Amazon CEO gives $2.5M to defend same-sex marriage
MacKenzie Bezos and Jeff Bezos attend the "Schiaparelli And Prada: Impossible Conversations" Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 7, 2012 in New York City. / Larry Busacca/Getty Images
(AP) OLYMPIA, Wash. - Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie, announced Friday they are donating $2.5 million to the campaign to defend Washington's same-sex marriage law.
With the gift, Washington United for Marriage has raised more than $5 million for its referendum campaign.
"It's a game changer for us," said campaign manager Zach Silk in Seattle. "It puts us in unique position to win."
But, his group is still the underdog, he said. In 32 previous elections nationally, same-sex advocates have lost.
The Washington election may be the turning point, thanks in part to the Bezos' generous donation, Silk said.
"They understand what's at stake for Washington families and what's at stake for the country," he said. "We're at a tipping point, and they really understand this is an historic moment, and they want to be on the right side of history and want to make history."
Last month Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and co-founder Bill Gates each donated $100,000 to support the law.
Referendum 74 was certified for the November ballot in May after gay marriage opponents in the group Preserve Marriage Washington turned in more than 240,000 signatures. The referendum seeks to overturn the gay-marriage law signed in February by Gov. Chris Gregoire.
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Preserve Marriage Washington wants to preserve marriage as the union between one man and one woman, "because marriage is a unique institution that is profoundly in the common good," the group says on its website.
The same-sex marriage law was supposed to take effect June 7 but has been put on hold.
A "yes" vote on the referendum upholds the law, and a "no" vote overturns it.
Same-sex marriage is legal in New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C. Maryland legalized gay marriage this year as well, but that state also is poised to have a public vote this fall.
In Maine, voters will decide on an initiative to approve same-sex marriage three years after a referendum overturned a law passed by the Maine Legislature.
And in Minnesota, voters will decide whether to pass a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
So far contributions from same-sex supporters to Washington United for Marriage far outweigh contributions to Preserve Marriage Washington.
Silk expects the organization seeking to repeal the law will receive an infusion of cash late in the campaign from the Washington, D.C.-based National Organization for Marriage, which was involved in ballot measures that overturned same-sex marriage in California and Maine.
Silk expects the other side will spend $4 million to $7 million.
"We take them at their word and we need to dig deep," he said.
A call to the Preserve Marriage Washington office early Friday morning was not answered.
Silk said that despite the recent big-name donors, 80 percent of his organization's 8,000 donations have been for less than $200.
"This is a grassroots movement," he said. "This is an issue of fundamental fairness."
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Details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_8
In 1963, Albert Herlong, Jr., a Floridian who served in Congress from 1949 to 1969, entered the top 45 Communist goals into the Congressional Record (Vol. 109, 88th Congress, 1st Session, Appendix Pages A1 - A2842, Jan. 9 - May 7, 1963).
Below are some of those 1963 Communist Goals...
Capture one or both of the political parties in the US.
Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions, by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for Socialism, and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers associations. Put the party line in text books.
Infiltrate the press. Get control of book review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.
Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all form of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings," and substitute shapeless, awkward, and meaningless forms.
Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography, and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV.
Present Homosexuality, degeneracy, and promiscuity as "normal, natural, and healthy."
Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the grounds that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
Discredit the American founding fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.