By Thursday, Christoffersen had left town, said Archila, who said El Coyote employees -- some of whom are gay -- were left staggered by the protests, including more than 50 calls a day criticizing the restaurant.
"We are all a family," Archila said. "If this is going to affect the business, its going to affect them. There are people who have to feed children and pay mortgages."
Some activists are now turning their attention to Texas-based Cinemark, one of America's largest theater chains, whose chief executive contributed nearly $10,000 to Yes on 8.
A prolonged protest could cause trouble for the Sundance Film Festival, which uses Cinemark screens to show movies during the January event in Park City, Utah. The state of Utah is a focus of some boycotts because the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has its headquarters there, marshaled millions of dollars in contributions from its members for the Yes on 8 campaign.
Brooks Addicott, a spokeswoman for the Sundance Institute, said the festival received about 100 e-mails over the last few week, many of which had the same text, but it appeared that the efforts had peaked.
"Our position is that we have a festival that is essentially three months away," Addicott said. "We are committed to having our 25th festival; it's a celebration for us. We would be incredibly disappointed if people decided not to come because of a boycott."
Officials at Cinemark did not return calls for comment.
Gay marriage activists had been targeting some Yes on 8 donors well before the Nov. 4 election. In July, Karger started the website Californians Against Hate, which lists a "dishonor roll" detailing more than 800 donations of $5,000 or more to the Yes on 8 campaign. He said the site was getting 300 to 350 hits a day before the election. Now, it's receiving an average of 7,500 hits daily.
One business affected by the campaign is Lassen's, a family-owned chain of nine health food stores throughout California, from Bakersfield to Thousand Oaks. Lassen's owners gave $27,500 to the Yes on 8 campaign.
Scott Parvel, general manager of the Ventura store, said the contribution was a "private donation" by family members who are Mormon.
But No on 8 supporters listed their stores along with many others on websites, urging a boycott.
