At a press conference
last Friday,
GLBT activists and
union leaders marked the one-year anniversary of the Manchester Hyatt
Boycott, launched last year in response to
hotel owner Doug Manchester’s $125,000 contribution to qualify Proposition 8 for the ballot.
“For over a year we have urged San Diegans,
Californians and Americans to
boycott the Manchester Hyatt because of Manchester’s contribution to Proposition 8 and onerous
workloads for the hotel’s
housekeepers,” said
Cleve Jones, a national
gay leader and former aid to slain
San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk. “The hotel’s own
people have admitted to losing over $7 million in business due to the
boycott. This
boycott has truly shown the power of our reenergized community and the alliance between the
gay community and labor.”
Proposition 8 eliminated the right of same-
sex couples to marry in California.
Boycott organizers also committed to continue the
boycott and expand its scope.
“One of our
goals for the next year will be to take the
boycott to the next level – global,” said
Fred Karger, founder of
Californians Against Hate. “We will ask
travel planners and tour operators throughout the world not to
book meetings and room nights at the Manchester properties. We will put up a virtual bright
yellow caution tape around Manchester’s
hotels, and ask
people not to cross it.”
The
boycott has drawn increasing
media attention and picked up
steam since it began. Early on, several
groups announced that they would move or cancel
events at the hotel. Recently, the American Association of Justice, a trial
lawyers group moved its entire convention out of the Manchester Hyatt to
San Francisco to honor the
boycott. At a recent
gay and
lesbian travel exposition, a hotel
spokesperson confirmed that the
boycott has cost the hotel more than $7 million.
At the
July 17 press conference,
organizers unveiled more than just a
new approach. They came with a new logo and visual aid – bright
yellow caution tape reading “Do not cross. Do not support
bigotry and
discrimination.”
Organizers say the caution tape is intended as a reminder for individuals throughout the country not to patronize the hotel.
“We want to send a very
simple message to all those planning to travel to
San Diego that the Manchester Hyatt
Boycott is on and stronger than ever,” said
Human Relations Commissioner, Nicole Murray-Ramirez. “The
unions, hotel workers and
gay community started this fight together and we intend to finish it together.”
See Gay activists and union leaders commit to year two of Hyatt Boycott
Gay and Lesbian Times
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Yellow Caution Tape
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BRENTWOOD, Tenn. - A hotel manager who said the owner made him fire an employee for being gay has now been fired himself.
A number of other former employees said they were let go by the owner, Tarun Surti, because they were gay, while others said they were fired because they were women.
Channel 4 News first reported last week that employee David Hill’s said he was fired from the Arte’ Hotel in Brentwood because he was gay.
After the story aired, more people came forward with employment discrimination complaints and said they’ve filed complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
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The battle against Tarun Surti, owner of the ARTE’ Hotel in Brentwood, Tennessee, is intensifying. More workers have come forward with discrimination complaints in the wake of two recent firings of openly gay staff members. At least two have retained legal counsel.
On January 8, WSMV-TV reported that David Hill, the hotel’s former director of human resources, had been terminated and “dared” to sue. His supervisor, assistant general manager Leonard Stoddard, told him that Surti ordered the firing specifically because he didn’t want gays in leadership roles at his establishment. Surti’s cultural background was a homophobic one, Stoddard explained to WSMV.
Mr. Hill has since filed complaints with the EEOC and Department of Labor, but has little hope, given that both Surti and his hotel are bankrupt. On finding out that Stoddard talked to the press, he too was let go via e-mail.
The firings continue at a Tennessee hotel after its assistant general manager spoke out against its owner for dismissing a man for being gay.
David Hill, former director of human resources for ARTE’ Hotel in Brentwood, said that he was “dared” to sue after being told the decision by owner Tarun Surti to terminate his employment on January 8 was specifically on the basis of his sexual orientation; assistant general manager Leonard Stoddard confirmed it to the press.
“The owner, Mr. Surti, comes from a culture that is not very tolerant to the gay lifestyle,” Stoddard, who was ordered to dismiss Hill, told WSMV-TV, “and therefore he felt it necessary to have him removed from the workforce at the property.”
Stoddard, also openly gay, has since been given his walking papers, Out & About reported. “I am here in the office and shocked to hear what you had said to the media,” Surti e-mailed Stoddard. “If it is true that you told media that David was fired because he is gay, you obviously told them a lie. Such behavior is subject to immediate termination and I would like you to restrain (sic) from coming to the hotel.”
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