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Sunday, March 22, 2009

Will Napa equality resolution's failure brings tourism down with it?


Bethany (left) and Cynthia Holden-Soto canceled a trip to Napa when the city declined to back same-sex marriage. (Al Golub / Special to The Chronicle)

[Editor's smart-ass-"did-anybody-notice" note: Not to hate on the couple, but the picture highlighted on SFGate (and above) show's them deliberating their big Napa trip in a fast-food joint (Carl's Jr.?), so how much missing tourist-dollar are we really talking here? Smart-ass aside, I know that the industry--and those at risk of losing jobs--are counting on every single dollar that comes our way. So I take that back.]

The Chronicle (via SFGate) printed an article today covering Napa's failure to pass (or even engage) a resolution in support of marriage equality and it's most immediate effects: a lesbian couple canceled their trip to Napa.

Do you think that Napa's failure to pass the equality resolution will affect tourism?

[Update: apparently we are making news with the failure to support this resolution. Sapphocrat, over at lavendarliberal, posted a lengthy response to the Chronicle's article also claiming to have canceled future trips to Napa because of the Council's failure to support equality. They carefully point out the stupidity of some of the Council's repsonses highlighted in the Chronicle article:
Holden-Soto, the Modesto woman, wrote to each of the councilmembers expressing her dismay with their decision not to support the resolution.

“I have concerns that your actions indicate that Napa is not a place where gay people are welcome to visit or spend their vacation dollars,” wrote Holden-Soto.

Vice Mayor Juliana Inman wrote back, thanking Holden-Soto for her note and saying, “I do hope that you find a suitable location for your getaway.”

Holden-Soto said she was shocked to read the response. “It was like she didn’t care.”

Inman, who recently had surgery and didn’t attend the meeting, said she didn’t know of any cities in Napa County that had approved such a resolution, so she didn’t understand why Holden-Soto was so upset.

“If it is important for her to have a getaway in a place that has supported this resolution, then she should find one, and that’s where she should go,” the vice mayor said in a phone interview, noting the majority of Napa residents opposed Prop. 8. “I’m sorry she feels that way, but if you look at election results, I don’t think you will see there is a lack of support for gay marriage.”

...In the meantime, I know my wife and I won’t be visiting Napa anytime in the foreseeable future — at least not until the city gets a new council that doesn’t seem quite so eager for homos to take their business elsewhere.]

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