Just days after Firefox CEO Brendan Eich following controversy surrounding the revelation that he donated $1000 in support of Proposition 8, the infamous bill banning gay marriage in California, yet another major player in the internet world has come under fire for supporting antigay views.
It has now been revealed that OK Cupid founder Sam Yagan donated $500 to Republican candidate Chris Cannon’s 2004 campaign, in which Cannon reportedly aimed to limit the rights of gay people.
OK Cupid urged its readers to switch browsers after Eich was appointed as CEO, sending a message to all its members using Firefox that stated in part: “Mozilla’s new CEO, Brendan Eich, is an opponent for equal rights for gay couples. We would therefore prefer that our users not use Mozilla software to access OKCupid.”
It was then revealed that Yagan supported Cannon’s 2004 campaign, attracting accusation of hypocrisy from a number of critics.
Yagan has responded to the controversy in a statement to the Huffington Post, stating that he was unaware of the politician’s stance on LGBT rights:
“A decade ago, I made a contribution to Representative Chris Cannon because he was the ranking Republican on the House subcommittee that oversaw the Internet and Intellectual Property, matters important to my business and our industry. I accept responsibility for not knowing where he stood on gay rights in particular; I unequivocally support marriage equality and I would not make that contribution again today. However, a contribution made to a candidate with views on hundreds of issues has no equivalence to a contribution supporting Prop 8, a single issue that has no purpose other than to affirmatively prohibit gay marriage, which I believe is a basic civil right.”
