Zakiya Khabir, of San Diego Alliance for Marriage Equality, and Manchester boycott supporters at San Diego’s recent anti-DOMA rally and march
(Photo: mine)
Courage Campaign’s online petition calling on former President Bill Clinton to relocate his speech to another venue has, in less than 24 hours, gathered 26,537 signatures. Clinton’s speech is slated for Doug Manchester’s Hyatt hotel in downtown San Diego tomorrow.
Should Mr Clinton deliver his speech at the Hyatt, he will have to cross a union-sanctioned picket line and face the wrath of GLBT demonstrators already angered by Manchester’s donation of $125k to bankroll California’s Proposition 8, which on Election Day 2008 eliminated the right of same-sex couples to enter into civil marriages.
In a press release just minutes ago, Courage Campaign Chair Rick Jacobs said, “The response to our petition has been overwhelming. All over the country, LGBT activists, union members and progressives clearly see the hypocrisy in President Clinton’s appearance at the Manchester Hyatt. President Clinton’s spokespeople said themselves that he would not have spoken at the Manchester Hyatt if he was invited by its owner, yet are going ahead with the speech. I think that’s wrong, and evidently so do more than twenty-five thousand other Americans. Does he really need the money that badly?”
The release continues:
The boycott of the Manchester Hyatt in San Diego was launched in July 2008 in response to hotel owner Doug Manchester’s $125,000 contribution in early seed money to the Proposition 8 campaign and onerous working conditions for housekeepers at the hotel. Proposition 8, which banned same sex marriages in California, was passed by California voters last November. The Manchester Hyatt Boycott is endorsed by the San Diego Labor Council, California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, Equality California, Courage Campaign, Equality Illinois and San Diego Pride.
After receiving no response to early entreaties to move his speech, supporters of the boycott released an open letter to President Clinton that can be viewed at www.moveclintonspeech.info and ran ads on the New York Daily News online. Boycott organizers informed the sponsor of Clinton’s speech, the International Franchise Association, a trade group with an affiliated political action committee that is a major donor to Republican candidates, of the boycott in August and again in December. Boycott organizers say that while the IFA was completely unresponsive, they had hoped the former President would honor their call to support marriage equality and economic justice for workers.
On Thursday, President Clinton’s spokespeople told the Associated Press that Clinton would not be honoring the boycott and would go forward with the paid speech.
Brigette Browning, President of UNITE HERE Local 30, the hotel workers’ union in San Diego, reports, “Instead of honoring the boycott, the President’s office sent me a letter cataloguing all the great things he has done for the gay community and labor movement. I think it speaks volumes that President Clinton will be inside the hotel speaking to a business group with a large federal PAC rather than out on the sidewalk with grassroots activists and immigrant workers. They shouldn’t have wasted the paper they printed that letter on. We are incredibly disappointed in our former President.”
Sleep with the Right People demonstrate at the Manchester Hyatt
(Photo: mine)
Consequently, here is updated information about the protest planned for tomorrow at the Manchester Hyatt:
A major protest rally is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Sunday February 15 at the Manchester Hyatt. Speakers will include Cleve Jones, Rick Jacobs, San Diego City Councilmember Todd Gloria, San Diego Pride Executive Director Ron deHarte, San Diego Alliance for Marriage Equality founder Sara Beth Brooks and Pride at Work co-Chair Carlos Marquez.
Attendance is expected to be high.
Here, courtesy of the Manchester Hyatt, is a map and directions.
Earlier posts on Clinton’s planned speech:
And don’t miss Cleve Jones’ op-ed piece called What Would Harvey Milk Say About President Clinton’s Speech at the Manchester Hyatt? at the Huffington Post.
Click for Printable Version
I am embarrassed to admit I worked for Clinton’s campaign as a California volunteer back in 1991 and voted for him in 1992 and again in 1996.
But this past primary I saw a very different man than who I saw back in 1991. I suppose I was duped — blinded by my personal desire to stop another Bush term and elect a democrat to the White House.
Bill Clinton has deep racist and homophobic leanings and his wife isn’t any better.