On Papa Doug’s doorstep at the Clinton-Manchester Hyatt rally last January.
L-R: Carlos Marquez, Cleve Jones and Rick Jacobs (photo: mine)
Admit it. You were just sitting there wondering: What in the world, at this very special time of the year, can I get Papa Doug Manchester that conveys the true spirit and traditional meaning of GLBT Pride and Stonewall 2.0? Well, think no more, friends and neighbors. How about another full year of Manchester Hotel Boycott?
This just in from Fred Karger and Californian’s Against Hate:
LGBT Groups and Labor to Announce Plans
for Year II of Manchester Hotel Boycott
Friday Press Conference SetSAN DIEGO, CA — Several prominent LGBT leaders and the President of UNITE HERE Local 30 will come together to announce their plans for the second year of their highly successful boycott of San Diego developer, Doug Manchester’s hotels. The press conference will be held tomorrow Friday, July 17th at 12:00 noon in front of Manchester’s Grand Hyatt Hotel, One Market Place, San Diego (next to Seaport Village) 92101.
It was exactly one year ago that this coalition came together on the Friday of San Diego’s Gay Pride weekend to launch it’s boycott of Manchester’s hotels because of his $125,000 contribution to support Proposition 8. It was one of the earliest and largest single contributions to that campaign that took away marriage equality from millions of Californians when it narrowly passed last November.
Scheduled to attend Friday’s News Conference will be Cleve Jones, the highly regarded national gay leader, Union official, Grand Marshall of San Diego Gay Pride and former aid to slain San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk; Brigette Browning, President of UNITE HERE Local 30, City Commissioner Nicole Murray-Ramirez, Fred Karger, Founder of Californians Against Hate and Rick Jacobs, Founder and Chair of the Courage Campaign.
Fred Karger, who called for the boycott one year ago said, ” Doug Manchester has every right to contribute as much money as he would like, even if it’s to take away the rights of a minority. We then have every right not to spend our hard earned money at his hotels, to make sure that it will not be used against us.”
“Doug Manchester has certainly not gotten a good return on his $125,000 investment. His own people are reporting that the Manchester Grand Hyatt alone has lost at least $7 million as a result of the boycott. His flagship hotel is now a pariah. Well over a dozen major conventions have canceled their meetings at his hotels, plus many more groups and individuals have fled the hotel representing over 100,000 lost room nights.”
“The Manchester Boycott has been major news in San Diego, California and throughout the United States for the past 12 months. Its success is better than we could have ever imagined. One of our goals for the next year will be to take the boycott to the next level — a Global Doug Manchester Boycott. We will ask travel planners and tour operators throughout the world not to book meetings and room nights at the Manchester properties. We will put up a virtual bright yellow caution tape around Manchester’s hotels, and ask people not to cross it. In other words, please do not support bigotry and discrimination,” concluded Karger.
(emphasis: mine)
