Posted by Wesley at Thursday, January 07, 2010 A major protest is planned to take place this Saturday at Doug Manchester’s Grand Hyatt in California as the American Historical Association holds it’s annual meeting there. To be discussed: Historical forums on same-sex marriage.

The following is a joint statement from Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, and Rick Jacobs, founder and chair of the Courage Campaign:

Mr. Manchester understands the power of money, having enthusiastically given $125,000 to get Prop. 8 on the ballot. His early seed money made it possible to strip same-sex couples of fundamental marriage rights. And now he has seen the bottom-line impact of our community’s boycott of his hotel.”

“The Courage Campaign and Equality California, together with our brothers and sisters at UNITE HERE and in the labor movement, demand that all fair-minded people join us as we continue to boycott the Manchester Hyatt. Until Mr. Manchester personally redresses the causes that created this boycott, including an apology for funding Prop. 8 as well as providing workers at his hotel just and fair working conditions, our organizations will enthusiastically support this boycott.”

Since the campaign was launched in 2008, Manchester has failed to meet with boycott organizers to negotiate a fair resolution and a public apology. Instead, he tried unsuccessfully to break the boycott against his properties by offering free conference rooms to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations if they would hold events at his hotels. Manchester also offered $25,000 to any national organization that supports “civil unions,” then to Equality California, which refused the offer, and now to any “registered 501 (c)3″ that will apply. The money is a tax write-off for Manchester and could never be used to fund a ballot initiative to repeal Prop. 8.

The boycott is supported by a diverse coalition, including Californians Against Hate, UNITE HERE International Union, the San Diego County Labor Council and others.

When learning that Manchester was offering complimentary meeting rooms, I laughed hysterically. Meeting room income is like pet rent at apartment communities… it’s extra income for the property.  It serves no purpose otherwise. Manchester, besides losing out on potential income from people willing to pay for the space, would be out zero dollars by offering it up for free. And on top of that, most full-service hotels offer meeting rooms for free to those willing to buy food through the hotel.

So my advice to the LGBT community in California is this: If you want to get back the $125,000 this bastard donated to Prop 8, call up the Hyatt and book every meeting room for the next two years… and then order some lame hot-tea service offered through the hotel.

UPDATE:

The Grand Hyatt has responded to the planned boycott with the following statement:

Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego would like to acknowledge the activities taking place this weekend both inside and outside our hotel property.

Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego welcomes the American Historical Association (AHA) to our hotel. The AHA has confirmed a block of more than 4,000 room nights. The AHA Executive Committee honored their contract with Hyatt and they decided not to bow to the pressure of outside groups to cancel their convention. The AHA is including numerous sessions on their schedule regarding same-sex marriage issues in a variety of contexts. These sessions have also been made available to the public.

There are a number of outside organizations that are intentionally targeting Manchester Grand Hyatt under the guise of the equality movement with a hidden Union agenda. This is both misleading to the public and to the activists that respect and follow the organizations and their leadership. Hyatt has a significant history of support for the LGBT community, spanning several years with multiple awards and recognitions, which is unparalleled in the hospitality business.

Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego will continue to welcome and celebrate guests and patrons of all backgrounds, faiths and orientations – as we also respect and support constructive exhibitions of free speech. Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego looks forward to welcoming our guests from the American Historical Association and appreciates their loyalty.

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