Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Donates $10,000 to Anti-LGBTI Republican Politician
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has reportedly donated $10,000 to a notorious anti-LGBTI politician.
Bezos and his wife Mackenzie donated a combined total of $10,800 to Republican Senator Cory Gardner. They individually donated $5,400 each, which is the maximum amount allowed for individual donors in Colorado.
The couple donated to Gardner’s 2020 reelection fund in September this year, according to CNBC.
Gardner from Colorado has a long history of anti-LGBTI voting. In 2006, he voted no to allowing same-sex couples to adopt and has long voted against same-sex couples right to marry.
Bezo wasn’t the only Amazon employee to donate to Gardner’s reelection campaign.
Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky, Amazon Worldwide Consumer CEO Jeffrey Wilkie and Senior Vice Presidents David Clark and Doug Herrington all donated $5,400. Other Amazon employees donated smaller amounts of money.
Bezos, his wife and Amazon have long supported LGBTI causes, so it’s unclear why they would donate to a politician with an anti-LGBTI history.
In 2012, Bezos donated $2.5 million to a same-sex marriage referendum in Washington state.
Last year, Human Rights Campaign gave Bezos its Equality Award for his ‘outstanding efforts of those who publicly stand up for the LGBTQ community, committing their time and energy to improve the lives of LGBTQ people’.
CNBC noted Gardner has co-sponsored a number of Amazon supported bills. The company also spent millions of dollars on Gardner’s DIGIT Act. The Act would create an Internet of Things working group in the Commerce Department.