “mistake.”
“This is a repugnantly illiberal sentiment. It is also unbelievably stupid for the gay-rights movement,” Sullivan wrote.
“You want to squander the real gains we have made by argument and engagement by becoming just as intolerant of others’ views as the Christianists? You’ve just found a great way to do this. It’s a bad, self-inflicted blow. And all of us will come to regret it.”
Mozilla announced Thursday that Eich, who was hired as CEO just two weeks ago, will resign after it was discovered he made a $1,000 contribution to the Proposition 8 ballot initiative in 2008.
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Sullivan, a British born and raised intellectual, is a former editor for The Atlantic and The New Republic magazines.
Although he describes himself as a conservative in the tradition of 18th century Irish statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke, Sullivan is a strong advocate of same-sex marriage and holds many other views embraced by the left.
Noting that the names of the people who contributed to Prop. 8 along with Eich are public, Slate.com’s William Saleton suggest with tongue in check that rights activists must now force the remaining 35,000 from their jobs.
“If we’re serious about taking down corporate officers who supported Proposition 8, and boycotting employers who promote them, we’d better get cracking on the rest of the list,” Saletan wrote. “Otherwise, perhaps we should put down the pitchforks.”
Radio host Tammy Bruce, who describes herself as a “gay” conservative, tweeted her disgust.
“Hi @mozilla, I’m a gay woman who is appalled that you caved to the Gay Gestapo. So who else will be pressured to leave for not conforming?”
‘We didn’t act like you’d expect’
Sullivan wrote, referring to Eich, 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.”
The move came after the dating site OKCupid called for Eich’s resignation.
Mozilla responded with corporate statements reassuring the public of its continued “LGBT inclusivity” since Eich’s hiring.
On Thursday, however, executive chairwoman Mitchell Baker confirmed Eich’s resignation with an apology for not pushing him out sooner after his donation was revealed.
“Mozilla prides itself on being held to a different standard and, this past week, we didn’t live up to it,” Baker said. “We didn’t act like you’d expect Mozilla to act. We didn’t move fast enough to engage with people once the controversy started. We’re sorry. We must do better.”
Brendan Eich

Sullivan unleashed his sarcastic wit.
“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 and diverse society. If this is the gay rights movement today – hounding our opponents with a fanaticism more like the religious right than anyone else – then count me out. If we are about intimidating the free speech of others, we are no better than the anti-gay bullies who came before us.”
Victory for free speech?
Pushing back against Sullivan and Saletan, London Guardian columnist James Ball insisted Eich was not a victim of ‘hounding” from the “gay”-rights community, calling his resignation, instead, a victory for freedom of expression.”
Ball said “the ouster of a founder and CEO by his own people, at a foundation based on open and equal expression, should be the new textbook example of the system working exactly as it should.”
“Eich is free to believe what he wants, and same-sex marriage remains a divisive issue in America,” Ball wrote. “But to gay people and their allies, supporting an outright ban on equal marriage is concerning: to many, it appears to say same-sex love is lesser than heterosexual love. Given most gay people feel they had no choice over their orientation, that message becomes in effect a statement that gay people aren’t the equals of their heterosexual counterparts.”
But Sullivan, in a response to critics of his stance, affirmed that Mozilla has a constitutional right “to purge a CEO because of his incorrect political views.”
“Of course Eich was not stripped of his First Amendment rights,” he wrote. “I’d fight till my last breath for Mozilla to retain that right. What I’m concerned with is the substantive reason for purging him. When people’s lives and careers are subject to litmus tests, and fired if they do not publicly renounce what may well be their sincere conviction, we have crossed a line.”
No record of discrimination
Saletan noted Mozilla chairwoman Baker confirmed there is no record of Eich ever discriminating against homosexual employees.
“I never saw any kind of behavior or attitude from him that was not in line with Mozilla’s values of inclusiveness,” Baker said.
Saletan pointed out that last week, Eich pledged he was “committed to ensuring that Mozilla is, and will remain, a place that includes and supports everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, age, race, ethnicity, economic status, or religion.”
“You will see exemplary behavior from me toward everyone in our community, no matter who they are; and the same toward all those whom we hope will join, and for those who use our products,” he said.
Eich said Mozilla’s “inclusive health benefits policies will not regress in any way.”
“And I will not tolerate behavior among community members that violates our Community Participation Guidelines or (for employees) our inclusive and non-discriminatory employment policies.”
Business Insider’s Jim Edward commented that at “the heart of the move is a fundamental contradiction.”
“Eich’s foes disapproved of Eich’s intolerance for LGBT people. But in the end they could not tolerate Eich’s opinions, which for years he kept private and, by all accounts, did not bring into the workplace.”
In the New York Times, Nick Bilton and Noam Cohen wrote that in the Silicon Valley, “where personal quirks and even antisocial personalities are tolerated as long as you are building new products and making money, a socially conservative viewpoint may be one trait you have to keep to yourself.”
They said Eich’s departure “highlights the growing potency of gay-rights advocates in an area that, just a decade ago, seemed all but walled off to their influence: the boardrooms of major corporations.”

Has 'gay' activism gone too far?

• No, not until America becomes Queer Nation
• No, it's just getting started
• No, not until the last homophobe surrenders
• No, not until we get a federal civil rights act to protect all Americans
• No, you haven't seen anything yet
• Yes, it went too far when it began infiltrating our schools
• Yes, it's become a form of persecution against people of faith
• Yes, what ever happened to 'What I do in privacy of my bedroom is my business'?
• Yes, the movement has turned to intolerant, fascist thuggery
• Yes, and I am beginning to fear an ugly backlash
• Other

View Results

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/04/gay-right...wwx4Xbm8KDe.99

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