The Cabinet

The majority of Iowans believe marriage is defined as the union of one man and one woman, according to a poll conducted by The Des Moines Register in February 2008. How did it come about, then, that Iowa’s Supreme Court mandated homosexual “marriage” for the state? [Jeff Eckhoff and Grant Schulte, “Unanimous ruling: Iowa marriage no longer limited to one man, one woman,” Des Moines Register, April 3, 2009]

Meet “the Cabinet.”

The Cabinet is a loose association of seven billionaires who fund the campaigns of homosexual-friendly politicians, assuring among other things that the 2008 New Mexico was “the most liberal legislature in its 96-year history.” [Jose Vasquez, “The 2009 Purchase of the New Mexico State Legislature,” New Mexico Watchman, 11-19-08]

Time Magazine dubbed the Cabinet the “Gay Mafia” for its infusion of $7.8 million – and that’s just the amount that can be traced. The actual figure is estimated at twice that sum – to assure a liberal outcome of key political races since 2004. Perhaps that’s modest next to George Soros’ Democracy Alliance, with its parallel progressive funding, but the Cabinet’s more focused purpose is going a long way toward reshaping the social landscape. [John Cloud and Beverly Hills, “The Gay Mafia That’s Redefining Liberal Politics, Time Magazine, Oct. 31, 2008]

In New Mexico, Cabinet money not only went directly into campaign coffers but also funded political action committees such Equality PAC and intense voter registration drives such as those conducted by ACORN. The national Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund – with money from the Cabinet – supported strategic seats. Constituents in the districts of conservative legislators, regardless of party, were flooded with negative recorded phone calls. [“The 2009 Purchase of the New Mexico State Legislature…”]

One “Cabinet” member, Tim Gill, has given over $81 million since 1994 to support state-based advocacy for the homosexual political agenda. His Colorado-based Gill Foundation is “the nation’s largest funder focused principally on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights.” According to a Foundation Annual Report, $40,000 went to fight Colorado’s Amendment 2 in 1992, an initiative to ban specifically homosexual anti-discrimination laws, which passed and was then overturned by the Supreme Court. Another $1 million of Foundation money went “to educate Coloradans about the effects of discrimination.” The Foundation also created the Gay & Lesbian Fund for Colorado as further source of funding – over $15 million – towards its causes. [Gill Foundation annual report, 2003-2004]

Other states have other stories…among them, Iowa. Danny Carroll, Republican speaker pro tempore of Iowa’s House of Representatives, was “among the dozens of targets of a group of rich gay philanthropists who quietly joined forces last year, under the leadership of a reclusive Colorado technology mogul [Tim Gill], to counter the tide of antigay politics in America that has generated, among other things, a succession of state ballot initiatives banning gay marriage. Carroll had sponsored such a bill in Iowa and guided it to passage in the state House of Representatives, the first step toward getting it on the ballot.” Carroll and fifty out of seventy other targeted candidates in four states were defeated by a flood of strategically-directed, out-of-state campaign contributions, shifting the control of at least one legislative chamber to the Democratic Party. [Joshua Green, “They Won’t Know What Hit Them,” The Atlantic, March 2007]

The Gill Foundation is very frank about its ambitions for the future: “Expect more coordination of foundation work with aggressive civic engagement, and of work with allies, forces for choice, the environment, labor and civil rights. Expect more work with such allies and think tank collaborations. Most of all, expect more grassroots action: Favorable legal rulings alone are not enough; they must be ratified at the ballot box — hearts and minds must be changed.” Money can buy a lot, evidently.

Stephanie Block is editor of the New Mexico-based Los Pequenos newspaper and is a founder of the Catholic Media Coalition.