Call to action against Proposition 8 in California – VOTE NO ON 8!

 W ad as seen in Out Traveler magazine        

Many hotel chains have joined the fight for gay rights and equality, but none have stepped up to the plate quite like W Hotels.  In the four years that Out Traveler magazine has published its Readers’ Choice Awards, no company has dethroned W Hotels as the best gay-friendly hotel chain.  Since its first marketing campaigns directed at the gay community surfaced in 2003, W Hotels has launched a same-sex marriage campaign as part of its Wow Vows weddings and offers a Pride 365 package tailored to its gay and gay-friendly clientele.  The brand’s print ads are frequently found in gay-related travel magazines, and there was even a W Hotels sponsored float at this year’s New York Gay Pride Parade.  Five years later in 2008, W Hotels has continued to be a mainstream advocate and supporter of the GLBT community.  The openly gay President of W Hotels, Ross Klein, puts it best when he said in a recent Advocate interview, “If there is a trophy or reward for [being the gayest mainstream hotel brand ever], we are happy to accept it.”

Similarly, a handful of states have come a long way in welcoming the gay community and now offer marriage rights to same-sex couples.  On May 15, 2008 California’s Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have the right to marriage under the California Constitution.  Unfortunately, an initiative has been introduced to change the Constitution so that same-sex couples would no longer have this human right, and that it would be reserved for only unions between a man and a woman.  My friends, this is Proposition 8, and it is a shameful regression to the generations when equal human rights were neglected for many of today’s protected groups.  

You see, all minority groups have at some time or another faced great impediments to equal human rights, and these days it’s gay people who are on the battleground trying to defend their right to marry a loved one (who just so happens to be of the same sex).  What I have immense difficulty understanding is how many of America’s most prominent minority groups, who have faced daunting battles for equal rights in the past, could be so quick to support the elimination of equal rights for another minority group today.

I recently saw a group of middle-aged women with signs protesting gay rights.  I wanted to ask these women if they could imagine living in American society prior to 1920 and how they would feel if they were deprived of their right to vote.  How would they feel if they saw a group of middle-aged men holding signs protesting womens’ rights?  And for the African-American woman I saw within this group of protesting women, had she forgotten that just a few generations back her people had virtually no equal human rights in American society?  

While W hotels has not taken an official stance on Proposition 8, the brand has been a highly visible proponent of gay rights in American pop culture since 2003, contributing to the overall evolution of gay acceptance and equality in American society. I applaud W Hotels for being an active supporter of the gay community, as well as Starwood for being a major corporate contributor to the Human Rights Campaign organization.

California’s Proposition 8 seeks to destroy some of this forward-moving progress made in the struggle for gay rights.  Between now and election day on November 4, those in California should please remember to vote NO on Proposition 8 for the sake of equal human rights for all. 

 

The St. Regis Monarch Beach placed this ad in Passport Magazine