First the Crystal Lake Holiday Inn decided that the Illinois Minuteman Project couldn’t hold a private meeting on immigration.
Protesters, you know.
Now the Naperville Holiday Inn has canceled an Americans for Truth banquet out of fear of protest from homosexual activists.
The group’s leader Peter LaBarbera wrote the Holiday Inn “dropped our reservation due to the possibility of a ‘gay’ protest against us.”
“It seems that there is now a sort of politically correct homosexual ‘heckler’s veto’ that’s forcing or persuading businesses to do things to decent people that they wouldn’t normally do.” LaBarbera told OneNewsNow.com reporter Jim Brown.
According to Brown’s article on the AFT web site,
The pro-family group was well into planning a fundraising banquet at that facility for October 6, when the Inn’s General Manager Dennis Igoe cancelled the group’s reservation, citing safety issues for the hotel’s patrons.
Those concerns stemmed from the possibility that homosexual activists would protest the event and resulting negative publicity for the hotel, not from AFT’s planned activities.
Igoe’s actions were upheld by the Holiday Inn corporate offices, leaving AFT to scramble for alternate accommodations.
Now there are two reasons not to patronize Holiday Inns.
The banquet has been re-scheduled for Friday, October 5th.
Dear Cal,
Thank you for your work. McHenry County Blog is a great service to your community.
Please consider a “correction” or amendment to this post.
I am not well-informed on the Illinois Minutemen Project, but I know that their cause suffers for your comparison to “Americans for Truth” as does the whole of Conservatism.
Though I value the right of AFTAH members to think whatever they want, their method of “free speech” shows a blatant disregard for the accepted standards of honest debate in the western tradition. To not mince words, AFT (as they usually call themselves) are the worst sort of liars.
Even their moniker: “Americans for Truth” (they seem to almost never use the addendum “about homosexuality,” just google them to confirm this) is an attack on the accepted organizational ethics and an obvious attempt to hide or mischaracterize the very central mission of the group as a group opposed to the expansion of rights and societal acceptance for gays.
Even their logo seems a hilarious admission that they’ve spared no duplicity– on even the smallest details. How is the “statue of liberty” not irrelevant to their cause? How can it be anything other than an irresponsible appeal to nationalistic pride and a fallacious appeal to authority? Untenable.
Indeed, the assertions of this group (their “truth”) are the worst kind of irresponsible and immoral unfounded conspiracy theory. Ridiculous allegations that the true agenda of “Gay Rights” organizations is the destruction of Judeo-Christian ethics are obviously unfounded speculations about the motives of people they don’t even know!
I could go on and on (as every story I looked at on their website seems an attack on the very concept of honest debate), but I’m sure I don’t need to– please re-examine this groups web-page, I believe you’ll come to the same conclusion.
It is easy for good people with strong beliefs to fall back on unethical means to manipulate people for “a good cause.” But their kind of “speech” disregards the whole accepted ethics of honest communication in favor of outright lies and manipulation. And while freedom of speech should be the most sacred tenant of any democracy, allowing intellectual dishonesty of the most blatant kind (such as “AFTAH”) legitimizes their despicable means and weakens the very foundations of “Truth” (Can we Americans trust what is “true?”) that freedom of speech rests upon.
“Freedom of Speech” should never be construed to guarantee liars a place at the market place of ideas, or even worse, that private individuals must grant them a place on their property. I applaud Holiday Inn. I hope that you too will take a stand against this group and its methods. They don’t deserve to use you as a forum.
Thank you for your honest consideration.
Sincerely,
MJH