Okay, so it's no big surprise that Mormons donated a ginormous amount to support California's Proposition 8, which unconstitutionally and retroactively ended gay marriage in California by taking away the right of homosexuals to marry (even though the Mormon church claims to have only donated $189,000 in in-kind donations to the cause).
Also, I realize that not everyone in Utah is Mormon. And there are many, many, many Mormons who live outside of Utah. But we'll come to that.
The point is this - after searching sfgate.com's database of Prop 8 donors for any person, group or company in Utah, I reached the following total:
$2,596,164 donated from Utah
Why does Utah give so much of a rat's ass about a proposition in another state? It couldn't have anything to do with the Mormon Church's dominance in Utah, could it?
Just for fun let's add in the $189,000 the Mormon Church claims was all they gave. That jacks the total up to 2.78 MILLION DOLLARS. All from Utah
Fair enough, one million came from one man, Alan Ashton. Why would he donate so much? Maybe it has something to do with his late grandfather David McKay, a former President of the Church of Latter Day Saints.
Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based Jesus cult, has allied with the Mormon Church (and, they claim, Buddhists, Hindus etc) in a UN lobbying group called World Congress of Families. In that case you could argue for adding FOF's $657,000 in pro-Prop 8 donations to the total, giving us $3.44 MILLION, but that pretty much gives the finger to attempts to single out Utah. Or Mormons.
I have nothing against Mormons. Or Utah. But I have a huge problem with people from all over the nation chiming in on how we here in California can live. It's not their business. If they don't like the way California does things, they don't have to live in California. But they have no right to try and influence our political system (or infringe upon our human rights).
Utah gave more to support Proposition 8 than any state but California, outpacing Texas and Colorado with ease, claiming the majority of out-of-state support. Thanks, Utah. Thanks, Mormons. We let you have all the wives you want and you can't give the gays even one partner?