In the latest in a controversy that has embroiled LGBTs nationally, an LGBT group is facing significant penalty frees after cancelling their retreat at a Hyatt hotel in New Mexico in response to a boycott.
Funders for LGBTQ Issues, a national group, has been hit with a $40,600 cancellation fee for pulling the plug on its agreement with Hyatt.
Hyatt is the target of a workers boycott, after more than three years of failed contract negotiations with hotel workers' union UNITE HERE.
The boycott has embroiled LGBTs nationally and in Chicago, where Hyatt is based.
Veteran LGBT activist Cleve Jones works with UNITE HERE, and he has called on LGBTs to respect that boycott. He drove that message home to a convening of LGBT journalists in Philadelphia Feb. 22, blasting journalists in the room who had crossed the boycott at other events in recent years.
"In my union, we negotiate contracts that protect our people in states where there is no [LGBT] legislation protecting them, and then you cross our picket line," Jones said.
Two years ago the Chicago-based International Mr. Leather competition took heat for continuing with its event at the Hyatt Regency downtown. IML organizers said the costs of cancellation and booking another hotel made it impossible for the event to move hotels.
Now, Funders for LGBTQ Issues is facing that reality.
"The moment we heard about the boycott, we felt we had to move the retreat," said Ben Francisco Maulbeck, President of Funders for LGBTQ Issues, in a statement. "There's such a strong history of solidarity between the movements for workers' rights and LGBT rights — dating back to Harvey Milk's early organizing work in San Francisco. We just couldn't imagine having our retreat, talking about issues of equality and social change for LGBT communities, in a space that we knew was under boycott by workers."
According a release put out by UNITE HERE, the cancellation fee is a substantial chunk of the LGBT group's operating budget and more than the cost of the retreat itself. That release states that group wants the cancellation fee waived.
But Hyatt said that both parties agreed to the contract and that it thinks Funders for LGBTQ issues has been misled about the Hyatt's policies and commitment to LGBT issues.
"In our contract with the Funders for LGBTQ, we had an industry standard cancellation policy, which both the organization and the hotel agreed to," wrote Katie Rackoff, director of corporate communications for Hyatt, in a statement to Windy City Times. "We're always happy to sit down with any of our customers and discuss any concerns they may have. We hope to welcome this organization back to Hyatt in the future."
