Benefactor's group to fight effort to ban gay marriage

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Benefactor's group to fight effort to ban gay marriage

By Eric Gorski, Denver Post, December 6, 2005

Denver philanthropist Tim Gill has formed a political nonprofit group to get more involved in candidate races and fight constitutional amendments barring gay marriage, including one anticipated on the Colorado ballot next fall.

The Gill Action Fund, established in August, will be national in scope and bankrolled entirely by the high-tech millionaire, said Rodger McFarlane, executive director of the Gill Foundation.

The foundation board of directors is meeting this week to discuss the budget, which McFarlane said could range from $3 million to $30 million.

Gill, who is gay, founded software-maker Quark Inc. in 1981 and pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars after selling his stake in 2000. He poured roughly $200 million into the Gill Foundation, begun in 1994 to support gay and lesbian causes.

In recent years, he has become more active politically, supporting Democratic Party causes. The birth of Gill Action also comes on the heels of November 2004's passage of amendments barring gay marriage in all 11 states that voted on them.

"When you feel attacked, you're going to fight back," John Straayer, a political scientist at Colorado State University, said when asked to assess Gill's new venture. "I think that's what you're starting to see."

McFarlane said Gill Action is neither a reaction to election setbacks in 2004 nor timed to coincide with the 2006 election.

"This is the evolution of Tim Gill," McFarlane said. "This doesn't reflect anything more than his increasing influence and his own sense of responsibility as a citizen - and a very privileged citizen."

The Gill Action Fund will oppose planned initiatives next fall to constitutionally bar gay marriage in Colorado, California and other states. The group also will seek to steer wealthy donors nationwide toward supporting candidates at the state and local level, McFarlane said.

One of Gill Action's first events, a Political OutGiving Conference next March in Miami, promises strategies for electing "our friends" and "punishing the wicked," a phrase Gill coined for anti-gay politicians.

Michael Brewer of the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Community Center of Colorado called Gill Action a step toward leveling the political playing field.

"It's taken some time for progressive people to organize and mount a coordinated challenge to the radical right," Brewer said. "But it is happening, and this development is a sign that politics as usual in Colorado are changing."

Gill spent hundreds of thousands of dollars helping Democrats win control of the statehouse in 2004. This fall, he opened his pocketbook to back budget measures Referendums C and D and a victorious slate of Colorado Springs school board candidates.

He is part of a powerful political trio, pooling money with fellow tech millionaire Jared Polis and billionaire heiress Pat Stryker.

Gill Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) social welfare group, a tax-exempt designation that allows unlimited lobbying and some involvement in candidate races - something the tax code does not allow private foundations such as the Gill Foundation to do.

But that political activity comes at a cost: Donations are not tax-deductible.

"We needed the administrative ability to strategically coordinate philanthropic work and civic work," McFarlane said. "We also have to do that scrupulously, ethically and legally. The (c)(4) is one of the tools."

It's a strategy being adopted across the political spectrum. Focus on the Family, the Colorado Springs-based evangelical Christian group, began a 501(c)(4) group in 2004 that quickly raised almost $9 million to support Republicans and lobby on abortion, gay marriage and the role of judges.

This year, Focus on the Family confirmed that it is organizing a coalition to gather enough signatures to put an anti-gay- marriage amendment on the Colorado ballot next fall.

The language of the proposal has not been settled. One possibility is simple wording restricting marriage to a man and a woman. Another is a more sweeping proposal that would prohibit civil unions.

Focus on the Family officials declined comment. Jim Chapman, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Family Council, which is working with Focus on the Family, offered thoughts on Gill entering the picture. "If it comes down to a marriage discussion in Colorado next year, I'm not sure having more money carries the day," he said. "I think the issue itself will carry the day. But having a large amount of money will make his entity very formidable."

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