Gay activists indignant over huge
donations pouring into California in support of Proposition 8 – the
ballot initiative that if passed would constitutionally forbid gay
couples from marrying in the State – are calling for boycotts on
the businesses of the largest anti-gay donors.
Two weeks ago, Californians Against
Hate launched a website and a call-in campaign against San Diego
businessman Terry Caster, owner of A-1 Self Storage, after the
California Secretary of State verified that the Caster family's
combined anti-gay marriage contribution of $293,000 was the largest
from San Diego County.
The group is also boycotting Doug
Manchester's two San Diego hotels, the Manchester Grand Hyatt and the
Grand Del Mar, and his McCall, Idaho resort, the Whitetail Club, due
to the hotelier's reported $125,000 donation in support of the gay
marriage ban.
And William Bolthouse Jr.'s $100,000
donation to the anti-gay campaign resulted in a Saturday
demonstration against the Bolthouse Farms brand of juices and drinks
at a California supermarket.
“William Bolthouse's huge financial
support was one of the main reasons that this constitutional
initiative [to ban gay marriage] qualified for the November 4th
ballot,” wrote Californians Against Hate Campaign Manager Fred
Karger in an email. “His money helped enable Protect Marriage to
hire hundreds of paid professional petition circulators to collect
the signatures necessary to qualify this initiative for the November
ballot.”
Karger described the campaign against
Bolthouse Farms as an effort to get the message out to the gay and
lesbian community and its allies to purchase a different brand of
juice, coffee drink and salad dressing than those carrying the
Bolthouse Farms name.
“Why should we spend our hard-earned
money buying Bolthouse Farms' products only to have it used against
us?” Karger asked.
Saturday's event was held at Ralphs
Supermarket in Hollywood, California, where activists carried signs
that read “Don't Buy Bolthouse!” and passed out literature on the
gay marriage amendment.
Bolthouse Farms Chief Executive Jeffrey
Dunn told the Wall Street Journal that William Bolthouse Jr.
is no longer affiliated with the company since its 2005 sale.
But Californians Against Hate
disagrees, saying that Andre Radandt, Bolthouse's son-in-law,
continues to serve as Bolthouse Farms' chairman and that the
organization markets itself as a fourth-generation company.
Gay marriage is currently legal in
California after a May Supreme Court ruling reversed a 2000
voter-approved gay marriage ban. Since then thousands of gay and
lesbian couples have married. Proposition 8 seeks to make gay
marriage in the Golden State illegal once more.