Politics Geffen is a donor to Democratic Party candidates and organizations, and was an early financial supporter of President Bill Clinton. In 2001, he had a quarrel with the former president over Clinton's decision not to pardon Leonard Peltier, on whose behalf he had lobbied the President. Geffen was an early supporter of Barack Obama for president and raised $1.3 million for Obama in a Beverly Hills fundraiser. Along with other celebrities including Steven Spielberg and Brad Pitt, Geffen donated money to oppose Proposition 8 in the November 2008 election. Proposition 8 would have amended California's Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. California's voters passed Proposition 8 by a margin of 52.24% to 47.76%. Decisions in federal courts ultimately invalidated California's prohibition of same-sex marriage. See 2008 California Proposition 8 § Legal challenges. Geffen, among other wealthy Democrats, donated to the Lincoln Project, a Republican-led super PAC that opposed the re-election of Donald Trump and the Republican Senators who supported Trump in the 2020 election. Awards and honors Geffen was named one of the 2010 recipients of Ahmet Ertegun Award from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Geffen was awarded with the President's Merit Award for "indelible contributions to the music industry" from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences at the 53rd Grammy Awards in February 2011. Personal life Geffen has an estimated net worth of $10.8 billion, making him one of the richest people in the entertainment industry. Though not only closeted but defensive about his true sexuality and the speculation that resulted, Geffen eventually came out as gay in 1992. In May 2007, Out magazine ranked Geffen first in its list of the fifty "Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America". Joni Mitchell and Geffen were close friends and, in the early 1970s, made a trip to Paris with Robbie Robertson and Robertson's wife, Dominique. As a result of that trip, Mitchell wrote "Free Man in Paris" about Geffen. Geffen can be heard on Barbra Streisand's The Broadway Album, released in 1985. The track "Putting It Together" features Geffen, Sydney Pollack, and Ken Sylk portraying the voices of record company executives talking to Streisand. Geffen is the subject of several books, most recently The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood (2001) by Tom King, who initially had Geffen's cooperation, but later did not. An earlier biography was The Rise and Rise