We like to think of politics as a simple matter of supporters and opponents for the cause at hand. But in practice it seems people can be prompted by all sorts of things -- being irked by some aspect of the other campaign, a tangential issue (such as it coming from the people rather than parties), a friend or relative being involved in the campaign -- there are potentially rather a lot of reasons why someone can be prompted into donating to a campaign they might not even vote for.
I absolutely guarantee, had he said something like:
"That was 6 years ago, I did it for $rational_sounding_reason, I don't hate gay people, I'm donating to $LGBT_charity as a token of good will"
..then this entire issue would have been discarded in minutes.
Believe me, I don't want to believe that the guy who wrote JavaScript simultaneously holds backwards beliefs like this. That alone is hard to reconcile, given how inclusive the tech community generally is. But every time I approach this issue, I can't arrive at any other sensible conclusion. The confluence of:
* The donation
* His refusal to repudiate the donation 6 years later
* His refusal to directly address the issue
..does not lend itself well to any other explanation.
At best, you infer support--similarly, you might say that by voting for Obama one supports drone strikes on civilians.
This whole thing is screwy enough as it is without putting words in people's mouths to then feign outrage over.
If you don't see the difference between donating to a politician who has an entire constellation of beliefs, and donating to a single purpose lobbying campaign, we've nothing further to discuss.
The responsible thing is to say "Well, that looks odd, but he hasn't said anything else, so let's give him the benefit of a doubt, as he's done well by the people over whom he has direct authority."
That's obviously not what anybody has done.
That's what I'm trying to get through to you.
It's not just the donation.
It's not just the fact that he'd rather quit a CEO position rather than answer a direct question about it. (Which is pretty damning all by itself - but.)
It's not just the fact that he still hasn't addressed it.
It's all of those things taken together, that paint him in a very poor light. Every defense you can possibly come up with makes no sense in light of one of those three facts.
And on a more personal note, my charity for Mr. Eich ran out when he took a shot at me and a few million others and didn't even have the fortitude to own it or apologize for it. There it hangs in the air like the scent of rotting meat, unaddressed, maybe people hope it'll go away if it's ignored long enough. People have been killed, driven to suicide, and otherwise treated as second class citizens thanks to the lies of the organization he chose to directly support. (You should look at the ads sponsored by the Prop 8 people - they're really something else!)
My charity stops well short of that point.
Perhaps it's not rational to place someone in the same mental bucket as Cathy and Robertson and Phelps, especially since Eich actually had a positive impact on the world via JS and Mozilla, unlike a fast food magnate, a megachurch preacher, and a hate speech spewer.
Perhaps actions speak louder than words.
...Perhaps an apology would be a good start.
Why should he be expected to justify his political and/or religious beliefs to anyone?
Why should he be expected to do that AFTER he resigned?
Ridiculous.
Because it's not his beliefs that people are upset at him for, it's his actions.
Because this goes well beyond Mozilla.
Solidarity used to mean that you look at the bigger picture and don't torpedo groups who are on the same side as you over personal feelings. For 16 years Eich fulfilled his own and his employees' contracts. For 16 years he was completely in line with Mozilla's inclusivity policy. For 16 years he fought for one of the most important social causes and he had that taken away from him because he felt that in supporting the personal beliefs of others he deserved personal beliefs of his own. Not only that, those of us who care about what he fought for had him taken away from us and I am yet to hear one good reason why.
Does someone who donates to a presidential campaign envision any other outcome than election of the donate-ee?
Does someone who donates to a political lobbying group envision any other outcome other than fulfillment of the lobbying group's goals?
It's not like he donated to someone who just happened to have an odious belief, he donated to a group who's entire reason for existing is straight-up bigotry.