Ex-Mormon Bruce
Bastian has donated $1 million to California's No on
Prop. 8 campaign in reaction to the Latter-day Saints
Church's recent public stance favoring the
ballot measure. Bastian gave $5,000 in May, but after
the church's formal statement expecting all
California Mormons to "do all [they] can to
support the proposed constitutional amendment,"
which would define marriage as a union between a man
and a woman, Bastian upped his donation, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
"The LDS Church
has no business stepping their big nose in something
that's a legal matter, not a religious matter," Bastian told
the Tribune. "Constitutions are meant to
protect minorities -- not to take rights away from
people."
Bastian, who
attended Brigham Young University and went on to cocreate
WordPerfect software, grew up in a conservative Mormon
family in Twin Falls, Idaho. He has been at odds with
the church's view on homosexuality since coming out as
a gay man, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Utah Mormons have
donated $120,550 to support Prop. 8, according to
public finance records on ProtectMarriage.com.
Donations in excess of $1,000 are recorded and
catalogued by Mormons for Proposition 8. Thirty-five
percent of donors to ProtectMarriage.com are LDS,
contributing close to $5 million collectively.
"Many, if
not most, Mormons have responded to the church
leaders' request for assistance on this matter
by actively campaigning in support of Prop. 8,"
the group says on its website. (Kandice Day, The
Advocate)
