Prop. 8 foes, fans amass $60 million

Although many of the biggest donors on both sides would not discuss why they gave, those who did made clear how passionately they feel.

One large donor to the opposition is a former Mormon.

"They're a church and in their name they have the name Jesus Christ. Can you imagine Jesus Christ doing something like this?" Bruce Bastian said. "There is nothing in Jesus' teachings that justifies what the church is doing."

Bastian, 60, is gay and lives in Orem, Utah. A founder of WordPerfect Software, he is one of five wealthy individuals who have given $1 million or more to defeat Proposition 8.

"To me this is the civil rights movement of the 21st century," Bastian said. "How embarrassing is it now to look back at what we did to African Americans in the 19th century."

From his base in Tupelo, Miss., Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Assn., said his group gave $500,000 to the Yes-on-8 campaign for moral reasons.

"We believe in the Bible, and the Bible teaches that marriage is between one man and one woman," he said. "That is how the human race continues."

Wildmon said he fears that if the initiative doesn't pass, children will be taught about same-sex marriage in schools. And he worries that other things might follow.

"If you change the definition and have no moral standard, then honestly what is wrong with polygamy?" Wildmon asked. "On what basis do you deny three men getting married, or a man with five wives?"

Proposition 8's opponents dismiss these ideas as fear mongering and say proponents are trying to avoid the direct issue of whether gays should be allowed to marry.

Another major proponent is Elsa Prince, a contributor to Republican causes and candidates including McCain. Prince, of Holland, Mich., gave $450,000 to support Proposition 8. She's the mother of Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater Worldwide, the private firm that provides security in Iraq.

Mother and son sit on the board of a family foundation that donated $8 million in 2006-07 to Calvinist and other Christian groups involved in the Yes-on-8 effort, including $300,000 to Focus on the Family, on whose board she sits. Focus on the Family gave $450,000 to Proposition 8 and $1.35 million to the 22 same-sex marriage ban campaigns in 2004 and 2006.

"The homosexual activist movement, which has achieved virtually every goal and objective it set out to accomplish more than 50 years ago, is poised to administer a devastating and potentially fatal blow to the traditional family," Focus founder James Dobson wrote in 2003.