About the Manchester Hyatt boycott

San Diego hotel owner Doug Manchester gave $125,000 to anti-gay campaigners in January of last year—an early infusion of cash that paid for the signature-gathering to get Proposition 8 on the ballot.

In response, Californians Against Hate teamed up with the hotel workers’ union Unite Here to lead a boycott of the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel and the Grand del Mar Resort. The boycott has cost Doug Manchester $7 million at the Hyatt property alone, and shown that there are consequences for those who attack our community.

Doug Manchester’s response

For more than a year, Manchester has refused to meet with those leading the boycott, and he has never apologized. Instead he hired gay public relations consultant Howard Bragman to go on the offensive.

His latest strategy is to try and break the boycott by offering free conference rooms to LGBT organizations if they’ll break ranks and hold events at his hotels. He’s also offered to give $25,000 to a national LGBT organization that is a registered 501(c)3 and supports “civil unions” rather than full marriage equality. Giving to a 501(c)3 would be a tax write-off for Manchester and ensure the money could never be used to fund a ballot initiative to repeal Prop 8.

While trying to make nice on the cheap with LGBT organizations, he has refused to improve conditions for hotel workers—an effort to drive a wedge between the marriage equality movement and the labor movement.

LGBT community rejects Manchester’s cynical offer

Dozens of LGBT leaders and organizations have pledged not to let Doug Manchester’s scheme offer divide our community. The Courage Campaign and Equality California have joined San Diego’s LGBT organizations in vowing not to take Manchester’s money or patronize his properties until he makes a public apology and negotiates an honest, fair resolution with boycott organizers.

Join the boycott today to show Doug Manchester and other Prop 8 donors that our community is united against those who fund bigotry.