Tolerance on display in California – what a $100 donation can do

When California Proposition 8 passed in early November and I saw Hollywood actors, including Drew Barrymore, screaming that they would fight for the “rights” of tolerant gays who oppose the resolution that would define marriage as between a man and a woman, I knew it was going to get ugly.

So, how ugly did it get?

Michelle Malkin monitored the protests the weeks after Prop. 8 passed, and today she highlights a story from the LA Times recapping the aftermath of a $100 donation by a restaurant manager.

Christoffersen was a manager at El Coyote, the Beverly Boulevard landmark restaurant that’s always had throngs of customers waiting to get inside. Many of them were gay, and Christoffersen, a devout Mormon, donated $100 in support of Proposition 8, the successful November ballot initiative that banned gay marriage.

She never advertised her politics or religion in the restaurant, but last month her donation showed up on lists of “for” and “against” donors. And El Coyote became a target.

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.

The mob left, but so did the customers.

Sections of the restaurant have been closed, a manager told me Friday during a very quiet lunch hour. Some of the 89 employees, many of them gay, have had their hours cut, and layoffs are looming. And Christoffersen, who has taken a voluntary leave of absence, is wondering whether she’ll ever again be able to work at the restaurant, which opened in 1931 (at 1st and La Brea) and is owned by her 92-year-old mother.

Malkin asks… are you modern-day mob bullies proud of yourselves?

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

4 Comments

  1. Troy on December 15, 2008 at 1:38 pm

    Of course they are. "Stand against us and pay!" is their gameplan.



  2. scott on December 15, 2008 at 4:20 pm

    Still haven't heard of them targeting black business or churches . Supposedly 75 % of blacks who voted , voted for proposition 8. I guess they aren't equal opportunity protesters. They are acting like children who don't get their own way ignore them and eventually they will go away or come to Connecticut.



  3. Dimsdale on December 15, 2008 at 6:52 pm

    Scott makes an excellent point. The protester are being rather "undiverse" in their targets. It also makes me wonder how this would be reported in the news (given that this was never reported here, or I just didn't notice the flicker) if it were groups of heterosexual protesters attacking and terrorizing gay or gay supporting businesses?

    Quite differently, I would guess. Nah, it isn't a guess…



  4. Wyndeward on December 15, 2008 at 7:24 pm

    That's because attacking African Americans is not part of their playbook so, regardless of how appropriate or seemingly necessary a political rebuke would be, they aren't going to do it — it just isn't within their world-view.

    Likewise, when African Americans feel they have been wronged, they have been known to do something other than turn the other cheek… It is *soooooooo* much easier to attack someone you don't think is going to fight back. It's the same reason PETA targets old women in fur, rather than outlaw MC members in leather.



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