Brendan Eich has stepped down as Mozilla’s CEO following controversy about his support of California anti-gay marriage law Proposition 8 in 2008, which recently came to light.

Executive Chairwoman Mitchell Baker announced the news on the Mozilla blog after a number of interviews Eich gave indicating that he would not be going anywhere.

“He’s made this decision for Mozilla and our community,” she writes. “Mozilla believes both in equality and freedom of speech. Equality is necessary for meaningful speech. And you need free speech to fight for equality. Figuring out how to stand for both at the same time can be hard. Our 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.”

She continues, “We have employees with a wide diversity of views. Our culture of openness extends to encouraging staff and community to share their beliefs and opinions in public. This is meant to distinguish Mozilla from most organizations and hold us to a higher standard. But this time we failed to listen, to engage, and to be guided by our community. While painful, the events of the last week show exactly why we need the web. So all of us can engage freely in the tough conversations we need to make the world better. We need to put our focus back on protecting that Web. And doing so in a way that will make you proud to support Mozilla.”

They’re still figuring out what the next move is as far as leadership at Mozilla. Baker says they’ll have more info next week.

“We will emerge from this with a renewed understanding and humility — our large, global, and diverse community is what makes Mozilla special, and what will help us fulfill our mission. We are stronger with you involved,” she concludes.

Comments on the blog post are closed.

According to Re/code, Eich, who also co-founded Mozilla (in addition to creating JavaScript) will also be resigning from the board of the Mozilla foundation (the nonprofit behind the for-profit Mozilla Corporation). Also, according to that report, Baker said Eich had not been forced to resign by her or others on the board.

Image via Wikimedia Commons