Our sister site, The Colorado Independent, has broken a story of some interest to those following the money trail of the California anti-gay marriage amendment battle this past Nov.While many of us have focused on the impact of the Mormon Church on passage of the amendment, Ernest Luning has uncovered the impact of Focus on the Family.  

Altogether, donations supporting Proposition 8 from Focus on the Family, one of its major benefactors and an offshoot lobbying organization totaled more than $1.251 million — just shy of the $1.275 million contributed by ProtectMarriage.com’s largest donor, the Knights of Columbus, the Connecticut-based political arm of the Catholic Church. In addition to $727,250 reported by Focus on the Family, major backer and board member Elsa Prince, the billionaire heiress of Holland, Mich., donated $450,000 to ProtectMarriage.com in two cash chunks and the Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council, a Christian-right lobbying organization spun off from Focus on the Family and founded in part by Prince’s foundation, chipped in $74,400.

More troubling is that while the folks at Focus were throwing money to stop homosexuals from marrying, they were also plotting to lay off 20 percent of their workforce. So let me get this right: protecting families includes destroying the recognition of some marriages, while at the same time throwing some of your employees into the unemployment line? Sounds like family values to me.