You think they'll boycott electricity?

The Los Angeles Times reports that PG&E has gotten into the Proposition 8 battle, and has contributed $250k (against Prop 8) in support of the right for gays to marry.

Giving a financial and public relations boost to gay marriage proponents, PG&E announced today that it is giving $250,000 to the No on Proposition 8 campaign.

The utility also said it will spearhead the formation of a business advisory council that will seek to get other businesses around California to to defeat the ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution to define marriage as only between a man and a woman. "We are thrilled to partner with PG&E," Geoff Kors, exeutive director of Equality California, said in a statement.

The donation from the utility, and the formation of the business council, represents a shift from the last time that the question of gay marriage was on the ballot, in 2000. Back then, many businesses stayed on the sidelines. This time, in addition to PG&E, other large corporations such as AT&T and Wells Fargo also have donated to defeat Proposition 8.

Analysts said businesses may be more willing to get involved this time because they have more gay and lesbian employees who are out and in positions of power and because they believe the amendment could hurt business if passed, by giving the impression that California is not friendly to gay and lesbians. [LATimes]

Also in recent news, Bruce Bastian, Utah founder of Word Perfect, contributed $1 million in support of same sex marriage. He had this to say:

"One thing I learned as a Mormon was that preaching costs money. The Mormons will raise a lot of money to support Proposition 8 in November. You can't change people's minds. They have to change them for themselves. If people are shown the truth and have fear taken out of the equation, I believe they will stand up for what's good and fair."

See the SFGate story for more.