Thanks Autumn….having grown up with the U-T …I appreciate the balance of this article. I had always thought the possibly prior owner was a founding member of the John Birch Society.

It’s not about the money.At least for us…Just read this article off of Pageoneq link.
These are the “money” quotes to me.

Manchester, a devout Catholic, gave $125,000 to get Proposition 8 on the ballot last year. He wasn’t against gays and lesbians, he said, just the marrying part.
Gays and lesbians decided they weren’t against the Hyatt, considered a gay-friendly company, just the Manchester part.

 or:

“He’s not discriminatory. He’s supportive of this community. He realizes he offended people.”

Clueless.  He didn’t just offend, he enabled and supported a successful effort to RESCIND our equal rights.  ’Offend” doesn’t even really apply. or:

nd even though Manchester said he supports civil unions and has nothing against gays and lesbians,…

 A variation of “some of my best friends are gay” and then goes ahead and votes away their equal right.  Clueless twice over…
Keep the boycott going.  Nothing against the Hyatt part,  just the Manchester part.

Can’t Boycott WalmartThe problem with boycotting Walmart is I’d have to start shopping there in order to stop.  

But…what is the “a national organization that promotes civil unions and domestic partnerships”?  The Democratic Party?
I don’t really understand what he thinks this will accomplish, especially in California, where we already basically have civil unions and want his head for helping deny us marriage rights.  The guy’s not the brightest.

I’ve said it on other sites, but it’s worth repeating here.
What fool, outside of Equality California, wouldn’t be able to see through this sham of an offer.
After giving $125,000 DIRECTLY to the anti-marriage campaign he feels that it would be compensatory to give $25,000 to a group that fights to do EXACTLY what Prop 8 did (give gay people domestic partnerships/civil unions but not calling it marriage); and $100,000 of “free” stuff, like convention discounts, to gay organizations that would bring millions of dollars worth of profits from room rentals, bar tabs, etc. with their conventions?
This is just about the most insulting mea culpa I have ever seen.
The ONLY people who would benefit from this ridiculous “deal” would be Manchester and those pushing for “separate but (not really) equal” civil rights for gays.
You would have to be a fool not to see through this.  Like I said, Geoff Kors and Equality California will probably be doing a press release any minute now singing the praises of Manchester and his “generous” offer.

I was thiking the same thing…about ASDA (Wal-Mart’s UK subsidiary) since the nearest ASDA to me is in the next county (which is like saying “in the next state” for a Brit). However I’m sure a boycott could be arranged this side of the pond if you guys think it would be a good idea!

Money Talks.If Geoff Kors & EQCA do decide to switch teams and sing his praises, vote with your wallets. After all, if you’re boycotting Manchester, and they’re trying to show Manchester as a friend to gays, what’s to stop you boycotting them as well?

Don’t buy it –This is not only a fauxpology and fake support, it’s a divide-and-conquer attempt.  The Manchester Hyatt boycott is for LGBT and labor rights — Manchester thinks he can kill the boycott by making empty gestures in the direction of one set of demands while ignoring the other.
http://www.sleepwiththerightpe… has the whole deal.

What article are you reading?It’s Californian’s Against Hate who are San Diego based, which called for the boycott, not EQCA.
For a better understanding of this situation and responses to this news, link on over and read the comments following the article.  
And correct me if I’m wrong Zeke, but he was being facetious about “What fool, outside of EQCA…”  meaning he thinks the blokes at EQCA might qualify as fools.  

I think you misunderstood me.I did know that CAH are the ones that called and are running the boycott. However I wasn’t talking about CAH, I was talking about EQCA since that was who Zeke was talking about in his post.
Zeke raised the possibility that EQCA might start lauding Manchester as pro-gay due to his $125K “gift” – which is really just a bribe to try and end the boycott. However EQCA has ignored the grass-roots in the past, with catastrophic results. If EQCA don’t represent the opinions of Californian LGBTs it makes sense to give money to those organisations that do – Courage Campaign and CAH being two examples.

This is my favorite part:

Although Manchester’s people have downplayed the boycott’s effects, his chief financial officer warned him in a July e-mail that he could lose millions from it.
The executive even suggested – imagine this – that Manchester make an offsetting donation to the campaign against Proposition 8, anything to avoid alienating the “large and very affluent” gay and lesbian market.
Manchester responded: “I am now really angry, and I consider this a personal attack on myself and my family.”

And you, Doug, did NOT attack MY family?

Actually Karen in Kalifornia got it exactly right.
I was referring to the absolute disaster of a campaign run by the FOOLS of EQCA, lead by Kors.  He and others who ran that campaign did absolutely everything that Harvey Milk, (who actually won one of these referendums 30+ years ago), said NOT to do in order to win such a divisive, homophobic campaign.  Instead of following in the footsteps of the Master, EQCA put together a bunch of idiots to do “focus groups” and polling and then they bought their campaign strategy suggestions hook, line and sinker.  Hence, they were fools who bought a bum steer from other fools.
I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if they were to do a press release calling Manchester’s bogus offer a victory for proponents of marriage equality when in fact the man is only offering to fund people who DON’T work for marriage equality and give $100,000 in “perks” to gay conventions that will bring him millions from those convention attendees; not to mention the millions more he would get from gay people who might stop boycotting his hotels.
I hope CAH, Courage Campaign AND EQCA call Manchester out on his disgusting offer and tell him that if he REALLY wants to make amends he will need to give at least $200,000 to a pro marriage equality organization.  we deserve at least $75,000 in punitive damages for the distress he’s caused our community by helping to finance Prop 8.  And I would prefer that he donate that $200,000 to an organization other than the ones that screwed up the first time.

I suspect we may be splitting hairs.And that isn’t a productive thing to be doing!

I hope CAH, Courage Campaign AND EQCA call Manchester out on his disgusting offer and tell him that if he REALLY wants to make amends he will need to give at least $200,000 to a pro marriage equality organization.  we deserve at least $75,000 in punitive damages for the distress he’s caused our community by helping to finance Prop 8.  And I would prefer that he donate that $200,000 to an organization other than the ones that screwed up the first time.

Elsewhere (I think it as on BTB) I suggested that Manchester make a donation-match pledge to Courage Campaign. That could earn them a lot more than $200K if people know their donations will mean money from Manchester.

I’m not clear on this boycott.I understand why people are mad at this guy, but a boycott usually has some demand(s).  Can anyone tell me in a sentence or two what would satisfy the boycott organizers?

My equality is doesn’t have a pricetag. When Papa Doug is interested in sponsoring the 2010 CA initiative to overturn Prop 8, they’ll be some talking.

We want our equality back!Go to Californians Against Hate for more than just this boycott.  Below is sentence from the site.
http://www.boycottmanchesterho…

…boycott Manchester hotels. We do not want to spend our hard earned money at Doug Manchester’s hotels only to have him use it to take away our rights.

It’s simple…don’t enable bigotry by giving them our dollars..

Well yeah!But what if we get our equality back next month, for instance?
I’m perfectly happy to know where I shouldn’t spend my queer dollars. But I just think of boycotts in the old school way:  you do something (or stop doing something) or we won’t patronize your business or organization.  So you’re saying this is of the “we don’t care what you do or don’t do in the future, we want to destroy your business.  All stick, no carrot.  Works for me, but I’d really rather that we ultimately profit in some way from this fellow.

All stick, no carrot.I think the profit is in sending a message to all companies that might think of trying to promote a political agenda ie, you may have the right to spend your money however you wish but don’t be surprised when you start bleeding money because you pissed your customers off.  

Same here!The only time I set foot in my town’s Crap-Mart is when I need blueberry cream cheese for my blueberry bagels. It’s the only place in town that sells it now.

I don’t know what demandshave been placed off the top of my head, but I think at least an apology and a $125,001 donation to a marriage equality organization (yes, even EQCA…sometimes we need to just forgive mistakes if they were well-intentioned) might get him in the ballpark.

It’s a joint boycott –LGBT rights and labor rights.  http://www.sleepwiththerightpe… is the UNITE HERE site for the boycott.

Got to go home early yesterday.So Pollyanna, here’s my personal (note:personal as this comment is NOT affiliated with any gay rights group or individual besides myself.) requirement….should the Supreme Court uphold Prop 8, Manchester could get off the hook if he both contributed money AND lent his name in support of repeal of Prop 8.  Pretty simple isn’t it.