Following the money can lead to mighty interesting funders and grantees.
Over the weekend, Washington Blade reporter Chris Johnson wrote about New York Times journalist Jo Becker's appearance in DC to promote her new book about the Prop 8 gay marriage lawsuit "Forcing the Spring". It's stirred up a few hornets' nests of controversy from many LGBT writers and advocates about her very narrow focus on Chad Griffin, David Boies and Ted Olson, and various omissions and distortions about the long fight for gay marriages in America.
Chris reported on an interesting fact that I believe was first uncovered by blogger John Becker, no relation to Jo Becker, for the Bilerico web site which said:
[I]t was revealed [on April 25] that she received a $150,000 grant last year from the Ford Foundation "to research and write a book on the marriage equality movement in the United States."
Curious about that grant, I used the Ford Foundation's search engine to see who else received money from them for LGBT advocacy and research in recent years, and discovered that from 2011 to 2013 they gave Even Wolfson's nonprofit Freedom to Marry grants of $500,000, $175,000 and $1,250,00 for a total of $1,925,000.
So Wolfson received more money from the foundation than Becker and I sure would love to be the fly on the wall if they are ever brought together at the foundation to discuss her book and his advocacy.
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