LGBT rights donors shift tactics in Pa.

They've become some of Pennsylvania's biggest out-of-state political contributors: a small group of multimillionaires - most of them gay - who want every state to allow same-sex marriage and to pass laws protecting LGBT rights.

Since the mid-2000s, they have poured more than $1 million in campaign contributions into the commonwealth through Democratic organizations, buoying campaigns here for governor, attorney general, and seats in the General Assembly.

The biggest donors include Tim Gill, a Colorado software entrepreneur; David Bohnett, a California technology tycoon; and Jon Stryker, heir to a medical-device fortune who lives in Michigan.

But their contributions have been slowly shifting in the last few years, even before a federal judge legalized same-sex marriage statewide in May.

Between 2008 and 2010, more than $400,000 from Gill, Stryker, and Bohnett went to mostly Democratic candidates for the legislature, records show. But their efforts now trend toward building support among businesses and incumbent lawmakers, including Republicans, to pass laws that protect the LGBT community from discrimination.

In the last year, for instance, the annual budget of the Harrisburg nonprofit Equality Pennsylvania grew from $200,000 to $1 million, thanks in part to foundations Gill and Stryker started, said Levana Layendecker, spokeswoman for the nonprofit.

"We figured out a way to win marriage in the courts, and now it's time to move on to other issues," Layendecker said. "This is certainly a new strategy in Pennsylvania."

The money has helped fund Equality PA's growing staff to meet with businesses, religious leaders and lawmakers, including Gov. Corbett, to push legislation that would ban discrimination and add LGBT people to Pennsylvania's hate-crimes statute.

For years, Pennsylvania has bewildered some in the national LGBT community because on those issues, it more closely resembles North Carolina, which also lacks a ban on LGBT discrimination.

"Nationally, people have thought of Pennsylvania as a purple state and see it going blue and passing laws," said Mark Segal, publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News. "That money is being put here because it is believed Pennsylvania will turn blue more quickly."

But like the vast majority of states where same-sex marriage became legal this year, it was a federal judge - not Pennsylvania lawmakers - who ushered in the biggest change. And despite having a Democratic registration advantage of one million and allied candidates receiving hundreds of thousands each year from gay donors, Pennsylvania lawmakers have so far failed to pass any measures benefiting the LGBT community.

"It is absolutely shameful that you can be married in Pennsylvania at 10 a.m. and by 2 p.m. be fired, thrown out of your apartment, and then your hotel room," said Fred Sainz, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT advocacy group in Washington.

"I have every confidence that the movement will continue organizing and using its political capital in Pennsylvania until these basic nondiscrimination bills are passed," Sainz said.

Gill, Stryker, and Bohnett did not respond to requests for comment.

The national strategy of giving to campaigns to advance LGBT causes is relatively new, said Mel Heifetz, a gay Philadelphia real estate mogul who has given millions of dollars to President Obama's campaigns and others across the country.

Heifetz said he's friendly with Gill, who invented the computer software Quark Express. Heifetz said Gill and other major contributors support candidates, Democratic and Republican, who support same-sex marriage and gay rights, but plenty of other unrelated cause as well, such as the environment.

"Is it money from the gay community? Of course it is," Heifetz said. "But they support a lot of causes that don't have anything to do with the gay community, and I do, too."

The vast majority of money from donors such as Gill has flowed into the commonwealth through the Democratic Governors Association and the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which supports candidates running for seats in the General Assembly.

Under federal law, the donors can't tell the organizations how to use the money. But their donations have poured into Pennsylvania at crucial times for Democrats, records show.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars went to state races here between 2008 and 2010, when Democrats held a majority in the House, and there were active bills reflecting both ends of the debate - one to ban LGBT discrimination and another to ban same-sex marriage.

In 2012, tens of thousands of dollars from several prominent LGBT donors poured directly into the campaign of former U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, then running for attorney general. The Bucks County Democrat had led the repeal of the U.S. military's policy of "Don't ask, don't tell."

He lost in the Democratic primary, but the victor, Kathleen Kane, later received a $50,000 contribution from Bohnett. It was channeled through the Democratic Attorneys General Association, a Washington group that records suggest had not ventured into a Pennsylvania race in at least a decade.

A year later, Kane refused to defend the state's marriage ban when it was challenged in a federal lawsuit.

Political contributions from the LGBT community have continued to flow into Pennsylvania. The Democratic Governors Association, which supports Tom Wolf, received $200,000 from prominent gay donors in 2013 and 2014.

But perhaps the most significant force in the campaign for LGBT rights in Pennsylvania is societal - not monetary, said Denis Dison, a senior vice president with the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund in Washington, which supports openly gay candidates such as State Rep. Brian Sims (D., Phila.).

"Money is important," Dison said. "But more important is somebody coming out to their parents or their neighbor or at their workplace. We're now in a situation where LGBT people are literally everywhere. And that's really what's making the difference."