It is one thing to vote for something you believe in, but when you donate to a ballot measure campaign, you would have to be an idiot to think that said donation would not crop up somewhere. Yet Margie Christoffersen, the owner of the El Coyote Mexican Cafe, on Beverly Blvd., is surprised today at the animosity the local gay community is showing her – even though she donated $100 to the Yes on Prop. 8 campaign, which made gay marriage illegal.
“A boycott was organized on the Internet, with activists trashing El Coyote on restaurant review sites. Then came throngs of protesters, some of them shouting “shame on you” at customers. The police arrived in riot gear one night to quell the angry mob,” wrote Steve Lopez, at the L.A. Times.
Now El Coyote appears to be sinking fast. Christoffersen is losing business, laying off people, and crying about her plight. Apparently she gave money to the Yes on 8 campaign because she is a Mormon – even though she KNEW she had gay clients and gay workers.
What was she thinking?
I don’t feel sorry for this lady. She brought this on herself. You don’t contribute to a hateful campaign that spites your workers and customers – you just don’t. Sure, she had a right to do this, but how stupid can you be? Now her business is tanking. That is just desserts.
Really, Art
Now that you are an independent consultant, how would you like to be the target of a boycott based on your political views?
In another era in another country, you’re the guy who’d have been backing “counter-revolutionaries” up in front of firing squads. Thank goodness all you have is this blog.
Matt/Jubal,
Lucky for me I am NOT a political consultant, unlike you. Let’s see how much business you and your boy Jeff Flint can drum up as this state turns completely blue. You two may have to move to Texas…
It is all about how we view the issue isn’t it. It is disappointing to see how low the gay community will go to get their way on this issue. Would we as Mormons or Catholics or blacks or hispanics gone out and trashed your business if we had lost on this ballot measure? No, we would have still come and utilized your business services, whatever that business may be.
It is evident by your use of the word hatred in describing those for Prop 8, that this is your view, that we hate you who are gay. You couldn’t be more incorrect in your assumption.
I am Mormon, straight, well traveled and have lived with gay men for years. I consider my gay friends to be some of the best friends I have ever had. Do they hate me for my views and do I despise them for how they view this issue? No. But do we disagree on this issue? Yes. Have they protested outside my business? No. Do they respect my views? Do I respect them and still send business their way? Yes.
Stop the rant against other good people who simply have a different view. I respect you, but allow me to have my sacred vote and please do not come trash my business just because I have a different view.
You think we hate you? Dead wrong! Many Mormon families have gay sons or daughters. You don’t think they struggle with this issue? Get outside the box and learn the good the LDS Church does in the world daily, including the L.A. basin.
This manager of a restaurant will be fine. She has always respected gays, including her gay employees. One can still love others, even though they may have differing points of view.
THIS Earl Scheib?? Scheib has been plagued with a high employee turnover rate due to the demands of attempting to paint up to five cars a day. The company’s main criteria in hiring and promoting management trainees is based on sales skills only. Knowledge of auto body repair or painting techniques is not required. Trainees undergo a short training period and are then assigned to their own shops. Any Manager who fails to increase sales for three successive months is fired, regardless of seniority or standing.[citation needed] Due to these high pressure sales demands, most talented trainees quickly move on to other more progressive organizations. Auto body, painting and prep personnel are represented by the Teamsters Union.
Nah, he died in 1992.
You are pretty clueless about the destructiveness of Prop 8. It is not about “differing points of view,” it is about denying a whole host of rights to 10% of Californians simply because… well, I guess you think they were born defective, and they should hide away in shame.
Outrages like this do call for strong reactions.
I guess we can count Vern in with the Liberal McCarthyists.
And Art, as usual, ducks the issue.
Matt/Jubal,
I guess I should be going easy on you now that you can’t get in free to the O.C. Fair concerts. I am sure you must be quite bereft. Maybe you can just rip some music off the Internet via Limewire?
Margie should stand up (or continue to) and support her position.
Obviously, she felt strongly enough to donate, she should stand by and expound on her reason.
Cowering behind the reaction is pitiful.
Matt accuses Art of dodging the issue. Perhaps we all, myself included, should do a better job of supporting our (or our wives) positions consistently.
I spout off frequently about issues dear to me, but, I seldom waiver.
The real story here is how Ms.Christoffersen feels regretful of her donation.
probably like a lot of Prop 8 supporters.
I’m glad gayfolk and their allies are waking up and no longer spending money with people who turn around and use that money against their own interests.
Who’s next on the boycott list?
Glad to see all you libs so concerned about the employees who would lose their jobs if El Coyote suffers financially (it’s Art, making the claim that it is, after all – so who knows if it is true?).
And Art still dodges my initial point, unsurprisingly. It might require admitting he failed to think through his voiced glee at whatever difficulties El Coyote is encountering.
In any case, it’s informative to watch the self-proclaimed “oppressed minorities” in the position of oppressor, and their subsequent rationalizations of their actions.
Matt/Jubal,
If you had bothered to read the Lopez article you would know that El Coyote is indeed in El Toilet. Many of their former clients are now shunning them. That is what happens when a business owner decides to support an initiative that is hurtful to her clients…
Do you feel guilty now Matt for helping put this monstrosity on the ballot – and for supporting it?
If the owner of El Coyote had not given a “political donation” in her own name for tax reasons, she might not be in this position. She could have simply donated anonymously to the cause.
But no, she used her money and her religious bigotry to try and hurt gays in the community and she was exposed.
She wanted it all: The tax break on the donation. The oppression and strife that she could help heap on gay people she doesn’t even know. Sticking it to her customers and employees with her religious biogotry wrapped in free speech.
Jubal, why don’t you just patronize El Coyote several times a week and help the woman out?
Oh wait, you’re not used to personally paying for your meals. You like us taxpayers to pick up your tab.
“Monstrosity”? I realize we’re dealing with the latest version of Art Pedroza — The Strident Social Liberal — but give the histrionics a rest.
I am very proud of whatever I was able to do to help Prop. 8 pass and defend marriage from government re-engineering.
Yes, Lopez says business at El Coyote is off. But he doesn’t agree with McCarthyists like you. And you still haven’t addressed my initial point — again, not surprising.
What’s lost in this discussion is a simple statement of principle. There are some gay people don’t want to give money to those who would do them harm so those people can do more harm.
I guess we can add Red Vixen to the ranks of lefty brownshirts who are all for tolerance as long as it applies to people they agree with.
Jubal, “how would you like to be the target of a boycott based on your political views?”, you mean like Disney and Ford? Disney and Ford have both been “targets” of conservative boycotts based on their gay-friendly policies (Disney) and advertising in gay-themed publications (Ford). Oh, how sad it is, when we reap what we have sown.
Jubal,
If someone was taking your precious guns away, you’d be screaming to the rafters. So why is it so easy for you to take rights away from, or prevent equal rights from a segment of your community.
You sound like those good old boys in the South who just couldn’t understand why black folk didn’t think it was good enough to drink from a separate fountain, sit in the back of the bus, enter through the back door, stay in a different hotel, and on and on.
Separate is NOT equal and never will be.
Mr. Jubal said, “I guess we can add Red Vixen to the ranks of lefty brownshirts (sic) who are all for tolerance as long as it applies to people they agree with.”
What a dopey comeback. And stale.
You violated Goodwin’s Law* way too soon in the thread. Boring and amateurish. No wonder you don’t generate much of a discussion on your own blog and need to come over to Art’s place where there are posters with some spark.
Try a little harder in effort to keep up, Mr. Jubal. You’ve got room for improvement.
*Godwin’s Rule of Nazi Analogies, sometimes also known as Godwin’s Law, is a theory put forward by Mike Godwin in 1990. Godwin noticed that long-threaded discussions on the Internet tended to turn into mud slinging competitions by the end. The longer a thread got, the more likely it was that a Nazi comparison would be dragged into the discussion. Godwin’s Rule states that: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.”
However, when Nazis are brought up because a conversation is not going well, it suggests that the other side may have won the argument. Furthermore, it weakens valid comparisons.
Additional information at this link:
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-godwins-rule-of-nazi-analogies.htm
Basically what Ms. Christoffersen is saying here is that gay Californians don’t deserve the right to marry, but they *do* deserve the right to spend money at her restaurant?
No wonder she’s singing a different tune now that SHE’s the one who stands to lose something.
Read more: Tacos, with a side of bigotry