“I am strongly considering becoming a candidate for President of the United States in 2012. I would run as an Independent Republican, and would likely be the only true outsider in the field.”
— Fred Karger, April 10, 2010, Southern Republican Leadership Conference, New OrleansUntil just a couple years ago, the name Fred Karger likely would not have registered to most people.A relative unknown in LGBT circles, Karger emerged onto the scene in July 2008 when he formed Californians Against Hate, an independent effort to expose the identities of significant financial contributors to the ‘Yes on 8’ campaign, which amended the state constitution to read, “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California,” overturning California’s nearly five-month window in which same-sex marriage was legal.Since that time Karger’s led boycott efforts against San Diego hotel magnate Doug Manchester (owner of the Manchester Grand Hyatt and The Grand Del Mar resort) and Terry Caster (owner of A-1 Self Storage) for donating $125,000 and $700,000, respectively, to strip marriage rights away from same-sex couples.He’s also taken on both the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) and the Mormon Church, calling for investigations in California and Maine for those groups not meeting state-mandated full-disclosure requirements in regard to their funding of anti-marriage equality campaigns