Does Bubba feel the pain of gays and lesbians and immigrant workers or is he just in it for the cash? A group of San Diego gay rights activists and labor leaders are urging the Former-President Bill Clinton to honor an ongoing boycott at the city’s Mancester Grand Hyatt. The hotel’s owner, Doug Manchester, contributed $125,000 in “seed money” to get Prop. 8 on the ballot and is also in the middle of a labor dispute with the AFL-CIO, California Labor Federation and the San Diego Labor Council. Clinton is scheduled to deliver a paid speech at the venue on Sunday.
NAMES Project founder Cleve Jones, Courage Campaign head Rick Jacobs and Fred Karger of Californians against Hate are just some of the progressive gay rights leaders urging Clinton to consider that “neither labor nor the gay community can tolerate a hotel whose profits are used to take away equal rights from gay couples and create poor working conditions for women and immigrants.”
The California Nurses Association recently honored the boycott of the Manchester Hyatt and groups that have canceled business from the hotel include: International Fund of Employee Benefits, Legal Writing Institute, Society of American Law Teacher, California Nurses Association and San Diego Association of Realtors.
Should Clinton decide to speak, he will almost undoubtedly have to cross a picket line to do so. As an AFL-CIO sanctioned boycott and strike, picketers regularly march outside the San Diego building.
Yesterday, Manchester defended his contribution to the San Diego Union Tribune, which reported:
“Manchester said his hotels and restaurants welcome gays and lesbians as employees and as customers. “I don’t want to offend anybody,” he said.
But Manchester said he decided to donate because he has heard that schools that teach that marriage is between a man and a woman could be sued for discriminating against gays and lesbians.
“When they say that we cannot say that a marriage is between a man and a woman, that’s where I draw the line,” Manchester said.”
Sebbe
Come on Hillz, whatever little influence she has with Bill, convince him to cancel his appearance. That would get more coverage (nationally/internationally) than all those little boycotts (which nobody follows that isn’t in California).
BradK
“Does Bubba feel the pain of gays and lesbians and immigrant workers or is he just in it for the cash?”
This is a rhetorical question…right?
Jaroslaw
So Doug Manchester is sincerely concerned that a school that taught marriage is only between a man and woman would be sued.
How about putting a proposition on the ballot that schools that don’t teach kids what they need to know to get a J-O-B get de-funded? Or pass kids who can’t read/write?
I didn’t know the schools were the primary source of information about marriage either. And too damn bad anyway. If he is for equal rights, he will marry the person of his choice, teach his children what he likes about religion etc. and respect his Gay employees’ choices of whom to marry.
Not difficult at all if you have a brain.
Francis
If he were going to cancel he would have by now! He should be reminded that most of the gay community in California voted for Hillary in the primary. If he shows up to speak I will want a divorce from the Clinton fan club!
Richard Cortijo
Don’t do it Bill!!!! If he does we must all gatehr in protest at that hotel…with larger numbers than last time!
Chris
Manchester defends his donation by repeating the same lies as the Yes on 8 campaign. Let’s be clear: NO school would be required to teach anything about marriage if Prop 8 were overturned, and NO private school would be prevented from teaching any form of religious doctrine about marriage.
Dwayne
The Clintons and the entire Democractic collective, including Obama, strike me as duplicitous. They are with us when they need our votes, but they are with the homophobes when they want money. Sleazy people.
Wang
Speaking of Bill Clinton:
It is opined that Bill Clinton committed racist hate crimes, and I am not free to say anything further about it.
Respectfully Submitted by Andrew Y. Wang, J.D. Candidate
B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993
(I can type 90 words per minute, and there are probably thousands of copies on the Internet indicating the content of this post.)
_________________
“If only it were possible to ban invention that bottled up memories so they never got stale and faded.” Off the top of my head—it came from my Lower Merion High School yearbook.