Gay Rights Crusade Against Stoning in Brunei Began with a Los Angeles Labor Dispute

[Omaha Steve]

Last edited Tue May 13, 2014, 07:59 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.buzzfeed.com/lesterfeder/how-a-los-angeles-labor-union-orchestrated-a-boycott-of-the

“Stories need a hook,” said a spokesperson for UNITE HERE Local 11. The union had been fighting the Beverly Hills Hotel and the Hotel Bel-Air for over a year, but it wasn’t until LGBT activists got on board that their efforts found traction.

posted on May 7, 2014 at 4:44pm EDT

J. Lester Feder BuzzFeed Staff Jacob Fischler BuzzFeed Staff


Jonathan Alcorn / Reuters

For more than a year before the Beverly Hills Hotel became the target of a boycott, a Los Angeles labor union had been trying to draw attention to the fact that it is owned by the sultan of Brunei, a tiny Southeast Asian nation with laws criminalizing homosexuality. Almost no one cared.

How this went from a failed ploy in a labor dispute to an advocacy campaign involving celebrities including Ellen DeGeneres to Jay Leno is one that could only take place in the age of internet outrage, when relationships between American activists and social media go a long way in determining which human rights causes blow up and which ones go virtually unnoticed in the United States.

UNITE HERE Local 11 spokeswoman Leigh Shelton told BuzzFeed that the union began trying to shine the spotlight on Brunei’s LGBT rights record in February 2013, as part of an effort to drive business away from the Hotel Bel-Air and the Beverly Hills Hotel, both owned by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah’s Dorchester Collection hotel company. The effort stemmed from a feud stretching back to the 1990s, when the union was shut out from representing the Beverly Hills Hotel after it went through renovations. The union was shut out in similar fashion from the Hotel Bel-Air in 2009. In researching the hotel’s ownership, UNITE HERE discovered that Brunei has actually long had a law criminalizing sodomy well before the new Sharia code, dating back to its days under British colonial rule.

The union produced a video urging people to “take a stand against homophobia” and “dump” the Beverly Hills Hotel. “The Beverly Hills Hotel is owned by the nation of Brunei, where it is illegal to be gay,” the video proclaimed.

FULL story at link.

[theHandpuppet]

1. A proud kick in support of Union labor and human rights for all

[Earth_First]

2. +1

K&R

[William769]

3. kick & recommended.

[seveneyes]

4. Why not an Executive order to seize the assets of human rights abusers?

Especially if it's a nation doing it. Why has this not been done yet?

[genwah]

7. Yeah, well besides the law, there's the danger of diplomatic reciprocity. Especially after the Bush

administration, do you really want countries all over the world to be able to seize asserts of human rights abusers?

We overthrew the democratically elected leader of Iran, that didn't work out so well. Do you now want to give the extant government of Iran the right to seize property here? I'm sure the equivalent of an Iranian Executive order would be forthcoming.

[seveneyes]

8. Pull out any Americans from their hellhole

Then cut off all assets they may have here. No human rights abusing nation is coming here to take anything.

[genwah]

9. Umm...you really want to stand by that? " No human rights abusing nation is coming here to take

anything."

Really?

No kidding, "any human rights abusing nation"?

Never mind that we ARE a human rights abusing nation, look at who our "friends" are overseas. What are you willing to not buy from Walmart? Or pretty much anywhere else, even if you support your local mom-n-pop store. Your diet will suffer, your comfort. Which is the most important calculus to consider when looking at the American Voting Population.
I say again, really?

[thucythucy]

5. Thanks for this OP.

It's post like this that bring me back to DU, time and again.

Great big K & R!

[LostOne4Ever]

6. I stand in support of both Unions and LGBTQ rights!

K&R for this story!

[Iggo]

10. K&R

[Overseas]

11. K&R. With thanks to Unite Here union!

[niyad]

12. k and r

[socialist_n_TN]

13. I think the real story here is........

the working class getting involved in social issue politics and vice versa. As a Marxist, it's my view that the working class MUST lead the struggle, but since we're almost ALL either workers or of the class (even LGBT workers), then it's good to see some connections being made. Even if it's just on a single issue or struggle.

The next connection to make is to understand that we won't get rid of these social problems permanently until we get rid of the system that fosters those problems solely in the cause of profits, i.e., capitalism.

[Bluenorthwest]

14. What does 'even LGBT' mean? Why that language of separation?

nt

[socialist_n_TN]

15. Good point........

Mea culpa. I just meant that we're all workers first, then the social identification, but I was posting quickly this morning before I went to work and didn't think it through.