I don't believe any of this discussion should be about freedom of speech or harsh tactics used by gays. If this man stepped down as CEO, that was merely a business decision. Nothing more.
I love our people and what we stand up for, but we could write all the letters we want and make threats until the end of time. That would not cost this man his job. There's really no precedent for it. People receive this kind of attention all the time. Company execs get hate mail for public opinion. Politicians get flack for their private lives. Heck, the producers of South Park get endless death threats for what they do. And last time I checked, Westboro is still picketing with their hateful slogans even though typing their name brings pages upon pages of slander and hate speech against them. Does that make them stop? Do they give up their positions for the sake of appeasing their opposition? I don't think so.
Mozilla offers products that are not unique to the company. There are several other browsers and apps for people to use. If we didn't agree with them, we could simply use another. Hell, I'm using Chrome right now. That's simply how the market works. They took the negative reception into account and foresaw a huge hit to revenue, and so they took action. It has nothing to do with being bullied. They saw a shift in their market, and they decided not to let it go any further. He wasn't removed because of his beliefs and ethics. He was removed because the company did not want to lose profit.
There is much of the corporate world that is strongly against us or completely indifferent, but they play the part of ally in order to keep our money flooding into their hands. That's just how our world works. We're a huge market and capitalizing on that means serious income. This guy here at Mozilla just happened to get outed and put on spotlight.
