Friday March 2, 2007 SGN.org |
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Volume 35 Issue 09 |
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Friday, Sep 05, 2008
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Sonics owners linked to extremist anti-Gay group |
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| Sonics owners linked to extremist anti-Gay group | |
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Two leading members of a financial group seeking a $300 million tax subsidy for a new basketball arena for the Seattle Sonics have been linked to a rightwing group trying to ban same-sex marriage in several states. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Tom Ward and Aubrey McClendon donated more than $1.1 million to Americans United to Preserve Marriage, an organization run by failed GOP presidential hopeful Gary Bauer, the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family. Word of the links began surfacing in blogs late last week. McClendon gave $625,000 in 2004. Ward gave $475,000 in 2004 and 2005, according to records at PoliticalMoneyLine which tracks political spending. Ward is the chief executive officer of an oil and natural gas production company while McClendon is chief executive of a natural gas production company. Both companies have headquarters in Oklahoma City. The ownership team also controls the WNBA's Seattle Storm. The revelations come less than a month after the NBA was embarrassed by a scathing attack on Gays by former NBA player Tim Hardaway. You know, I hate Gay people, so I let it be known. I don't like Gay people and I don't like to be around Gay people,' he said in an interview. "I'm homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States.' Hardaway later said he was sorry for making the remarks but the league barred him from All-Star game festivities in Las Vegas. The NBA also issued a statement saying it supported inclusion. That anti-Gay millionaire businessmen are seeking $300 million in tax subsidies is unlikely to sit well with some Washington Democrats in the legislature. But State Senate Ways and Means Chair Margarita Prentice (D) tells the Post-Intelligencer that the team's owners' political activities are irrelevant. "I think this is probably the first time that I've known that we are demanding ideological purity when someone comes to invest in our state," Prentice told the paper. Courtesy of 365Gay.com |
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