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san diego
Coalition renews Manchester boycott
Leaders say marriage fight far from over
Published Thursday, 27-Nov-2008 in issue 1092
A coalition of labor leaders and supporters of same-sex marriage renewed its boycott of Douglas Manchester’s properties Saturday at an evening rally that drew more than 100 people.
Sleep with the Right People – an alliance between UNITE HERE Local 30 hotel and restaurant workers’ labor union and leaders of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community – staged the demonstration outside the Manchester Grand Hyatt, reviving a months-old boycott that began when Manchester contributed $125,000 to qualify a same-sex marriage ban on the November ballot.
Voters approved Proposition 8 52 to 48 percent banning same-sex marriage in California. The California Supreme Court announced last week it will hear legal challenges to the constitutional amendment.
The coalition gathered Saturday to condemn what it called the Hyatt Corporation’s silence on the issue and Manchester’s donation, said Carlos Marquez, chair of Pride at Work, a member of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), which seeks to build support between the GLBT community and the labor movement.
Among the demonstrators were high school and university students involved with Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MECHA), UNITE HERE members, and members of the National Communication Association (NCA), who staged an “un-convention” at the nearby Embassy Suites – a response to the NCA’s refusal to relocate its annual conference from the Manchester-owned Hyatt.
“We are at a unique convergence of labor, of LGBT activists [and] academics – a historic movement in reaction to bigotry,” said Caroline Rankin, assistant professor of Communication Studies at the University of Kentucky.
“If anyone had any questions about being able to build a multicultural coalition … well [here is] their answer,” said Tony Cochran, boycott coordinator for Sleep with the Right People.
After his donation was made public, Manchester said he made the donation to qualify Proposition 8 because he believes marriage should be a union between a man and a woman. He also said he welcomes gays and lesbians to stay at his hotels.
“We cannot allow for people like Manchester … to divide and conquer,” said Dana Cloud, associate professor of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, who emphasized one of the rally’s themes – solidarity.
“[Manchester’s] goal is to divide and conquer and somehow make the case that unions and the LGBT community have different missions,” Marquez said. “But we all know that that’s simply not true … We all know that labor’s brand of equality is the same brand as the LGBT community’s brand.”
Speakers at the rally also pointed out the battle over Proposition 8 and marriage equality is not over. Change, they said, doesn’t always happen in polling places; it happens when politicians and the courts are forced to make change.
“It requires getting out in the street, conducting demonstrations of civil disobedience [and] being visible in our communities,” Marquez said.
UNITE HERE also helped launch the boycott to protest what it calls unfair labor practices at Manchester’s hotel.
Flyers circulated criticizing the NCA for hosting its conference at the Manchester Grand Hyatt.
“The NCA leadership is apparently not concerned that the association’s funds would go to enrich the profits of a man who contributes massive sums of money to discriminate against gay and lesbian rights, and a hotel which disrespects the rights of its workers to job security and a humane workload,” the flyer read.
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