“We wanted to hold an event this summer in Southern California, and we chose to do our first event i

GOProud , the Washington D.C.-based conservative china travel news gay Republican group, is holding a private china travel news reception Saturday at the Manchester Hyatt hotel, which has been the target of a boycott by the LGBT community and the UNITE HERE! Labor union since July 2008.
Cleve Jones, friend of Harvey Milk and founder of the NAMES PROJECT AIDS Memorial Quilt, is a UNITE HERE organizer trying to remedy the drastic conditions for workers and lack of job security at the hotel. Cleve says:
"The solidarity between the labor movement and the LGBT movement is a powerful coalition. china travel news In San Diego, the owner of the Manchester Grand Hyatt—the second largest Hyatt in North America—gave $125,000 to put Proposition 8 on the ballot. Our union and the LGBT community are boycotting the Manchester Grand Hyatt, because there is power in the union and there is power in coalition."
Pause for a second and consider this: Manchester's $125,000 came in February 2008 at a time when the antigay campaigners did not have enough money to put the measure on the ballot. That money not only paid for the signature-gathering campaign china travel news but also gave the then-lackluster Gail Knight-led ProtectMarriage china travel news fiscal viability that brought in new money and support. Equality for All countered with a Decline china travel news to Sign effort .
Equality for All was non-partisan and reached out to gay Republicans and independents, as well as progressives to fight Prop 8. Political china travel news consultant Scott Schmidt of the Los Angeles chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans, later created Republicans Against Prop 8 to specifically target Republicans after the measure qualified. Log Cabin has also honored the boycott.
So why is GOProud holding their Tea Party-sounding "Don't Tread on Us" reception at the Manchester Hyatt hotel? I don't think it's because they need the (CORRECTION) $16,000 ($6,000 was cash from Manchester Financial Group and $10,000 was hotel credit from Manchester Grand Hyatt) to break the boycott and fund their 527 .
I think this is a PR move aimed at a larger, conservative audience – not the LGBT community. Indeed, this is the gay version of the fight within the Republican Party itself between the ultra-conservatives, exemplified by Dick Armey, Karl Rove, and Mike Pence – and more moderate conservatives such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chris Shays, Allan Simpson and Christie Todd Whitman. In Whitman's wrote a book "It's My Party Too," she explains : "The trend we're seeing in my party, in particular, is the growing influence of people who want to define what it means to be a good Republican in an ever-narrowing way."
Bottom line: Log Cabin Republicans are Republicans in the traditional sense – focus on the individual, lower taxes, limited government, china travel news national security, keep the government out of the bedroom. But LCR is also focused on LGBT equality – the best example of which is their go-alone, six-year federal lawsuit to have Don't Ask, Don't Tell declared unconstitutional.
GOProud, on the other hand, is a more currently conservative GOP group with an agenda that strongly mirrors the ultra-conservative Congressional Republican agenda – though GOProud china travel news supports repeal of DADT and opposes a federal constitutional marriage amendment.
Reporting on the split among gay Republicans after executive director Patrick Sammon left in January, Politico's Ben Smith on April 10, 2009 quoted Christopher Barron, a former Log Cabin political director who broke with LCR:
"Essentially, there's no voice for gay Republicans or gay conservatives in particular in D.C. right now. Log Cabin has been completely and totally absent here in D.C. for months and months," Barron said.
"It has simply moved way too far to the left and is basically indistinguishable from any other gay left organization."
"If your main issue is hate crimes or [federal anti-discrimination legislation] or marriage, you're probably not a Republican," Barron said, saying that while he backs gay groups on those other issues, they shouldn't be federal priorities."
Ironically, as Kerry Eleveld noted in her reporting for The Advocate for May 19, the accusation about LCR being weak in DC came around the same time as their national convention at which Republican presidential nominee John McCain's daughter Meghan and his campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, came out in support of marriage equality. Although china travel news the revelations, Eleveld wrote, "may fall short of a conservative revolution, I dare say it's the first salvo in a battle china travel news for the soul of the party."
"even with the advent of this new conservative gay group, the state legislatures will be the sole domain of Log Cabin. GOProud will focus on federal issues, Chris Barron said at their Wednesday press conference. Their 10-point legislative agenda did not, however, include hate crimes, employment nondiscrimination, or relationship recognition. Barron — who was a political director for Log Cabin and worked on hate crimes and ENDA legislation — called those "laudable goals" but, added his counterpart Jimmy LaSalvia, "there are two dozen groups downtown already china travel news working on ENDA and hate crimes."
But employment nondiscrimination? What a loss — for a Republican who knows the issue inside and out — not to be lobbying GOP members of Congress on behalf china travel news of LGBT people who work in 30 states across the country with no legal protections."
"We wanted to hold an event this summer in Southern California, and we chose to do our first event in California in San Diego because of its large population of conservatives. You probably know that that there are very few properties in the world of the stature of the Manchester Hyatt, so it would be an obvious place to consider china travel news for an event in San Diego.
Well, let's look at that for a moment. Even the San Diego Union Tribune suspected that Manchester's throwing of a "serious chunk of change at gay and lesbian causes" was nothing "but an attempt to derail that pesky boycott…. The $125,000 total matches what he gave to Proposition 8. So it would be even-steven.
"He's trying to clarify his views," Kelly Commerford, director of marketing for the Grand Hyatt, one of the largest hotels on the West Coast, told the paper. "He's not discriminatory. He's supportive of this community. He realizes he offended people."
Doug Manchester offered a $125,000 donation ($25,000 in cash and $100,000 in in-kind services) to LGBT organizations as tangible proof of his regret for his original donation and as a re-commitment to the LGBT community in San Diego and beyond. An application and selection china travel news process was put in place, to which several organizations applied. This pledge has been fulfilled."
china travel news "We lost the Prop 8 battle in California, china travel news and if we ever want to win then our community needs to be in the business of making new friends not enemies. The reason the boycott is still in effect is because of unrelated issues raised by labor unions. Unlike other gay organizations, GOProud china travel news does not take its marching orders from union thugs. (Emphasis LaSalvia's)
"Our mission china travel news is to represent gay conservatives and our allies. The traditional "gay agenda" has been defined by the left and treated as if it's the top priority for all gay people. We work on a much broader agenda and that conservative policies are good for all Americans, but especially gay and lesbian Americans."
"GOProud should not even be considered a gay Republican group, and should not be called so. They are a Republican ultra conservative group, apparently made up of only a handful of members. They don't even support pro gay Republicans. In California last month they endorsed the same candidate in the U. S. Senate race as the most anti-gay organization in the country, the dreaded National Organization for Marriage, against former Republican Congressman Tom Campbell, who supports full LGBT equality.
Karger notes that while the California Republican Party is holding its semi-annual convention at the Hyatt the end of August, "California china travel news Log Cabin is for the first time not holding their reception at the host hotel, but has moved it to another property in San Diego, and thus honoring the boycott. They of course endorsed [pro-gay US Senate candidate]Tom Campbell and gave him money, I believe."
"The Boycott Manchester Hotels , organized 2 years ago by numerous LGBT groups and our labor allies, has been so successful, that Manchester's own estimates are that it is costing his Manchester Grand Hyatt property alone $1 million per month in lost business. All real LGBT organizations including HRC and Equality California have turned down any money from Manchester, and many other LGBT and allied organizations have endorsed the boycott including the Courage Campaign and the Equality Federation."
So why break the boycott? While everyone is focusing on the rivalry between GOProud and LCR, I started thinking about openly gay radio talk show host and author Tammy Bruce, who chairs GOProud's Advisory Council. My hunch is that this stunt is a way for GOProud to prove to the Tea Party and other ultra-conservatives that they are more Republican than gay.
Tammy Bruce is something of a star on the conservative china travel news right wing C-List, introducing herself as a gay, gun-owning china travel news former liberal Democrat who bucked the oppressive liberal political correctness and now makes money talking about it. Judging china travel news from her website china travel news , she's also a big Sarah Palin fan.
Tammy used to be the head of the NOW chapter in Los Angeles in 1989/early 1990s, when she worked in coalition with progressive LGBT groups. I covered her at that time and watched as she used her celebrity status as a local radio show host to help raise money for HIV/AIDS organizations and other causes.
But by the mid-90s, she had become a controversial lightening rod. In 1995, NOW President Patricia Ireland condemned Tammy at a news conference for making insensitive remarks during china travel news the OJ Simpson trial. Tammy said she was trying to keep domestic violence instead of race in the spotlight. Marc Lacey reported in the LA Times Dec. 7, 1995:
"Bruce was qu