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Bill Marriott

The Case Against A Marriott Boycott (part 2): Marriott is not Anti-Gay

by cv harquail on December 4, 2008

Another reason not to boycott Marriott?
Marriott is not an anti-gay organization.

Marriage equality activists who advocate boycotting Marriott hotels are encouraging consumers to punish the Marriott Corporation for its connection to the Mormon Church. Boycott activists argue that the Marriott Corporation’s profits ultimately  subsidize the anti-gay activities of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints.

30% of the Marriott Hotels’ shares are held by Marriott family members. Because the Marriott family’s membership in the Mormon Church requires them to contribute some of their personal fortune to the LDS , the Mormon Church itself benefits from consumers’ support of Marriott Hotels. Boycott supporters conclude that if consumers withhold their business from Marriott, consumers can punish the Marriott Family and the Marriott Corporation for their personal and institutional support of California’s prop 8 prohibiting same-sex marriage.

As one anonymous commenter at QueersUnited explains:

"Marriott Hotels (including Fairfield Inns, Springhill Suites, Residence Inns, Courtyards, JW Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, and Renaissance) should be included as well. Although Bill Marriott did NOT actually donate to the campaign, he is a Mormon in good standing (meaning that he tithes to the church – thus, the money you pay at the hotel does in part end up with the church) – and although thes Fairfields, Springhills, most of the the rest are franchises, the do pay "license fees" and other money to Marriott International, which is a major contributor to Mormon-related charities, and a major employer in Utah.

In addition to a boycott’s short-term goal of financially punishing the organization for its behavior, a longer term goal is to pressure the organization to take new, different behaviors. In this case, a boycott would punish the Marriott Corporation for being anti-gay and attempt to pressure the Marriott Corporation to become more gay friendly.

The thing is, though, that Marriott is already gay-friendly.

Consider these arguments:

1. Marriott is highly ranked for its overall diversity policies, which include its policies regarding employees’ sexual orientation. 200812041633.jpg

Marriott is # 72 in Fortune ’s 100 Best Companies to Work For (2008) . Marriott also ranks #11 in Diversity Inc’s Top 50 Companies.

2. Marriot has the explicit approval of LGBT rights associations.

The Marriott Corporation has the ’seal of approval’ from the most prominent US LGBT-rights organization , the Human Rights Campaign.

(Of course, the HRC does not represent the views of all LGBT-rights activists. See Andrew Sullivan’s piece in The Atlantic for more criticism of the HRC.)

The Marriott Corporation has received the highest ranking in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index . "The Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index report, released each fall, provides an in-depth analysis and rating of large U.S. employers and their policies and practices pertinent to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers and investors."

3. Purchasing from Marriott has been recommended by LGBT-rights associations.

200812041007.jpg

Pro-LGBT rights consumers are encouraged by the Human Rights Campaign not to boycott Marriott but instead to choose Marriott Hotels over other hotels. The HRC recommends the Marriott Corporation in its annual "Buying for Equality" guide. The HRC publishes this annual buying guide to help gay rights consumers support gay positive organizations with their purchases. "The information in this guide comes from the 2009 Corporate Equality Index, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s annual report card on corporate America’s treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers and investors."

4. Employees testify to Marriott’s Gay-friendly policies and environment.

The Marriott organization receives many positive testimonials from its LGBT and gay friendly employees, all commenting on how well the organization and its members support employees regardless of their sexual orientation.

Just one of many examples: Responding to Bill Marriott’s 11.11.08 blog post about "The Facts About Marriott and California’s Proposition 8 , " employee Rudy Bell commented:

As someone who worked for Marriott for several years, I can say Marriott has always been accepting and supportive of those in the gay community. There were several gay associates working in all areas of the hotel and most brought their partners to hotel employee functions. I don’t know Mr. Marriott’s personal views but as an employer, he has been good to the gay community and has offered benefits to gay couples for years.

5. Gay customers themselves prefer Marriott.

Would it surprise you to learn that the hotel chain preferred by a majority of gay male consumers is Marriott? Apparently, 10s of thousands of gay men prefer to give their business to the Marriott Corporation. If we assume that these consumers are acting in their own best political interests, these gay travelers are demonstrating their support for and their approval of the Marriott organization.

Given these 5 different kinds of affirmation for Marriott’s policies towards the LGBT community, why would anyone assume that Marriott is anti-gay?

And, if Marriott is supportive of LGBT rights, as evidenced by these endorsements, wouldn’t a boycott of Marriott punish an organization in spite of its support for LBGT rights?

Please share your thoughts in the Comments, clicking on the link below. …

[p.s. 12.8.08 Check out Marc Gunther’s post on Marriott, here , and Scatterplot’s somewhat related ideas about why a boycott doesn’t make sense, here. )

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The Case Against a Marriott Boycott: Marriott is not a Mormon organization

by cv harquail on November 25, 2008

Dont Boycott Marriott churchsign proposition 8 GLBT rights Many GLBT-rights and marriage equality rights activists are up in arms in protest against individuals, business and institutions that supported California’s Proposition 8 to ban same-sex marriage. Letters to prominent individual contributors, protests in front of churches, and calls for boycotts figure prominently in these activists’ efforts both to punish the individual, businesses and institutions and to demonstrate the size and passion of the marriage equality movement.

Mormon churches, Mormon individuals and Mormon businesses have all become targets of activists, because of the Mormon Church’s comprehensive efforts, directly and indirectly, to mobilize its members to fight against marriage equality .

Marriott Hotels and Resorts, because of its prominence and its purported link to the Mormon Church, has been a focal target of these boycott efforts. While it might be comforting to some to have a big target, I think that boycotting Marriott is the wrong thing to do, because it punishes the organization for being something that the organization is not.

Calling for a boycott against Marriott is wrong, for two reasons:

1. Marriott is not an "authentically Mormon" organization.

2. Marriott is LGBT-friendly, not "anti-gay".

For this post, let’s just address the first issue– of Marriott’s authentic identity. (I’ll address the second issue, that Marriott is LGBT-friendly, not "anti-gay", in a follow-up post.)

Tier 1: Convincing demonstrations of a Mormon Organizational Identity

In a previous post, I identified two levels of criteria by which we might answer the question: Is this a Mormon organization? In the first tier of criteria are those organizational features that convincingly demonstrate the Mormon identity– and on all six of these criteria, Marriott fails to qualify as a "Mormon" organization.

Criteria for being a
"Mormon" Organization

Is this true of Marriott?
Tier One:
Convincing demonstration of identity
1. The organization is wholly or majority-owned by the Mormon Church. no
2. Tenets, principles and priories of the organization are based on those of the LDS Church. no
3. Part of the organization’s mission is furthering the causes and principles of the LDS. no
4. Being a practicing Mormon is a criterion for employment or advancement in the organization. no
5. Practices and activities that are explicitly Mormon are official parts of the organization’s operation. no
6. The organization looks to the Mormon Church and to Mormon Church leaders for guidance on issues related to its business. no

gay wedding prop 8, marriott, marriage equality, boycott, What’s critical with any of the criteria in Tier 1 is that an organization could only have these features if they were "designed in". With the exception of #6 (Looking to the LDS Church for guidance), these features would be created and supported by official organizational systems — like HR systems, operational procedures, mission statements and communication practices — that are structured into the organization. And, because they are structured in, they are less likely to shift with the personalities of the leaders, the pressures of the business cycle, or management fads. They are more likely to be enduring practices, and thus closer to the core of the organization’s sense of itself.

Tier 2: Suggestive but not sufficient indicators of a Mormon Organizational Identity

It’s in the second tier of criteria where things get a little blurrier. These criteria are used by outsiders to infer a Mormon identity– but none of these features insures that the organization operate in a way that is officially Mormon. Said another way, none of these features ‘makes’ the organization behave in one way or another– all of them require some other kind of agency (like a CEO dictating certain practices) to move from some person’s identity as a Mormon to the organization being assigned the identity of Mormon.

As for the ways in which Marriott is related to Mormons or the LDS Church — through its current CEO, through some and certainly not that many employees and some shareholders– there is a legal (and operational) separation between the "organization" and these individuals. The behavior or an employee (whether CEO or housekeeper) can’t make the organization Mormon, and even the influence of shareholders (if some of these shareholders advocate for more Mormon practices) is diluted and indirect enough to be negligible. And, the identity of any given employee(s) does not dictate the identity of the organization.

Tier 2:
Suggestive but not sufficient indicators
1. Practices and activities that are consonant with Mormon principles but are not explicitly Mormon are part of the organization’s informal culture. no
2. The organization contributes to the Mormon Church and/or to the Church’s initiatives through its philanthropic activity (e.g., sponsorships, CSR, pro bono work, etc.). no
3. The organization is endorsed by prominent members of the Church. no

4. The majority of the organization’s employees are practicing Mormons.

 no
5. The organization’s CEO is a practicing Mormon. yes
6. Some employees of the organization donate money and time to the LDS Church. yes
7. Some percentage of the organization’s shareholders are Mormon. yes

lesbian_wedding, authentic organizations, leadership, mormons, prop 8, homophobia, organizational values If an activist argues that boycotting Marriott is the right thing to do -because Marriott is a Mormon organization– the activist is wrong. Marriott is not a Mormon organization.

The only potentially persuasive links between Marriott and the Mormon church are through the church membership of the CEO and the idea that some shareholders’ personal wealth comes from Marriott corporation profits.

With regard to the CEO, Bill Marriott has publicly, clearly and officially articulated that his religious views and the values of the Marriott corporation are separate and distinct. Moreover, Bill Marriott explains:

Neither I, nor the company, contributed to the campaign to pass Proposition 8.

As for the ways that some shareholders choose to use their wealth, it would seem inappropriate to punish an entire organization for the church membership of those who hold 30% of the shares. This strategy punishes not only the 70% of shareholders who aren’t LDS members, but also assumes that the shareholders who are LDS members are against marriage equality– an assumption which is incorrect. A better strategy is to identify the individuals who contributed as individuals, and boycott or ‘out’ them.

What should marriage equality activists do instead of boycotting Marriott?

Given the arguments against punishing Marriott for being Mormon when it isn’t, there are more effective and more logical actions available to marriage rights activists. They should:

BlueCakes —  Boycott the organizations that have– as organizations- contributed to the Yes on 8 Campaign. These organizations include Container Supply Company , which as an organization donated $270,070.000 to the campaign against same-sex marriage rights. The Container Supply Company seems like a pretty "authentic" target– not only did the organization donate but also its owner, Robert Hurtt, contributed 300,000 of his personal money to the campaign against marriage rights.

— Publicly call for prominent Mormons who hold leadership positions in the LDS Church and who had shown some support for gay rights– folks like Bill Marriot — to advocate within the LDS Church for civil (if not religious) rights for GLBT individuals and families.

Stay tuned for the next post, The Case Against a Marriott Boycott (part two): Marriott is LGBT-friendly, not "anti-gay". In the meantime, share your thoughts about Marriott, Mormons and marriage rights, by adding to the comments, below.

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What Do Sarah Palin, Bill Marriott and John Templeton, Jr. Have In Common?

November 17, 2008

They are all damaging some organization’s reputation, by causing "collateral reputation damage ® ".
Sarah Palin is causing collateral reputation damage to Palin Wine.
Bill Marriott is causing collateral reputation damage to The Marriott Hotels & Resorts Corporation.
John Templeton Jr., MD, is causing collateral reputation [...]

Read the full article →