STATE BAR'S CONVENTION SITE:

BOYCOTT of  MANCHESTER Grand Hyatt Hotel


As you may be aware, the State Bar Board of Governors voted not to move its upcoming Annual Meeting (September 10-13) away from the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego--despite written objections by LGLA, Beverly Hills Bar Association, Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom, the Bar Association of San Francisco, the Santa Clara County Bar Association and numerous other state-wide organizations.   

The controversy: the State Bar Annual Meeting was scheduled (by contracts signed, unfortunately, several years ago) at a hotel whose owner gave $125,000 to Yes On Proposition 8.  Mr. Manchester's very large contribution provided funds to hire a professional signature-gathering firm to begin collecting the 1.1 million signatures necessary to qualify Proposition 8 for the ballot.  It seems unconscionable that we spend any money that profits Mr. Manchester, who used his great wealth to help write discrimination into the California Constitution.

In the Manchester Hyatt Boycott, the Lesbian and Gay Lawyers Association of Los Angeles (LGLA) proudly stands along side the following bar associations: the Mexican American Bar Association, the Alameda County Bar Association, the Beverly Hills Bar Association, Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom, the Bar Association of San Francisco, and the Santa Clara County Bar Association.  The Manchester Hyatt Boycott is endorsed by the Courage Campaign, Equality California, Equality Illinois and San Diego Pride, among many other organizations; the American Association of Law Schools, the San Diego County Pension Fund, GLAAD, the San Diego Association of Realtors, California Nurses Association, the Conference of Delegates of California Bar Associations, and the International Foundation of Employee Benefits have all moved events away from the Manchester Hyatt.

The LACBA Board of Trustees voted unanimously that the Los Angeles County Bar Association will not host an exhibit at this year's State Bar Annual Meeting nor participate in any activity held at the Manchester Hyatt, in light of the hotel owner's contribution to overturn same-sex marriage rights in California.

PLEASE NOTE: For those who will not cross Union picket lines-- the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO has officially granted the consumer-based boycott sanction of the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel.

If, for professional or other reasons, your colleagues feel compelled to attend the Annual Meeting, please suggest that they not patronize the Manchester Grand Hyatt's restaurants, bars, stores, or other services.  Alternative restaurants and other services are abundant in the area, including those in the Hilton San Diego-Gas Lamp Quarter, Omni San Diego Hotel, Hilton San Diego Bayfront, and The Sofia.  

We believe it is imperative that LGLA, as the most public face of Los Angeles's lesbian and gay attorneys-add a strong voice to the debate over the Convention site.  We are not an abstraction, but attorneys who, as members of a minority, have been stripped of our constitutional rights, by people like Mr. Manchester, who spend their money to actively take away our equal rights.

"The State Bar understands and respects the decision of any individual to attend or to not attend the annual convention or events at the Manchester Grand, and understands the seriousness of the issue that has been raised. ... The State Bar Board of Governors appreciates and respects each individual's beliefs and the right to express those beliefs. ... However, we are legally prevented from canceling the contract or supporting a boycott." -- State Bar of California

LGLA calls on its members and friends (in the words of Mr. Manchester's own publicist): "To my brothers and sisters in the GLBT movement and our friends, I urge you to use every legal and moral tool at your disposal to change hearts and minds. Peaceful protests, boycotts and community organizing are the tools of our trade and ultimately the things that will win this struggle."

LGLA urges a boycott of the Manchester Grand Hyatt as a locale for the Convention and boycotts any meeting events held at the Manchester Grand Hyatt.  We encourage participation in State Bar Annual Meeting events that have no affiliation with the Manchester Grand Hyatt, such as the Conference of Delegates of California Bar Associations (whose annual meeting is being held at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront--after voting to relocate because of concerns over associations with Manchester).

To gay and lesbian attorneys (and to attorneys and bar associations firmly opposed to inequality) the Manchester Hotel does not feel anything like "neutral territory."  For the individuals, couples, families and children whose lives have been affected, it isn't just politics or profits; it's personal.  It's "personal" to avoid associating ourselves with Mr. Manchester (and his Manchester Grand Hyatt), and to express loudly, thru those with whom we do business, that our views are contrary to his.


In unity,



Ron Lachman & RJ Molligan

LGLA Co-Presidents

On Behalf of LGLA Executive Committee and LGLA Board of Governors