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Amazon founder pledges $2.5 million to back gay marriage

Founder of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos, along with his wife, MacKenzie, are donating $2.5 million to help pass a same-sex marriage referendum in Washington. The donation make them one of the largest financial backers of same-sex rights in the country.

From The New York Times:

With the gift, the couple have doubled the money available to the proponents of Referendum 74, which would legalize same-sex marriage in the state by affirming a law that passed the Legislature this year. Courts or lawmakers have declared gay marriage legal in six other states, but backers of such measures have never succeeded at the ballot box.

Zack Silk, campaign manager for Washington United for Marriage, said about the donation, “To get this from a straight, married couple sends a powerful message that marriage is seen as a fundamental question of fairness.”

Fellow tech billionaires Bill Gates and Steven A. Ballmer have also donated money to the campaign, around $100,000 each.

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