Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his wife MacKenzie have donated an astonishing $2.5 million to support same-sex marriage in a referendum campaign in Washington State. The donation was prompted by a heartfelt email from former Amazon employee and lesbian mother Jennifer Cast. Here’s an excerpt from her email:
“I want to have the right to marry the love of my life and to let my children and grandchildren know their family is honoured 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.”
She was pretty shocked when she received this reply:
“Jen,” the e-mail said, “this is right for so many reasons. We’re in for $2.5-million. Jeff & MacKenzie.”
Let’s hope that their generosity is enough to counteract all the conservative money flowing into the other side and that the Washington marriage referendum will be the first of its kind to end in favor of same-sex marriage after 32 so far going the other way.
Great story. People who want to be on the right side of history are starting to step up.