Stop defending Brendan Eich.

Why he was right to resign.

Today Brendan Eich resigned from Mozilla as CEO because after his appointment it was revealed he donated $1,000 to support Prop 8 — legislation to add to the California Constitution that marriage is only between a man and a woman — in 2008.

Mozilla hired Eich to perform duties as CEO — in part to be the face of the company. He would be representing Mozilla, one of the pillars of the open source community. It’s a big deal.

When you become CEO of a company you represent that company. The things you say or said, do or have done all make you and are projected on the company you are CEO of.

You can't defend what Eich did on freedom of speech grounds because it’s not freedom of speech that is the issue. It’s not that he did it but because what he did is projected onto Mozilla. Evidenced by OKCupid’s boycotting of Firefox and calls for his resignation.

So no matter what you think of his donation. There is no grounds for saying he was wrong to resign and that people are wrong for requesting his resignation.

Addition —

Someone on Twitter said:
“So who you or what you vote for represents the views of your company? Come on.”

I’m not saying that your views directly represent the view of the company. But rather that the perception is that they do when made public. And perception is reality.

Here’s a hypothetical —

I’m Jim — I’m a successful businessman, I run a big company and I’m the face of it. I also think that because things are scary in the world that children as young as 10 should be able to carry guns. This is so that if anything happens they can defend themselves.

Now my view is my view. It’s abhorrent but it’s my view.

It is impossible to imagine a world where you wouldn’t project my now public views onto the company. Either because the company put me in chard — how could the put such an abhorant man in charge — or directly — this company must believe in giving guns to kids because it’s CEO does.

If someone has a view and it’s made public that opinion is attributed to the company they work for. Right or wrong it’s a fact.