On Nov. 25, the Board of Film Independent, the not for profit organization that produces both the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Spirit Awards, announced the resignation of Los Angeles Film Festival Director Richard Raddon after it was revealed that he had given $1500 to the Yes-On-8 campaign. Raddon has become the latest casualty of a post-election Proposition 8 Hollywood war of retribution.

Gay activists have been protesting the passage of Proposition 8 – the California Constitutional amendment that yanked back the right of gays and lesbians to marry in the state – since Election Day.

And that new “no more Mr. Nice Gay” mentality appears to be taking root in Hollywood, where many believe that there is no room for anti-gay bigotry in an industry that promotes itself as a proponent of diversity and employs a large number of openly gay and lesbian people.

Raddon's first attempt to resign was met with an unanimous rejection by the board, but the controversy would not die down. Resentment simmered as people inside and outside of Hollywood pointed to the group's explicit mission to promote diversity.

“Is it OK to let this go?” distributor Howard Cohen, an advisor to the film festival who is gay, told the Los Angeles Times after the board rejected Raddon's first resignation attempt. “There are a lot of gay people who work at Film Independent. The issue has not been closed.”

Director Gregg Araki, long considered a favorite among gay cult film fans for such gems as Mysterious Skin, agreed Raddon should walk away.

“I don't think he should be forcibly removed,” he said. “The bottom line is if he contributed money to a hateful campaign against black people, or against Jewish people, or any other minority group, there would be much less excusing him. The terrible irony is that he runs a film festival that is intended to promote tolerance and equality.”

Also out is Scott Eckern, director of the not for profit California Musical Theatre in Sacramento, who donated $1,000 to Yes-On-8. Eckern resigned in early November after gay activists and Hollywood insiders protested his anti-gay marriage donation. Gay bloggers keen on exposing donors to the gay marriage ban, chided Eckern for his apparent hypocrisy.

On the gay activism website goodasyou.org, Jeremy Hooper noted: “California Music Theatre, billed as Nothern CA's 'premiere producer and presenter of musical theatre', is currently putting on The Color Purple, a show all about discrimination. ... Make your musical theatre choices wisely, CA gays!”

A mealy-mouthed apology that came a few days later, did little to satisfy anyone.

“I honestly had no idea that this would be the reaction,” Eckern said in a statement. “I chose to act upon my beliefs that the traditional definition of marriage should be preserved. I support each individual to have rights and access and I understood that in California domestic partnerships come with the same rights that come with marriage.”

Bloggers have also called for a boycott of the Sundance Film Festival because it is held in the Mormon stronghold of Utah. Gay activists blame the Mormon Church for tipping approval of Proposition 8, and single out Mormon members who nearly single-handedly bankrolled the opposition to gay marriage.

“The direct involvement of the Mormon Church – moving donors in a very short window to give early – was stunning,” Patrick Guerriero, campaign manager of No-On-8, told Rolling Stone.

But the notion of a boycott against a highly pro-gay institution because it operates in the heart of Mormon territory has gained little traction.

“If there is one festival that has supported queer cinema from the start, it's Sundance,” Marcus Hu, president of Strand Releasing, the largest gay-themed film distributor in the United States, told the Los Angeles Times. “Sundance has been, first and foremost, people who have been discovering and fostering young gay talent.”

What motivated Eckers and Raddon to donate money to a measure they surely knew would hurt many of their colleagues and friends we may be left only to speculate; neither is talking.

“As many know, I consider myself a devout and faithful Mormon. I prefer to keep the details around my contribution through my church a private matter,” Raddon said in a statement announcing his departure. “But I am profoundly sorry for the negative attention that my actions have drawn to Film Independent and for the hurt and pain that is being experienced in the GLBT [gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender] community.”