West Hollywood Whining

The City of West Hollywood, a relatively new city in Los Angeles County that promotes homosexual behavior, is dealing with pressing issues within the city via a unanimous, but nonbinding resolution demanding that a new local hotel "disaffiliate" with a San Diego hotel because the owner of the building in which Hyatt Hotels operates in San Diego gave money to support the California Marriage Amendment. From WeHo News.

Saying that "the use of economic boycotts is an effective nonviolent tactic in the civil rights movement," the resolution calls for the WeHo's newest hotel to sever its business ties with the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego. Despite that implication, the resolution does not call for a boycott of the Andaz Hotel.

It amounts to a scolding and a verbal bullying.

[The rest is below the fold if you care to read it.]

One month ago, protesters came from outside the city to demand the same thing, leaving the Andaz management in the position of explaining that, as a subsidiary of the parent company, no direct business association exists, therefore the only options left open to Global Hyatt would be to 1) cease operations in San Diego (one of their most profitable locations), 2) spin the Andaz off as an independently-owned company or 3) close shop.

They actually quote someone with some sanity:

The Andaz general manager Michel Morauw, said he felt the resolution had purely political motivation. "We at the Andaz feel we should be judged by the acts of the Andaz," he said, "not [Doug Manchester's].

"There are no ties between Andaz [and Manchester Grand] except our parent company has a management agreement to operate in San Diego," he said.

Ah, but we can't let logic come into play. This isn't about logic. It is about feelings, and being angry about not being able to force other people to validate those feelings.

West Hollywood City Councilman John Duran joined Tom Walsh, President, UNITE HERE Local 11 from San Diego, Cleve Jones (long-time gay activist) from San Francisco, Rick Jacobs of the Los Angeles Courage Campaign, John Cleary, President, Los Angeles Stonewall Democrats and Lisa Powell, Organizing with America (San Diego) in condemning the association between the Hyatt and the Andaz and demanding the business connections between the two be severed and Global Hyatt wade into California politics.

Their demands of the hotel in West Hollywood:

"One: publicly take a stand and come out for marriage [neutering]; two, sever all ties with Doug Manchester."

The irony is that they generally like Hyatt:

"Hyatt has a history of inclusiveness and has received a long list of accolades from the LGBT community, including the Human Rights Campaign, Planet Out, Advocate Magazine and DiversityInc.com, for its commitment to diversity and as one of the most respected and admired companies among the LGBT community.

Employees at Hyatt properties are offered domestic partner benefits and Hyatt has a strong record of non-discriminatory policies in all Hyatt Hotels."

See a statement here.

See the resolution here.

It's all rather silly. If everyone who opposes the neutering of marriage boycotted business where someone has supported marriage neutering, things would get rather dire for most of those businesses. But this is like asking a fast food franchise to change into something else because the owner of a shopping center where where one the chain's other franchises operates donated to something.

(H/T: Shelby Grad at LATimes.com)