San Diego Hotelier Facing Gay Boycott Talks

Southern California LGBT activists are mobilizing forces against San Diego's powerful hotel baron Doug Manchester for financially supporting an effort to constitutionally ban same-sex marriage in the state.

Manchester -- the owner of San Diego's glamorous Manchester Grand Hyatt and Grand Del Mar hotels as well as the Whitetail Club and Resort in McCall, Idaho -- donated $125,000 to help get Proposition 8, a measure that could amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage, on the ballot. Now Manchester is facing a gay boycott of his hotels and a protest in front of the Grand Hyatt on Friday.

"I'm sick and tired of this," said Fred Karger of Californians Against Hate, the group organizing the boycott and protest. "These people are motivated out of fear and hate."

The local labor movement is supporting the boycott and protest, and Manchester feels he's being singled out because the Grand Hyatt is not unionized. "It's really interesting the Mormon Church is supporting this amendment and Bill Marriott is one of the largest contributors to the Mormon Church and you don't see the San Diego Marriott being picketed on Friday," Manchester said. "I think there's a double standard here, and I think it's because they're singling out our hotel to drive a wedge for purposes of unionization. It's my opinion that the unions have bankrupted the auto industry and the airline industry. Frankly, I feel now they're trying to bankrupt the hotel industry."

Manchester went on to say, "I appreciate our gay and lesbian workers whose contributions have helped us achieve our success."

Manchester is a devout Catholic, who says his contribution was solicited by the church. "Basically, this is a free speech-First Amendment issue," he said. "While respecting partnership choices, my contribution was based on my longtime affiliation with the Catholic Church. I'm sorry my donation has caused a difficult situation." Manchester added that he didn't regret donating the money.

Manchester has previously stated he welcomes LGBT guests to his hotels, to which Karger said, "[Gay] money can't be turned around and used against us." Manchester responded by saying, "We welcome and support all gays and lesbians for their support of our restaurants and hotels as we have since we opened. But 64% of Californians voted for an initiative [2000's Proposition 22, which banned same-sex marriage by statute but did not amend the constitution] that was overturned by a couple of judges. Civil unions and partnerships, I don't have any problem with. The problem is, I was advised by our church that if a [teacher] in a school were to state their opinion that marriage should be between a man and a woman, they would lose their funding. That's discrimination the other way."

Manchester cited an alleged instance in the Bay Area in which a teacher was punished for saying marriage should be a union between a man and a woman, but that incident couldn't be confirmed. "If there was a guarantee that someone could exercise their own beliefs without being penalized," Manchester said, "then I wouldn't have any objection to [same-sex marriage]."

Friday's protest -- called the March on Manchester, A Demonstration and Rally Against Hate -- will take place outside the Grand Hyatt and is expected to draw many LGBT people and supporters from the San Diego area. Karger and his group are leading the charge in getting the word out, telling all same-sex marriage supporters to turn their back on Manchester and his hotels. Manchester said he'll be playing in a golf tournament out of the city.

Californians Against Hate has already convinced a Bay Area business not to bring its convention to the Manchester Grand Hyatt, Karger said, noting that a Pride event sponsored by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and planned for the Hyatt this weekend -- to coincide with San Diego Pride -- has already been canceled. GLAAD spokesman Damon Romine confirmed the organization canceled its "Pride Rocks" party in April, as soon as it became aware of Manchester's contributions.

"I'm sorry they feel that way," Manchester said in regard to the cancellations.

Manchester isn't the only Southern California businessman to donate to Proposition 8. Karger said most of the money for the ballot initiative has come from Orange and San Diego counties and pointed out that both financier Howard Ahmanson Jr. and developer Terry Caster have donated $400,000 and $283,000, respectively, to ban same-sex marriage in California.

"We're going to be publicizing every mayor donor," Karger said.

Click here for more information on the boycott and protest. (The Advocate)

Reader Comments

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Name: Paul
Date posted: 2008-07-18 6:51 PM
Hometown: San Diego

Comment:

The Hyatt in San Diego had nothing to do with the donation made by Doug Manchester. Aren't any of you aware of this, or are you just listening to the Union speakers? The GLBT community is letting the local San Diego union brain wash them. It's sad the local GLBT leaders aren't standing up for their local Hyatt, which have been allies to them, including sponsoring them in last years pride parade. Get the story straight people... Hyatt is a good hotel chain, the best out there for GLBT travel support. I suppport all of the workers at the Hyatt... I'm sure it hasn't been easy for them knowing that many of the workers there are gay and lesbian... and to find out the local GLBT leaders are throwing them under the bus. Shame on the local leaders.

Name: David
Date posted: 2008-07-17 2:05 PM
Hometown: McKinzie

Comment:

To Manchester that says a teacher's funding will be pulled if he states marriage should be between a man and a woman. Indeed it should! It should be pulled if he stated it should be between anyone. Those are his personal beliefs and have no business in the professional world he works in. He's there to teach fact. That's all. Not to inject his personal beliefs on others. And I think your Church would agree if he were Muslim or Hindu telling people how to worship God or gods! If they're public schools, students need to be subject to all sides of an equation while letting them make up their own minds independent of what the teacher thinks!

Name: Chris Sullivan
Date posted: 2008-07-17 12:48 PM
Hometown: Chicago, IL

Comment:

Like most "good Catholics" - he is a major hypocrite. He wants to put hi smoney where his beliefs are? Find - he has the rite to do that and we have the rite NOT to put our money where we don't want to. Now that the California Supreme Court has allowed the initiative to go to voters in November, essentially putting our civil liberties up to a "popular vote" (what other group of people would tolerate this?). Once again, the hateful catholic church and other ignorant and bigoted religious groups wills top at nothing to impose their "world view" on everyone, regardless if they agree or not. I certainly hope this initiative fails, but I am not hopeful. People say a lot of shit on polls, but their real prejudics come out in the privacy of the voting booth - again, an act of hypocrisy. Oh, and Mr. Schwarzenegger, who claims he will work to make sure this does not pass - exactly what the hell have you done to make sure it doesn't?

Name: Melanie
Date posted: 2008-07-17 11:35 AM
Hometown: Niwot, Colorado

Comment:

Manchester trots out the tired 'activist judge' argument, with equally tired 'our votes don't count.' No, votes do NOT count when they used to discriminate. You cannot vote out a citizen's basic rights as guaranteed by our Bill of Rights. This principle is set forth in the Equal Protection Clause in Amendment 14 of the US Constitution. That amendment ensured that states could not vote to reenslave blacks, and it was was invoked in Romer v. Evans (1996) that repudiated Colorado's evil Amendment 2 (1992) which had barred gays from petitioning for equal rights; and in Lawrence v. Texas (2003), overturning Bowers v. Hardwicke (1986). LvT finally put an end to voter-approved state sodomy laws, paving the way for today's gay marriage efforts.

Name: Claude
Date posted: 2008-07-17 8:54 AM
Hometown: New Orleans

Comment:

Good luck on the boycott. What is most telling about this story is Manchester's comment that "The problem is, I was advised by our church that if a [teacher] in a school were to state their opinion that marriage should be between a man and a woman, they would lose their funding. That's discrimination the other way." The opponents of same-sex marriage are spreading all kinds of lies in order to frighten people. I don't know why it suprises me when religious people lie so blatantly, but it does. I remember a Bishop in Colorado telling his flock that they had to vote in favor of a ban on gay marriage in Colorado because otherwise the government would require the Church to marry same-sex couples. The only reason they get away with this is because the Press lets them.

Name: Rich
Date posted: 2008-07-17 4:23 AM
Hometown: San Diego, CA

Comment:

I believe calling for a boycott will do more harm than good. While Manchester's actions of ‘welcoming’ money from our community and using it to fund this initiative are disgusting, I don't think it is wise (in terms of defeating the initiative) to go to this level. He has the right to spend his money as he wants and to voice his opinion, and we have the right to not spend money at his venues - leave it at that. Get the word out that he is a major contributor to this initiative (as the media has done) and then use your energy to help get funding to offset his. Simply reporting on his actions will disgust most of the people we are trying to reach. Boycotts are too frequently called for and most people (especially those who are not directly impacted by the political issue at hand) get tired of hearing about them quickly and tend to see them as an extremist reaction. This is akin to churches calling for a boycott of a movie, which frequently leads to increased ticket sales.

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