Ex-Mormon gives $1 million to support same-sex marriage

Ex-Mormon Bruce Bastian has donated $1 million to support California's fight against proposition 8, which seeks to ban same-sex marriage in the state.

Bastian gave $5,000 in May, but after the Latter-day Saints Church issued a formal statement expecting all California Mormons to “do all [they] can to support the proposed constitutional amendment,” which would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, Bastian upped his donation significantly. "The LDS Church has no business stepping their big nose in something that's a legal matter, not a religious matter," Bastian stated. "Constitutions are meant to protect minorities -- not to take rights away from people."

Bastian, who attended Brigham Young University and went on to cocreate WordPerfect software, grew up in a conservative Mormon family in Twin Falls, Idaho. He has been at odds with the church's view on homosexuality since coming out as a gay man, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Utah Mormons have donated $120,550 to support Prop. 8, according to public finance records. Thirty-five percent of donors to ProtectMarriage.com are LDS, contributing close to $5 million collectively. “Many, if not most, Mormons have responded to the church leaders’ request for assistance on this matter by actively campaigning in support of Prop. 8,” the group says on its website.