The Proposition 8
fallout continues: A beleaguered manager of El Coyote,
a Los Angeles restaurant popular with gays and lesbians, has
quit after she came under fire for donating $100 to
support the proposition.
As of Saturday
evening, Marjorie Christoffersen was no longer employed at
El Coyote, Frontiers magazine reported Monday on its website. Bill
Schoeppner, a fellow manager at El Coyote, told
Frontiers that Christoffersen tendered her
resignation that night. Christoffersen, described on the El
Coyote website as the "matriarch" of the 77-year-old
restaurant, will also be resigning from
the restaurant's board of directors.
The trouble began
last month when local bloggers uncovered
Christoffersen's donation. Christoffersen is a Mormon. A
November 12 press conference intended to defuse
the anger of the restaurant's gay clientele
backfired when Christoffersen refused to apologize for the
donation and said she would not financially support
efforts to repeal Proposition 8, which banned same-sex
marriage in California. It's been reported that gay
and lesbian business at the Mexican eatery has dropped
precipitously since then.
"Everybody
is kind of used to her walking around the restaurant with a
water pitcher going from table to table to table,"
Schoeppner told Frontiers about Christofferson.
"I guess that part is no longer going to
exist." (Neal Broverman, Advocate.com)