The San Diego County pension board and the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) last week cancelled plans to host conferences at the Manchester Grand Hyatt, while a popular local radio station hosted a thank-you party for listeners at the hotel.

A coalition of labor leaders and same-sex marriage supporters last month launched a boycott of the Manchester Grand Hyatt, which is owned by Douglas Manchester, who donated $125,000 to qualify Proposition 8, a November ballot initiative that would ban same-sex marriage in California.

In an e-mail exchange forwarded to the Gay & Lesbian Times, the Manchester Financial Group’s chief financial officer, Paul Wilkins, expressed his concerns regarding the boycott to Manchester.

The San Diego County Employees Retirement Association (SDCERA) voted unanimously last week to move its October investment retreat to the San Diego Convention Center.

Dave Myers, an openly gay sheriff’s lieutenant elected to the SDCERA board, asked the board on Aug. 7 to consider moving the conference, because of UNITE HERE Local 30’s boycott of the Downtown property, and Manchester’s contribution to Proposition 8.

The labor union and the nonprofit organization Californians Against Hate claim Manchester’s donation to Proposition 8 discriminates against same-sex couples. The union is also targeting what it calls discrimination against women and employees at the hotel.

Meanwhile, some proponents of same-sex marriage blasted the radio station Star 94.1 and the morning program, the Jeff and Jer Showgram, for hosting its third annual listeners’ thank-you party at the hotel Friday.

“[Last week] the American Association of Law Schools which was planning a five-day, 4,000-person meeting at the [hotel] decided to move their event down the street due to the boycott,” said Dan Rottenstreich, a spokesperson for UNITE HERE Local 30. “If a 4,000-person conference can decide to move their event out of the hotel with short notice, we think that a radio station that is a part of the community, with many gay listeners, could have easily done the same.”

Bo Andras, a longtime listener and fan of the radio station’s morning show, e-mailed Clear Channel Communications, owners of 94.1, to express his disappointment and try to persuade the station to move its event.

“The Manchester Grand Hyatt is being boycotted and that boycott should be honored,” Andras said. “Star 94.1 is owned by Clear Channel, which has stations in a number of markets which are specifically targeted to the gay community. I’m having a hard time understanding how they can be OK making revenue from the gay community, but at the same time, turn around and then give money to someone who owns a hotel and donated a large amount of money to defeat equal rights for gay people.”

Andras contacted the station in July when the venue was announced, and did not receive a response for three weeks.

“A month would have been more then enough time and notice to move or cancel [the event],” he said. “Neither Star 94.1 or the Jeff and Jer Showgram has shown any sort of respect for gays and lesbians and their rights.”

In an Aug. 14 e-mail to Andras, Clear Channel Radio San Diego Vice President and General Manager Bob Bolinger wrote, “Jeff & Jer’s [Thank You Party 3], has been booked at the Hyatt for many months due to ballroom availability and the hotel’s superior facilities and larger capacity. It would be impossible to move the event at this late date and quite honestly, there are few other hotels that would be able to accommodate the scope of this year’s party.”

Calls to Clear Channel were not returned.

In an e-mail to Doug Manchester sent to the Gay & Lesbian Times, Wilkins, Manchester’s CFO, told the hotel owner he believes “the boycott effort will cost millions of dollars of lost revenue.”

“You should not view this as just a ‘weekend boycott that was a flop’ … That would be very naïve,” Wilkins wrote. “This effort will build over the weeks and months (certainly until November) as the word gets spread among the various media outlets around the country …”

Wilkins continued on, suggesting possible courses of action Manchester could take to curb the impact of the boycott and end it entirely. Among them, Wilkins suggested repairing relationships with the gay community, asking for a return of the $125,000 donation to the Proposition 8 campaign, and making an equal donation to the No on 8 campaign – which Wilkins called “by far the most effective strategy in getting the boycott called off.”