September 2, 2009

Media Contacts:

statement from NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell In SUPPORT OF State Bar Protest

(San Francisco, California, September 2, 2009) — Today the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) issued a statement in support of the California state bar associations and  Unite Here Local 30 protest of the California State Bar Association’s decision to hold its upcoming Annual Meeting at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Diego.

A statement from NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell, Esq.

“The National Center for Lesbian Rights strongly supports the efforts of the Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (“BALIF”) and bar associations around the state and their boycott partner Unite Here Local 30 to stand up for the bedrock constitutional principle of equality. NCLR supports their demand for the protection of the fundamental civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and other historically targeted minority groups by protesting the California State Bar’s decision to hold its upcoming Annual Meeting at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Diego. That hotel is owned by Doug Manchester, who was one of the largest financial supporters of Proposition 8, the discriminatory ballot measure that selectively stripped away the right to marry from same-sex couples in California in 2008.  BALIF and bar associations around the state recognized that many of their members should not be required to attend the California State Bar’s Annual Meeting at the Manchester Hyatt given its owner's extraordinary contributions to the campaign that made same-sex couples unequal under the law and jeopardized the basic constitutional rights of other minority groups throughout California.”