Soon after California's passage of a initiative banning same-sex marriage last month, dozens of gay activists descended on the El Coyote restaurant with signs and placards. They chanted "Shame on you," cussed at patrons and began a boycott of the cafe.
The restaurants's crime: A daughter of the owner donated $100 to support Proposition 8, the antigay-marriage initiative approved by voters. Gay activists have refused to lift the boycott -- which restaurant managers say has slashed revenues by 30% -- even after some El Coyote employees raised $500 to help repeal the new ban.
The boycotters have demanded that the owner's daughter, El Coyote manager Marjorie Christoffersen, pony up $100 to help repeal Prop 8. She tearfully declined, citing her Mormon faith, during a raucous meeting with activists. "You are not my friend if you take my civil rights," one activist shouted before she fled the room.
In the first days after California voters reinstated the ban on Nov. 4, activists vented much of their anger in protests at Mormon and other churches that had advocated Prop 8. But they soon shifted to a new tack: compiling Internet blacklists of businesses like El Coyote, where top officials or one or more employees were found from public disclosures to have donated to the "Yes on 8" campaign.
The idea is to use gay-spending power to punish businesses the activists say discriminate against gays' right to get married. Among the dozens of businesses now being targeted for boycotts are hotels, fast-food chains and dental offices.
So far, the boycott campaign has claimed at least two high-profile casualties: Scott Eckern, artistic director of the California Musical Theatre in Sacramento, and Richard Raddon, president of the Los Angeles Film Festival. Both men resigned after their private donations to Yes on 8 were revealed and activists threatened boycotts unless they quit.
Mr. Eckern and Mr. Raddon were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members accounted for much of the $40 million in contributions raised by the Yes on 8 campaign. "The main finger we are pointing is at the Mormon Church," says Vic Gerami, a leading gay activist in West Hollywood, Calif.
Some gay-rights advocates say they don't agree with the boycotts. "We need to get it together. I mean, gang, we lost," Dana Miller, a gay television producer from Los Angeles, wrote in a Nov. 24 column in the gay magazine, In Los Angeles.
Leaders of the gay-marriage movement say they don't endorse hurting people's livelihoods, but understand why some people would. "I am not going to support a business that will not support my rights," says San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who gained national attention for allowing same-sex marriages in his city in 2004.
Some legal experts say the boycotts raise issues about the civil liberties of people who are targeted. In most cases, individuals can boycott anyone they want for almost any reason so long as they aren't representing a government institution, says Vikram Amar, associate dean of the University of California at Davis School of Law. But if the boycotts include defamatory comments that are untrue, Mr. Amar said, the target of the boycott could have grounds for a lawsuit.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123033766467736451.htmlFrom the perspective of the WSJ, taken with salt.
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