Hey, OkCupid Users: Did You See OkCupid's Bold Statement on Marriage Equality?
If you're an OkCupid user, there's a chance you may have gotten a surprise when you tried to log in to scope your matches yesterday or today.
Mozilla's new CEO, Brendan Eich, is an opponent of equal rights for gay couples. We would therefore prefer that our users not use Mozilla software to access OkCupid.
Politics is normally not the business of a website, and we all know there's a lot more wrong with the world than misguided CEOs. So you might wonder why we're asserting ourselves today. This is why: We've devoted the last 10 years to bringing people—all people—together. If individuals like Mr. Eich had their way, then roughly 8% of the relationships we've worked so hard to bring about would be illegal. Equality for gay relationships is personally important to many of us here at OkCupid. But it's professionally important to the entire company. OkCupid is for creating love. Those who seek to deny love and instead enforce misery, shame, and frustration are our enemies, and we wish them nothing but failure.
However, we urge you to consider different software for accessing OkCupid.
Eich, for his part, wrote a blog post affirming his intentions to ensure that Mozilla is a place of inclusiveness for everyone and pledging his commitment to work with LGBT communities and allies. He addressed the potential doubts about his new attitude, saying, "I know some will be skeptical about this and that words alone will not change anything. I can only ask for your support to have the time to 'show, not tell'; and in the meantime express my sorrow at having caused pain."
What do you think about OkCupid's bold stance? A dating site that welcomes members of all sexual orientations is personally important to me, and I've admired OkCupid for its commitment to that. I hope this will continue to spark the conversation about the need for sites that promote love to promote it for everyone. And I hope that Eich's statement is sincere and we will see him prove his commitment to leading Mozilla as a company that promotes equality.
Did you see OkCupid's message when using the site? What do you think of it?