Tempers in the LGBT community have been flaring since Friday after reports emerged alleging that Facebook made a $10,000 donation to Sean Reyes, Utah Republican Attorney General, despite his vocal opposition to same-sex marriage, reports Newsweek.

The donation, reportedly the second largest during Reyes' campaign, gained public attention after QSaltLake assistant editor Bob Henline investigated Reyes' campaign donations because he developed a strong "distaste" for the politician.

“I’m an activist within the community, and Sean Reyes has drawn my distaste for his comments about the LGBT community," Henline said. "So I wanted to see who was funding his campaign, and when I looked through the disclosures, I discovered that Facebook was his second-largest contributor. Being a Facebook user, I have always assumed that it was pro-equality and pro-diversity, so it shocked me.”

Bob Henline has since launched a Change.org petition imploring Facebook to make “an equal or greater contribution” to the campaign of Reyes’s opponent, Charles Stormont, known for openly supporting LGBT equality.

Facebook has not remained silent. On Thursday last week, a spokesperson for the social network defended the donation in an email to The Huffington Post that stated the following:

Facebook has a strong record on LGBT issues and that will not change, but we make decisions about which candidates to support based on the entire portfolio of issues important to our business, not just one. A contribution to a candidate does not mean that we agree with every policy or position that candidate takes. We made this donation for the same reason we’ve donated to Attorneys General on the opposite side of this issue - because they are committed to fostering innovation and an open internet.

As Newsweek reports, Facebook is certainly no stranger to aligning themselves with supposedly "controversial" candidates. In 2011, 40% of Facebook's self-created PAC went to candidates opposed to same-sex marriage.

LGBT groups have not taken the news well. A spokesperson for Stonewall, a UK charity that campaigns for LGBT rights, said: “Millions of gay people dream about changing their Facebook status to ‘married’. Facebook has been vocal in its support for marriage equality in the past and we hope it continues to use its powerful voice to campaign for change. We hope they also recognize that a fundamental part of securing that change will be having elected officials who support equality for gay people.”