Prop 8 Donor Doug Manchester’s Sacred Marriage Is Ending

Jim Burroway

August 13th, 2009

San Diego hotelier Doug Manchester, whose $125,000 donation to support California’s Prop 8 sparked a boycott against his Manchester Hyatt and San Diego Marriot hotels and Grand Del Mar and White Tail Club Resorts, is divorcing his wife of 43 years.

Manchester said he made his Prop 8 donation to “preserve marriage” because of “my Catholic faith and longtime affiliation with the Catholic Church” — the very same church that condemns divorce. His Catholic faith doesn’t restrain him from thumbing his nose at the Church in ending his own marriage, but it does serve as a convenient excuse for denying others the right to marry.  There’s a word for that, isn’t there?

Ben in Oakland

August 13th, 2009

What is the word?

Pig? Typical? Clueless? Judgmental? Heterosexual? Blind? Stupid? Bigot? Sanctimonious? Asshat?

Does Recto-Cranial-Inversion count as one word or three?

C’mon. give us a hint.

My schadenfruede gland is hyperactive and giving me a rush like you wouldn’t believe. I hope Mrs. M takes him for just about everything, and then donates it to marriage equality in his honor.

Wait. I feel bad. I should never take joy in other peoples pain, no matter how much this santimonious twit deserves to feel it like a sword with a rusty edge stuck where the sun don’t shine.

Oh, never mind. the xanax just kicked in. I’ll enjoy the schadenfruede.

L. Junius Brutus

August 13th, 2009

As a gay man, I apologize to Doug Manchester for destroying his marriage. I really didn’t mean to.

Ben in Oakland

August 13th, 2009

The fault, dear Brutus, lies in our stars.

Giggle.

Ben in Oakland

August 13th, 2009

Whoopsie.

The fault, dear Brutus, lies NOT in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.

So you see, it really isn’t our fault, according to no less an authority than Shakespeare himself.

It’s our boss’s fault,Old Scratch himself. And he’s laughing up a shitstorm in hell over this one.

elaygee

August 13th, 2009

Anyone who can enjoy a good case oif schadenfreude is OK in my book.

Alex

August 13th, 2009

Yet another shining example of how to honor “God’s sacred institution.”

Christopher Waldrop

August 13th, 2009

This reminds me of the previous post here about Sam Schulman’s ludicrous argument against same-sex marriage.

That would be the same Sam Schulman who’s been divorced at least twice and had some pretty snarky things to say about his wife in his very essay defending marriage.

Timothy Kincaid

August 13th, 2009

To be a tiny bit sympathetic:

According to court papers, the Manchesters separated in October and Elizabeth Manchester sued for dissolution of marriage in June, citing irreconcilable differences.

Doug Manchester responded last month to his wife’s lawsuit by filing court papers asking only for a legal separation.

I assume that “Papa Doug” knows that this makes him look like, well, that word.

When Manchester got into this he didn’t realize just what it was going to cost him: his reputation as a decent guy, a boycott, assigned the title of Hypocrite.

I think the lesson of Prop 8 was this: when your church tells you to give big so you can take away the rights of your neighbor, you’d better be sure that this is the cause you want to become a martyr for. Because we will NOT sit by and act like it’s “just another opinion which should be respected.”

Cole

August 13th, 2009

The sanctity of haterosexual-only marriage.

John

August 13th, 2009

“As a gay man, I apologize to Doug Manchester for destroying his marriage. I really didn’t mean to.”

And this is the best comment on this story that I’ve seen yet. Hilarious too!

Johnson

August 13th, 2009

Is is me, or have a lot of Prop 8 Supporters been visited by Bad Karma since last November?

Burr

August 13th, 2009

The bad karma is because God hates hypocrites. Jesus saved his most wrathful words for them.

paul j stein

August 14th, 2009

When the question of equal marriage rights comes up I just ask the room how many marriages have they have legally and sacredly agreed to and if they are on another marriage was it for the money and benefits provided by law?. The sacred holy union crap goes right out the window. Then the room gets a little quieter.

cowboy

August 14th, 2009

I do agree. L. J. Brutus’ contribution needs an award for best comment of the week. Perhaps BTB should highlight the best comments of the week in a box somewhere.

And mega kudos to Mr. Kincaid for his longitudinal analysis. Did he ace his Statistics classes in college or what?

Saucy

August 14th, 2009

Did you read the story? I’m afraid how I don’t see, with the given facts, how this illustrates Manchester’s own hypocrisy. It’s not clear from the story what precipitated the original separation, but *his wife* filed for divorce. What is he supposed to do: somehow force her not to do this? How?

What evidence do you have that Manchester desired and instigated the divorce?

Requesting a legal separation rather than a legal divorce actually seems to me like a sensible way to put the brakes on a divorce process.

(Now, you may argue he’s only doing so for purposes of $$$ in a settlement…but what’s your evidence for that too?)

You might think he’s a douchebag, but there’s not much here to argue that he’s “thumbing his nose” at the Catholic Church–unless you are privy to some secret information the original story isn’t.

Declan Murphy

August 14th, 2009

Actually, the Catholic Church does not condemn divorce. It’s re-marriage after divorce that is the issue for Catholic theology.

Jim Burroway

August 14th, 2009

Saucy, let me direct you back to the article itself, which gives the chronology of events:

On Oct. 9, 2008, Manchester ended 43 years, eight months and nine days of marriage to Elizabeth Manchester by moving out of their La Jolla abode. The couple spent the next several months trying to reach a quiet settlement on how best to distribute millions of dollars in cash and other assets. In July, those talks totally broke down, and Doug started playing financial hardball with Elizabeth, allegedly draining the couple’s shared accounts and stealing her mail. On Aug. 6, Elizabeth filed a petition for redress in family court. All of the information in this story comes from those petitions. CityBeat contacted attorneys for both parties, but neither returned calls by press time.

The court records say Doug pushed very hard for a speedy divorce agreement after he moved out, but Elizabeth would have none of it. [Emphasis mine.]

This isn’t exactly Doug playing the passive victim while his wife flees to a divorce lawyer to file for divorce. In fact, it appears that she was trying to prevent being railroaded into what she considered a financial disadvantage, and it was Doug who was pushing for the divorce.

Tim Hulsey

August 14th, 2009

A hypocrite, by definition, is doing something right. The trick is to figure out what it is.

I think the word we’re really looking for here is “cad.”

ravenbiker

August 17th, 2009

HYPOCRITE. I’m sure that’s the word.

I can see Mr. Rogers now, “Okay, kids. Can you say hyp-oh-krit?”

Manchester owes the GLBT community AND the Catholic Church a sincere and public apology! —that scum!

Chris McCoy

August 17th, 2009

Tim Hulsey said:

A hypocrite, by definition, is doing something right. The trick is to figure out what it is.

I think the word we’re really looking for here is “cad.”

I think you’re implying definition #2 for Cad:

1 : an omnibus conductor
2 : a man who acts with deliberate disregard for another’s feelings or rights

However, I think Merriam-Webster‘s agrees with Jim’s original diagnosis:

* Etymology: Middle English ypocrite, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin hypocrita, from Greek hypokritēs actor, hypocrite, from hypokrinesthai
* Date: 13th century

1 : a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion
2 : a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings

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