The Cost of Bigotry

by Caleb Reading

Of all the money donated to pass Prop 8 in California, an estimated $20 million of that came from Mormons (more than half of the estimated $35.8 million total).

What could they have done instead? Well, with $20 million, you can do all of the following at the same time:

• Protect 120,000 children from diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, childhood tuberculosis, hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae type b, and Vitamin A deficiency ($30 per child through UNICEF)
• Provide 175,000 bednets to protect against malaria ($10 per net through Nothing But Nets)
• Provide free cleft surgery for 1,000 children ($250 average cost per surgery through Smile Train)
• Provide 80 MILLION packs of birth control in third world or developing nations, enough to prevent unwanted pregnancy in over 615,000 women for a full decade (about 15 cents per cycle through dktinternational.org)
• Buy around 20 years worth of Copaxone therapy for 12 people with multiple sclerosis ($10,000 per year per person, assuming the drug company gives no discount and no generic is ever made)

But, yeah, making sure a state Constitution ensconces gay people as second class citizens is waaaay more important than all that.

They may as well have bought 70 Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4’s and set them on fire to more eloquently symbolize exactly how little they care about the poor.

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