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Donor Gives $325K To Fight Minnesota's Proposed Marriage Amendment

August 7, 2012
St. Paul, MN


A Michigan philanthropist has donated $325,000 to a group opposing a proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage in Minnesota.

Jon Stryker of Kalamazoo, Mich., gave the money to Freedom to Marry Minnesota's political action committee on Tuesday, Aug. 7. according to state campaign finance records.

The contribution comes a day after the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign pledged to sink $1 million into four states where voters will consider gay marriage ballot measures. The group is donating $250,000 to Minnesota opponents of the gay marriage ban.

Freedom to Marry is a coalition partner of Minnesotans United for All Families, the main organization working to defeat the constitutional gay marriage prohibition.

Stryker is heir to a medical products company fortune.

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Who is Jon Stryker...?

He's is a billionaire heir to one of Michigan's great post-war fortunes.  His grandfather founded Stryker Corporation, a leading global medical-technology company.  Before his death in a plane crash, Jon's father led the company into an era of unprecedented growth and diversification that set it on the path to its current global position and success.

Jon himself is the founder of The Arcus Foundation, "a leading global foundation advancing pressing social justice and conservation issues. Specifically, Arcus works to advance LGBT equality, as well as to conserve and protect the great apes."

Jon, one of the wealthiest men in America is openly gay and the father of two children.

Read more about Jon here.

"Thank You Jon!"