Game Changers – Courtesy of Matthew Staver/Bloomberg News
Right wing nutbags, fundies and other haters will have their collective panties in a bunch and be screaming BOYCOTT!!! at Amazon.com before the end of day (actually probably before I am done writing this post).
Why you ask?
Because the New York Times’ blog, The Caucus, is reporting that Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos have pledged $2.5 million dollars to the fight for marriage equality in Washington State. That’s right kids, that’s MILLION with an M. The Times reports that the Bezoes were approached by a former Amazon.com employee that started with the company back in the days before the internets, Jennifer Cast.
Here’s how it went down:
Mr. Bezos was approached via e-mail on Sunday by Jennifer Cast, one of Amazon’s earliest employees and a lesbian mother of four children who is now a fund-raising chairwoman of the pro-referendum effort.
In her e-mail, sent Sunday evening, Ms. Cast, 50, implored Mr. Bezos to understand the importance of the issue to her and her longtime partner.
“I want to have the right to marry the love of my life and to let my children and grandchildren know their family is honored like a ‘real’ family,” Ms. Cast wrote. “We need help from straight people. To be very frank, we need help from wealthy straight people who care about us and who want to help us win.”
In an interview on Thursday night, Ms. Cast said she had no idea how Mr. Bezos would respond. Though she had worked closely with him when Amazon had only a few dozen employees, she left the company in 2001 and said she had never talked about same-sex marriage with him.
“We were chatting about the biz. We weren’t chatting about our lives,” she said, recalling her time at the company. “I never, ever in my life talked to him about gay marriage.”
In the e-mail, Ms. Cast described in detail the pain she endured as a young adult and the difficulties she faced publicly acknowledging her sexuality. At the end, she pointedly asked him to donate between $100,000 and $200,000 to the referendum cause.
“Jeff, I suspect you support marriage equality,” she wrote. “I beg you not to sit on the sidelines and hope the vote goes our way. Help us make it so.”
She hit “send” and waited.
Two days later, on Tuesday, she received a reply while in a car with her family. Recalling that moment, she said she had to read it out loud twice to make sure she had read it right.
“Jen,” the e-mail said, “this is right for so many reasons. We’re in for $2.5 million. Jeff & MacKenzie.”
This is a game changer, not only is it the biggest single donation to marriage equality in this state it’s we believe it is the single biggest for any campaign in the country.
Said the campaing manager, Zach Silk, for Washington United for Marriage:
“To get this from a straight, married couple sends a powerful message that marriage is seen as a fundamental question of fairness,” Zach Silk, the campaign manager for Washington United for Marriage, said Thursday in an interview.
This donation has doubled the war chest for the good guys.
People, buy something from Amazon.com and buy it RIGHT NOW!!!
And we at Seattle Gay Scene thank you Mr. and Mrs. Bezos!!!!
Tags: jeff bezos, marriage equality
