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California and Beyond: The Battle Over Gay Marriage


By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER Michael A. Lindenberger – Tue Oct 21, 3:45 pm ET

Two weeks to go, and already the fight over the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in California is the costliest campaign about a social issue in U.S. history. Spending by both sides has topped $50 million, and the figure is growing. Most of those dollars have poured in since May, when the California Supreme Court turned what had been a slow-moving ballot initiative into a white-hot controversy by issuing the most sweeping declaration of fundamental gay rights to be found in U.S. law. Not only must gays be allowed to marry, the Republican-dominated court said, but it also flatly outlawed nearly any kind of discrimination against them.

The ruling struck down a 2000 statewide vote that had made gay marriage illegal (but not unconstitutional), and touched off a backlash among California conservatives. They put more than a million signatures together to force a Nov. 4 vote that, if successful, would undo the high court's ruling on gay marriage and stop what has been a stampede by gay and lesbian couples to Golden State courthouses.

California's fight over the initiative to ban gay marriage (popularly called Prop. 8) has attracted its share of million-dollar donors. The big contributors in the fight to approve Prop. 8 include the Knights of Columbus ($1 million); the National Organization for Marriage ($500,000); Dr. John Templeton, the son of the philanthropist Sir John Templeton ($450,000); and Focus on the Family ($500,000). Fighting against approval of Prop. 8 are celebrities like Steven Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw ($50,000 each), as well as former GOP U.S. Senate candidate Michael Huffington ($100,000); Robert Haas, chairman emeritus of Levi Straus ($200,000); and the California Teachers Union Issues PAC ($2 million). The media battle has been intense. Talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres (who had vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden on her show to oppose Prop. 8) has thrown $100,000 to buy TV time to fight the ban. Meanwhile, proponents of Prop. 8 - conservative groups and churches among them - have put up their own ads.

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