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When Prop 8 passed last November in California - thereby codifying into their constitution an institutional bigotry towards gays and lesbians - no expected what would follow:

For the backers of Proposition 8, the state ballot measure to stop single-sex couples from marrying in California, victory has been soured by the ugly specter of intimidation. Some donors to groups supporting the measure have received death threats and envelopes containing a powdery white substance, and their businesses have been boycotted.

The targets of this harassment blame a controversial and provocative Web site, eightmaps.com, whose purpose simply states:

Proposition 8 changed the California state constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage. These are the people who donated in order to pass it.

When you go to the site, you see the name of each donor, the amount, and the company that person works for - all culled from information readily available on the net:

The site takes the names and ZIP codes of people who donated to the ballot measure -- information that California collects and makes public under state campaign finance disclosure laws -- and overlays the data on a Google map.

Visitors can see markers indicating a contributor's name, approximate location, amount donated and, if the donor listed it, employer. That is often enough information for interested parties to find the rest — like an e-mail or home address. The identity of the site's creators, meanwhile, is unknown; they have maintained their anonymity.

Creepy? Fascinating? ...welcome to the new world of Democracy on the World Wide Web:

"When I see those maps, it does leave me with a bit of a sick feeling in my stomach," said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, which has advocated for open democracy. "This is not really the intention of voter disclosure laws. But that's the thing about technology. You don't really know where it is going to take you."

No, we really don't know where this is taking us...and that's a little disconcerting.

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