Two of these are not welcome in Arizona
Will these asshats ever learn? In Arizona, that's a rhetorical question. The answer is a resounding
no.
First Arizonans suffered through the short but disastrous tenure of Gov. Evan "pickaninny" Mecham, who thankfully was impeached in 1988 before he could name Simon Legree head of the state's civil rights division. When Mecham rescinded Arizona's brand spanking new MLK Holiday, a decision Sen. John McCain supported, the state lost Super Bowl XXVII, a shit load of conventions and thousands of tourists who spoke with their walking-away feet and wallets. It might not seem possible but Mecham, a former used car dealer, even gave that occupation a worse reputation. Happily, he and his cheap toupee were booted from office, and after several tries voters finally passed the MLK Holiday in 1992.
Next up, Latinos! In 2010, when Republican legislators passed, and finger-pointin' Gov. Jan Brewer signed, SB 1070, the "papers please" law, tourists boycotted Arizona, other cities and states refused to do business with us and Phoenix quickly lost approximately $45 million in canceled conventions [pdf]. Factor in another $141 million in direct spending by conventioneers and more than 2,700 lost jobs, and Phoenix paid mightily for the legislature's boneheaded bigotry. It hasn't gotten much better. This year, while much of the nation is experiencing a modest recovery in travel-related spending, Phoenix's convention bookings remain 30 percent lower than anticipated, an estimated loss of $132 million. And that's just Phoenix! No one's really calculated the statewide costs, but it's safe to say hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of hospitality jobs evaporated after SB 1070.
The bigots, haters, knuckledraggers and homophobes aren't done sullying this beautiful place, as we'll find over the bump.
Tourism isn't just another industry in Arizona, arguably it's the industry—from the Grand Canyon and Tombstone to spring training, Native American heritage and Scottsdale's resorts. The economy is tourism dependent. So when Arizona's reputation suffers a black eye, which is usually self-inflicted, the state's powerful economic engine sputters—robbing tax coffers of millions of dollars, which results in, among many coldhearted legislative acts, cutting education more than any other state. We're #1! We're #1!
Next up, the LGBT community! Early on, the state's libertarian temperament led citizens to ignore attempts by GOP pinheads and religious boobs to insert language in the Arizona Constitution outlawing same-sex marriage. Their hair-on-fire initiatives usually mentioned "protecting," "saving" or "defending" marriage. Funny, our next-door neighbors are gay, and I can't say my marriage ever needed the government to protect us from the couple. In 2006, Arizona voters were the first in the nation to defeat a ballot proposition amending the constitution to prohibit LGBT unions. Two years later, however, the haters were back and Proposition 102 passed, adding Article 30 to the constitution: "Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state."
Arizona's hospitality ambassador
For a lot of people, "Arizona" conjures up rightwing nincompoops like pea-brained Gov. Jan Brewer or bigoted blowhard Sheriff Joe Arpaio, but until the 1950s the state was politically progressive, and pockets of blue still exist—like Flagstaff, much of Tucson, and the tiny mining hamlet of
Bisbee. Every time I take visitors to Bisbee, whose historic homes dot a mountain in the southeastern corner of the state, they usually say, "I didn't think anything like this existed in Arizona!" It's scenic, funky, artsy and way cool liberal.
So much so that what happened in Bisbee on Tuesday night has the Arizona Attorney General, Tom Horne, pissing lawsuits. As Bisbonian explained in his rescued diary, by a city council vote of 5-2, Bisbee became the first municipality in the state to sanction civil unions.
Bisbee Arizona has long been an oddment in this deeply red, often backward thinking state. Last night, our City Council really went out on a limb, bucked the trend in Arizona, and approved a measure extending recognition and whatever benefits the City has to confer on couples in same sex Civil Unions. It opened up a can of worms, and I suspect the storm is just beginning ... and we've now got a front row seat.
Bisbonian could not have been more right about worm-can openings. Almost before the ink was dry on Bisbee's new ordinance, Arizona Attorney General
Tom Horne said he will take the town to court:
Horne spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham says the planned lawsuit will be filed before the ordinance approved Tuesday night by the Bisbee City Council takes effect in 30 days.
Horne's view is that Bisbee's new law flies in the face of Article 30 of the state's constitution, which limits marriage to the man-woman variety. However, Bisbee City Attorney
John MacKinnon said the town was acting within its authority because the policy "only affect[s] things that the city controls, such as its personnel practices and the city cemetery." MacKinnon and another local attorney also said they'll defend the city at no charge.
Horne is a good one to blather on about the sanctity of marriage, as he's another graduate of the Mark Sanford School of Ethics. Last year the state's AG was involved in a hit-and-run, causing more than $1,000 in damage to the other car. Unfortunately for Mr. Horne, he was being tailed by the FBI, which was investigating allegations of campaign finance shenanigans, and the agents witnessed the accident. They also reported why the very married Horne amscrayed:
FBI agents allege that Horne left the scene because he was having an affair with a female employee in the car he was driving and didn't want their relationship to be reported.
But I digress, although not too far. Predictably,
one of the first news stories that followed Horne's announced lawsuit raised the question of this public hatemongering on tourism:
In the midst of the back and forth, there's concern that fighting Bisbee's decision is hurting the state's reputation.
"The public consensus is that this is a non-issue anymore and that this should just be left alone," said Ben Bethel, who owns The Clarendon Hotel in Phoenix. He believes this latest legal battle will leave a bad taste in tourists' mouths.
"People will take their conventions, they will take their businesses and they are going to take their dollars and they will move them to those places instead of Arizona," he said.
Bethel should be concerned, especially if the battle becomes a national story pitting a homophobic Goliath against The Little Town That Could. Horne and other Republicans aren't clamping down on Colorado City in northern Arizona, where Fundamentalist LDS members practice plural marriage, but just let a liberal town respect LGBT unions! Also, if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down DOMA or any part of Prop. 8, Horne will look even more foolish than he already is, spending taxpayer funds and Arizona's bigotry to deny a handful of Bisbee residents equal rights.
Once again, Arizona's dipshit politicians are shooting one of the state's key industries in the foot. Some urban-development gurus use a "tolerance index" to draw a connection between acceptance and economic vitality. A similar dynamic operates in tourism, i.e., people tend to avoid places they perceive as intolerant. It's one reason San Francisco attracts more visitors and has a more robust economy than a lot of Mississippi, and Arizona's racist image certainly contributed to its tourism downturn.
And this: one of the fastest growing niches of the hospitality sector is marketing aimed at the LGBT community. Google "LGBT tourism" or "gay tourism," and you'll see dozens of city and state programs hoping to attract gay and lesbian guests. There's even an international organization that provides training and resources for local initiatives: The International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association. Why the recent rush to attract LGBT tourists? Because in most cases they're high-value visitors: they travel a lot, spend more money and are respectful of the places they visit. Arizona will have a tough time appealing to the LGBT community as AG Horne cracks down on Bisbee, whose economy is tourism-based, and jackasses like Rep. John Kavanaugh spend more time on the stupid "Bathroom Bill" than job creation (unless he figures businesses will have to hire genitalia checkers).
So, by all means, Arizona, go ahead and make a stink out of a tiny community's desire to show respect for all of its residents. You've been drowning the state's reputation in bigotry and hate for decades. Why stop now?