OkCupid, a free friendship, dating, and social networking website, is urging visitors who visit through the Firefox browser to use other browsers such as Chrome, Internet Explorer and Opera in protest of Mozilla naming a gay marriage opponent as its CEO.

"Mozilla's new CEO, Brendan Eich, is an opponent of equal rights for gay couples," a message on the OKCupid website said. "We would therefore prefer that our users not use Mozilla software to access OkCupid."

Mozilla Foundation's appointment of Eich as chief executive on March 24 has drawn criticism from software developers, some of whom have publicly called for Eich's resignation. Eich donated $1,000 in 2008 in support of California's Proposition 8 that banned gay marriage in the state until it was struck down by the Supreme Court in June. He is the inventor of the programming language Javascript and a Mozilla co-founder.

Eich has apologized for the "pain" he caused with his personal political views while vowing to uphold a culture of equality as chief executive, including maintaining Mozilla's health benefits for same-sex couples.

Mozilla said OkCupid never reached out to them to let them know of their intentions, nor to confirm facts.

"No matter who you are or who you love, everyone deserves the same rights and to be treated equally," said a Mozilla spokesman.

Media reports said the Mozilla board is divided over whether to bring in an outsider to lead Mozilla to replace Eich, who had been serving as interim chief executive.

OkCupid was listed in Time magazine's 2007 Top 10 dating sites. It features member-created quizzes and multiple-choice questions. The site supports multiple modes of communication, including instant messages and emails.