As a Mozilla employee that strongly supports the right of all persons to marry, let me be the first to say: who the hell cares? At the end of the day, what he believes doesn't matter to me or anyone else.
If he had donated $1000 to a fund opposing inter-racial marriage, or to a fund opposing voting rights for a class of citizens, would you still feel the same way?
Bravo. This is exactly the argument we should make. If he had donated to pass an anti-miscegenation law, we would all know it was wrong.
You're free to believe whatever you want. You're free to believe men and women marrying men and women is wrong. You're free to believe that whites marrying blacks is wrong. It IS supposed to be a free country.
But when you donate to pass a law about it, it changes from belief to infringement on rights.
This is not to promote a particular viewpoint, other than.. well, it seems people do care about what other people's beliefs are, even on HN.
Now if the $1,000 went towards Westboro Baptist Church, so that they could lash out and call people "faggots", then I would be a bit upset.
Of course, if it isn't a mistake, I totally agree. I just find something published by the LA Times to be.. well.. not a real guarantee of authenticity.
http://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx...
Friends of mine who know him say that Brendan subscribes to a lot of crazy ideas. So no, it's not a big misunderstanding that he supports Proposition 8 and hates gays.
Now, I know it’s very difficult for people to understand, but there’s a very simple and easy way to never be called a bigot or a homophobe: don’t do bigoted or homophobic shit, like, for instance, giving money to a campaign to deny people basic human rights on the basis of their sexual orientation.
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A few people expressing their disappointment with Brendan’s actions on Twitter and other sites is absolutely not anything like bigotry. Saying it is means you don’t understand. That’s what makes me most angry: that people don’t fucking listen to people in the LGBT community or seem to understand the reason why we are angry.
And, no, you don’t get to tell me to calm down or that I need to “tolerate” people who are oppressing people in my situation. No, sorry, that’s worse than supporting Prop 8. Homophobia? Sure. Whatever. That sucks and makes you stupid and disappointing. Telling me that I have to keep my trap shut about oppression because the oppressors are actually the oppressed… that’s just grade A bullshit.
This isn’t Fox News with all that “there are two sides and the truth is somewhere in the middle” crap.
Brendan Eich’s actions are homophobic and disappointing.
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Lack of equal rights does material harm to gay people. People are not able to live with their partners due to shitty immigration laws or access health services. Lack of equality in law permits every minor-league bigot from the schoolroom to the boardroom the feeling they have a right to tease and torment. When the suicides stop and the violence stops, maybe we’ll talk about how the homophobes are the victims too. Until then, in order to seem fair and balanced and above-the-fray, people miss the whole reason why this is an issue.