I called and told the reservation agent why I was cancelling the reservation. He was clueless about Prop 8 and did not even know that California had revoked gay marriage.
I was going to stay at a Marriott in LA this weekend. But instead, I will be staying at a Starwood property instead. Starwood is a net donor to the Democratic Party.
Marriott is clearly keeping an eye on this incipient boycott.
See a pretty unsatisfactory email from Marriott here:
http://www.americablog.com/...
And on Bill Marriott's blog:
http://www.blogs.marriott.com/...
See my earlier diaries for other businesses we should be boycotting.
Update 1: Follow the money. Marriott Inc.'s profits flow to Bill. Bill tithes to the Mormon Church 10% of his income. The Mormon Church spent a lot of resources (cleverly, little real money) on sending mail to voters, organizing Church phone banks from Idaho and Utah, walking precincts, organizing transportation, setting up websites and other activity to support Prop 8. Note that in Bill's blog, he never says that he opposed Prop 8 (either by word or deed). We can only conclude that he allowed his tithing to be used by the Mormon Church to write discrimination into California's constitution.
http://www.americablog.com/...
Update 2: In a statement reported here:(http://www.sltrib.com/ci_10975491) Bill Marriott says: "The Bible that I love teaches me about honesty, integrity and unconditional love for all people," Marriott said. "But beyond that, I am very careful about separating my personal faith and beliefs from how we run our business."
Note the clever parsing of words. He tries to leave the impression that he is opposed to Prop 8 ("love for all people") but he is speaking in code that is meant to appeal to whatever the listener wants to hear. Nowhere does Bill Marriott say that he opposes Prop 8. Furthermore, Marriott's press releases absolutely refuse to discuss the tithing issue: that dollars to Marriott become dollars to Bill and thus become dollars to the Mormon Church... which organizes anti-gay activity.
Now if Bill Marriott were to personally offset his tithing with a substantial and adequate donation to gay rights organizations, I will say call off the boycott. Let's see if Marriott responds to this challenge.