Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyNovember 13th, 2008
Bill Marriott is making sure that he isn’t tied to the Mormon Church’s efforts to remove fundamental rights from gay Californians. (SL Trib)
While acknowledging that he is a Mormon, Bill Marriott said this week that neither he nor his company, Marriott International, contributed to the campaign to pass Proposition 8, a California ballot measure that would define marriage as solely between a man and a woman.
In the highly competitive travel industry, it is not wise to alienate travelers. And Marriott was responding to calls from some activist to boycott his hotel chain.
For the past 20 years, Marriott International has had domestic-partner benefits and has earned a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index for two years in a row, Marriott said in a release. Many of the hotels have hosted gay-community functions and events for years.
“The Bible that I love teaches me about honesty, integrity and unconditional love for all people,” Marriott said. “But beyond that, I am very careful about separating my personal faith and beliefs from how we run our business.”
It’s a pity more Mormons didn’t read the part about honesty and integrity in their Bibles, especially those who were in high levels of the Yes on 8 Campaign.
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elaygee
November 13th, 2008
The Marriot chain has been so Gay friendly over the last many years that I would hate to see any bad publicity for them. Bill Marriott seems to know how to balance his work with his personal beliefs, unlike the christofacists from Utah.
Stefano A
November 13th, 2008
I have to admit, I never did understand why there was a call to boycott the entire Marriott franchise rather than the holdings of a specific franchise owner.
Doug Manchester was who donated the $125,000 to Yes on 8. The franchise owner of the Manchester Grand Hyatt and the San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina.
johnson
November 13th, 2008
It would be really bad to boycott Marriott as they are inclusive and gay friendly. They run a great hotel chain, and have always treated my partner and I with the utmost of courtesy and respect.
cowboy
November 13th, 2008
The Marriott Corporation is not the evil empire.
Trust me. Our efforts to change the will and the mind of the LDS Church and its sympathizers is by direct appeal to the MEMBERS of the LDS faith.
You do that by being exemplary citizens.
I know the Marriott Hotel has been a good host to the gay rodeo in San Diego. I have only praise for them when I stayed there. The whole hotel was filled with gay rodeo participants and gay staff they called in to help.
(And the Marriott at Dana Point…need I say more?)
Timothy Kincaid
November 13th, 2008
All I ask of Bill Marriott and his hotels is that they treat me with equality and not fund efforts to take away my rights.
Marriott Hotels gets a “thumbs up” from me.
Snappyback
November 14th, 2008
I’m not so mollified. We know, per the Hinckley document, that the LDS has been aiming for us for years. As a good Mormon, Bill Marriott presumably tithes. That means he HAS given to harm our families.
Is it OK to give to the Klan if they only use it for operational expenses, and not to directly harm blacks?
LDS = hate group. Don’t forget it.
Mark with a K
November 14th, 2008
Sorry, folks. If any money I would spend at Marriott (actually, did spend)goes to the LDS…and this gets tipped back to taking away our rights, I am NOT going for it.
Smart businessman–he figures he’d better be good to those fags so they can read his Mormon Bibles and maybe repent our evil ways!
I shall personally boycott the Marriott chain for-ever.
Anyone care to join?
Stefano A
November 14th, 2008
Sappyback and Mark using your lines of logic, there is hardly a business in existence that you would be able to support. Any business that is owned by or has anti-gay religious employees , those individuals tithe to their churches and those tithes are all derived from their work-derived income.
Even large businesses like PepsiCo who which are global employers would most likely have a number of such people in various levels in their employee. PepsiCo just made a grant in September of $500k to PFLAG. So, you going to boycott PepsiCo as well?
Stefano A
November 14th, 2008
Yeah, tithes may be leading indirectly but at least they’re not going out of their way to make our lives more difficult by contributions. And while Bill Marriott might have voted yes, his single vote was probably offset at least to some part by the votes of all the gay employees and allies that work for the Marriott franchise.
Stefano A
November 14th, 2008
While you’re at it, if you own shares you probably should consider selling those off as well so that you’re not deriving any prophets from some business that has a Mormon or Catholic employee (both religions have pretty stingent tithing requirements.)
Stefano A
November 14th, 2008
Errr… that would be profits not prophets. (LOL)
Mark with a K
November 14th, 2008
Truth be told, I have started to ask people–such as the proprietor of the place where I bring my dry cleaning, or the person who mows our lawn, how they voted on Prop 8.
So far all the answers have been on our side–and of course they could be lying, I’ll never know.
But if I knew that they voted Yes, indeed they would no longer get my business.
And for right now, I am focusing on Mormons. I realize there are other anti-gay persons and businesses to whom I give my money; it’s an imperfect world. But you know what? For me–maybe not for you–doing one thing to respond to bigotry beats my not doing anything.
North Dallas Thirty
November 14th, 2008
And for right now, I am focusing on Mormons. I realize there are other anti-gay persons and businesses to whom I give my money; it’s an imperfect world. But you know what? For me–maybe not for you–doing one thing to respond to bigotry beats my not doing anything.
And of course, doing so gives you what you think is a valid rationalization for what is rather flagrant antireligious bigotry.
But then again, targeting Jews, Catholics, or black people would get you into trouble with the PC police, so you’re making sure to choose your bigotry so that it’s more socially acceptable.
Timothy Kincaid
November 14th, 2008
Guys… in general I’ve found that it is not a productive use of time to try and debate with North Dallas Thirty. He doesn’t play by the same rules of engagement that we do.
Let him make his statements – as long as they don’t violate Comments Policy – and let them stand on their own. It will save you a lot of frustration and will avoid having this thread hijacked by pigtrails and pointless rhetoric.
Stefano A
November 14th, 2008
What I’m asking is this, you know the one owner of a Franchise went out of their way to reverse SSM.
Another or several other properties in the same Franchise did not.
The owner of the brand did not.
So why boycott the entire brand based on the reason of tithes alone?
And in the process of doing so “just because they’re Mormon” you alianate the Mormon’s who did support us and did not contribute but do still tithe.
Stefano A
November 14th, 2008
BTW: My last post was to Mark.
Mark with a K
November 14th, 2008
I don’t know you, Stefano, so it’s not important to me if you agree with me or not.
But my unsolicited advice is that you let our shared movement go forward by letting everyone have his/her own say and way of dealing with the situation. By attempting to project your philosophy onto me, or challenging mine, you ultimately undermine our common goal.
Signing off for the night!
Stefano A
November 14th, 2008
Mark:
Let me use a different analogy.
McDonald’s
A particular franchised McDonald’s in Kentucky allowed it’s employees to call customer’s “faggots”.
The supervisor on duty refused to refund the group’s purchase, claiming that only the restaurant’s general manager could authorize a refund.
The customers made several attempts in the following weeks to contact both the general manager of the particular McDonald’s franchise to no avail.
McDonald’s as a brand however, has anti-discrimination policies in place.
So, are you going to boycott all McDonald’s or just the one restaurant?
Stefano A
November 14th, 2008
Mark:
That’s fine. If you just wish to talk to yourself I won’t stop you.
However, the reason I engaged you in conversation was to try to understand your reasoning.
Which apparently, is simply to act out in anger without regard to consequences either to other gays and our allies because it will make you feel better.
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