Brendan Eich, Mozilla's anti-gay CEO, made the right decision to step down today. He will resign as CEO of the for-profit Mozilla Corporation as well as a board member of the nonprofit Mozilla foundation.

In a lengthy blog post, Mozilla explains:

Mozilla prides itself on being held to a different standard and, this past week, we didn’t live up to it. We know why people are hurt and angry, and they are right: it’s because we haven’t stayed true to ourselves.

We didn’t act like you’d expect Mozilla to act. We didn’t move fast enough to engage with people once the controversy started. We’re sorry. We must do better.

Brendan Eich has chosen to step down from his role as CEO. He’s made this decision for Mozilla and our community.

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.

This week OK Cupid asked users to boycott Firefox in light of the news that the nascent CEO made a $1,000 donation in 2008 to Proposition 8, California's (overturned) gay-marriage ban. OK Cupid pulled the boycott letter early this morning.

We should point out that — despite this colostomy bag of an op-ed piece from conservative token Debra Saunders, as well as this curious item in The Bold Italic — Eich wasn't shunned for exerting his right of free speech, for his overall political ideology, nor for his unpopular opinion on marriage. He was lambasted for giving money to revoke a right, which in turn prompted the boycott. Big difference there.

[Recode]