Apr 05, 2014 06:18 PM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

Mozilla's recently appointed CEO Brendan Eich resigned this week, cast off in the face of public outrage over his support of anti-gay marriage legislation in 2008.

More than the relatively small amount of money ($1,000) he donated to help pass Proposition 8 in California (which was eventually repealed), it was his association with the cause that was his undoing. Many may have forgotten about Eich's less than popular views while he was a lower level executive at Mozilla. When he became their CEO last week, however, the donation quickly made national news -- so much so that three board members resigned in protest and OkCupid advised users not to use Mozilla Firefox when logging in to their website.

That Eich headed a tech company -- an industry filled and followed by younger, more liberal minds -- made his donation more controversial. That he happened to work for Mozilla made it even worse, as Slate.com pointed out. Unlike fellow competitors like Google Chrome and Internet Explorer, Mozilla is a non-profit organization (they also have a for-profit branch) whose ability to attract top level talent relies on selling a message. Many have contributed to the organization as volunteers.

"Mozilla prides itself on being held to a different standard and, this past week, we didn't live up to it," Mozilla Chairwoman Mitchell Baker wrote in a blog post. "We know why people are hurt and angry, and they are right: it's because we haven't stayed true to ourselves. 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."

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