The charity Invisible Children, whose
video KONY 2012 has been viewed more than 76 million times since
its March 5 YouTube premiere, has been linked to backers of
Proposition 8, California's gay marriage ban.
The film's ambition, according to its
creators, is to make Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony famous “to raise
support for his arrest and set a precedent for international
justice.” (The 30-minute film is embedded in the right panel of
this page. Visit our
video library for more videos.)
The charity has been criticized for its
financial dealings with the National Christian Foundation and two
prominent opponents of gay marriage.
In 2006, Invisible
Children gave “special thanks” to the Caster Family
Foundation in its annual report. The next year, the group thanked
Terry and Barbara Caster.
Gay marriage activist and presidential
hopeful Fred Karger in 2008 launched a call-in campaign against A-1
Self Storage, which is owned by San Diego businessman Terry Caster.
“Mr. Caster and many of his eight
sons and daughters and their spouses have given a combined total of
$293,000 to the Protect Marriage campaign between January and July of
2008,” Karger said at the time.
The National Christian Foundation,
which has supported a number of anti-gay rights groups, reportedly
gave Invisible Children $350,000 in 2007 and $414,000 in 2008.
U.S. Christian conservatives have been
accused of attempting to influence Uganda lawmakers to approve an
anti-gay bill which would increase the penalties for gay sex,
including putting repeat offenders to death under certain
circumstances and criminalizing discussions of homosexuality.