Bill Gates Gives $500,000 for Washington State Marriage Equality

Brace yourselves for more spittle flecked boycott threats from hate groups like the American Family Association and Family Research Council and the Catholic Church front organization, NOM, in the wake of Bill Gates announcement that he and his wife are donating $500,000.00 to support the effort to secure approval of Referendum 74, the ballot measure that would put Washington State's legislatively-passed marriage equality law into effect.  Komonews has details on the donation and the latest polling results in Washington State..  Here are excerpts:

Bill and Melinda Gates have donated $500,000 to the campaign to uphold the state's gay marriage law.

The donation was announced Tuesday by Washington United for Marriage, which is working to approve Referendum 74. The donation was made on Oct. 15, but didn't publicly post online with the Public Disclosure Commission until Tuesday. Referendum 74 asks voters to either approve or reject the law allowing same-sex marriage that was passed by the Legislature earlier this year.  Bill Gates had made a $100,000 contribution to the campaign earlier this year.

A poll released last week showed that 56.3 percent of registered voters back gay marriage in the state, compared to 35.6 percent who oppose it, with 6.1 percent undecided.

Among likely voters, support decreased to 54.1 percent, with 38.4 percent saying they would vote against the measure, and 5.7 percent undecided.

The poll, conducted by the University of Washington, also included a third prediction, based on whether people answered honestly. Matt Barreto, director of the poll, said that because sometime people answering poll questions feel social pressure to answer a certain way, results can be skewed. In this poll, they weighted the poll based on how they answered two additional questions: if they lied on the survey and if any topics made them uncomfortable. That third prediction reduced those supporting the referendum down to 52.9 percent, and those opposing 46.6 percent.

As with so much else in this years elections, voter turnout will be critical and no one should sit back and think it is safe to stay and home and assume that the good guys will win.  The fear and hate motivated voters of the far right won't be sitting home and neither can those who believe in equality and religious freedom.