{"id":8247,"date":"2014-12-17T18:10:44","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T18:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=8247"},"modified":"2014-12-22T22:20:34","modified_gmt":"2014-12-22T22:20:34","slug":"marriott-gay-friendly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/marriott-gay-friendly\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is Marriott so ‘gay-friendly’?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bill<\/a>
Bill Mariott: happy to go against his Mormon beliefs so long as it makes money.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a hotel chain founded and headed by Mormons, you would think Marriott Hotels would be a bastion of heterosexual, family-friendly orthodoxy.<\/p>\n

But not a bit of it. \u00a0Whatever makes money is the guiding principle for CEO Bill Marriott, even if it means going against his\u00a0Mormon beliefs:<\/p>\n

\u201cOur church is very much opposed to alcohol and we\u2019re probably one of the biggest sales engines of liquor in the United States”, Bill Marriott told Business Week<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0“I don\u2019t drink. We serve a lot of liquor. You\u2019re in business. You\u2019ve got to make money,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to appeal to the masses out there, no matter what their beliefs are.\u201d<\/p>\n

It took until 2011 for Marriott to rid their rooms of on-demand pornography channels. \u00a0The porn in Marriott’s rooms was an embarrassment for Mitt Romney<\/a><\/strong> when he ran for president of the United States in 2008. \u00a0But the decision to take\u00a0pay-for filth off the menu ended up not being one of morality or propriety, but money.<\/p>\n

The chain\u00a0attributed the move to the hotels\u2019 inability to compete<\/a><\/strong> with adult entertainment on guests\u2019 devices\u2014a claim\u00a0supported by hospitality market research<\/a><\/strong> showing a dip in revenue for in-room pornography.<\/p>\n

\"J<\/a>
J Willard Marriott, the firm’s founder.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But perhaps the strangest move of all has been Marriott’s aligning of themselves as a ‘gay friendly’ establishment.<\/p>\n

It seems to have started when Marriott refused to donate to\u00a0the campaign run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in favour of Proposition 8, the Californian measure to strike down ‘gay marriage’.<\/p>\n

Diane Brady of Business Week<\/a><\/strong> says: ‘As a result, when his church actively campaigned against same-sex marriage in California, neither Marriott nor the hotel chain donated any money to the cause. Instead, he stepped into the drama by publicly reinforcing his company\u2019s commitment to gay rights through domestic partners benefits and services aimed at gay couples’.<\/p>\n

Then, in 2012, a Marriott hotel in Chicago\u00a0hosted\u00a0the \u201cInternational\u00a0Mr. Leather Competition,\u201d a leather fetish pageant. \u00a0Some effort apparently went into prising the event, and its estimated 16,000 participants, away from the Hyatt Towers venue down the street.<\/p>\n

As SunTimes<\/a><\/strong> put it, ‘To understand International Mr. Leather better, consider the way Chicago DJ Ron Geronimo described to Gopride.com the scene at the gatherin\u2019s 2011 Black and Blue Ball: \u201cHot and sweaty sex . . . meets the best cheesecake in the world . . . meets hairy muscle daddy groove . . . meets rawhide leather.\u201d’ \u00a0Yuk.<\/p>\n

In 2012, Marriott started offering discounts to homosexual guests in the US, according to Blaze<\/a><\/strong>, and a similar deal appears to have crossed the pond,\u00a0with ‘Pride Packages<\/a><\/strong>‘ on a special ‘gay-friendly’ Marriott page offering a ‘promotional code’ for the ‘Out and About’ product. \u00a0Families with children need not apply.<\/p>\n

Finally, on 2nd June this year, 2014, Marriott launched their #LoveTravels venture, complete with a pro-gay propaganda video<\/a><\/strong>, shamelessly targeting the homosexual traveller. \u00a0qz.com<\/a><\/strong> asks:<\/p>\n

\"Marriott's<\/a>
Marriott’s flagship hotel in London; on the South Bank, Marriott County Hall Hotel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

‘Why is Bill Marriott so careful to separate faith and business when it comes to LGBT consumers?\u00a0In a nutshell, $202 billion.<\/span><\/p>\n

‘That\u2019s how big<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0the global LGBT travel market is predicted to be\u00a0this year (2014 – ed), up from $181 billion in 2013<\/a><\/strong>, according to industry analysts Out Now Global\u2014with LGBT spending\u00a0comprising 13% of all<\/a><\/strong> global travel spending. That 11% rise\u00a0is more than double<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(pdf)\u00a0the increase in\u00a0world travel spending overall, which is expected to rise 4% to 5% this year. The number of US\u00a018- to 34-year-olds self-identifying as LGBT has risen by more than 60%<\/a><\/strong> since 2007, and … gay men spend 11% more<\/a><\/strong> on \u201cnonessential purchases\u201d than their heterosexual counterparts.’<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether it’s out of the need not to support the heresy of Mormonism, or of making it clear that\u00a0‘gay friendly’ is not good business, or just not enriching a greedy man with no principles, it seems like Marriott Hotels are a venue Christians need to avoid.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Find out how to join Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings (clicking on the link below does not commit you to join)<\/strong>
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As a hotel chain founded and headed by Mormons, you would think Marriott Hotels would be a bastion of heterosexual, family-friendly orthodoxy. 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