AZ: Knights Of Columbus Donate $100K To Support Proposition 102

The Knights of Columbus, a charity arm of the Catholic Church, has donated $100,000 to support Arizona's gay marriage ban.

The New Haven, Conn.-based Catholic group donated the money to Yesformarriage.com, a campaign committee that backs Proposition 102, which would add a ban on gay marriages to the Arizona Constitution. Current state law prohibits same-sex marriage but that provision is not in the constitution.

YesforMarriage has raised close to $7 million in favor of Prop. 102 with backing from conservative Christian and Mormon advocates, as well as some business leaders. Crisis Pregnancy Centers of Greater Phoenix, which offers alternative services to abortion, donated $100,000.

Some of the money has gone into television ads and English and Spanish billboards around the Phoenix area. Kyrsten Sinema, chairwoman of Arizona Together, which opposes Prop. 102, said the “yes” campaign is well funded with most of its donations coming from Mormon contributors. Still, she is optimistic voters will defeat the measure. Arizona Together has raised $600,000, she said.

So much for the KoC's motto of "Charity, Unity, Fraternity."

Donate to No On 102 here.

Help Gay Arizona Fight Hate

Via Box Turtle Bulletin:

Remember the state that became the first in the nation to defeat a so-called “marriage amendment” in 2006? Arizona desperately needs your help today in 2008:

Supporters of a measure that would change Arizona’s constitution to ban gay marriage have raised $6.9 million, 17 times more than opponents have raised, according to figures released Thursday.

Arizona became the first state in the nation to defeat the so-called marriage amendment in 2006. Today, our opponents are furious that they lost, and they are pouring millions of dollars into the state to upset the will of the voters. They threatened and coerced the legislature to put this on the ballot because they didn’t want to spend the money to mount a petition campaign. In other words, there has not been a single Arizona voter who signed on to have this put on the ballot. The legislatures actions amounted to a several hundred thousand dollar gift to put this on the ballot for free.

On the positive side, I firmly believe that Arizona is about to lose its distinction of being the only state to turn back one of these amendments — because this year California and Florida will have their own victories to add to the tally. And that will be reason for a huge celebration next month.

However, if things don’t change soon, then Arizona will lose something else: our historic 2006 victory. And if that happens, then the victories in Florida and California won’t be secure. If Arizona loses in 2008 what we won in 2006, our opponents will learn a very important lesson. If they don’t like the answer they got this year, all they have to do is come back again in a couple of years, spend millions of more dollars, and wear us down until they finally get what they want.

Go to Box Turtle Bulletin for their excellent ongoing coverage of the marriage battle in Arizona. And go here or click the above graphic to donate to No On Proposition 102. As Box Turtle notes, a donation of a mere $102 will pay for two drive time radio commercials.