March 22, 2009

Napa, California: We Don’t Need Your Stinking Gay Dollars Anyway

It’s one thing not to pass the resolution. It’s another thing to dive deep into Pretzel Logic territory and pretend that supporting equality would be “discriminating” against homophobes. But the thing that gets to me most is the attitude of the city’s vice mayor, who couldn’t make it any clearer that she 1) doesn’t get it, 2) doesn’t care that she doesn’t get it, and 3) would rather see us bothersome homos take our pink money elsewhere.

Lady, you’ve got your wish. I was hoping to scrape together a few bucks this spring to introduce my wife to the wine country — but with that cavalier attitude, you can bet your boots that Napa is out of consideration.

That said…

Napa doesn’t back same-sex marriage,
pair axes trip

Bethany Holden-Soto and her wife were planning a weekend getaway in Napa — until they found out the city council had just declined to pass a resolution in support of same-sex marriage.

“We want to take a trip with our tax return money and Napa seemed like a nice place,” said Holden-Soto, 28, of Modesto. “We like wine and we wanted to go somewhere gay friendly, where we wouldn’t have to worry and people wouldn’t care. Then I heard about the resolution and thought it might be a bad idea.”

On Tuesday, Napa City Councilman Mark van Gorder asked his colleagues to support a resolution saying the “city does not support discrimination and finds that all people regardless of gender should be able to enter into the legal contract of marriage.”

He was the only one who voted in favor. Three other council members did not vote, saying they were not comfortable taking a position on the issue. The vice mayor did not attend. …

“It’s really heartbreaking that even with the majority of voter support and two solid hours of public testimony in favor of the resolution, our elected officials refused to even vote,” said Deb Stallings, a Napa resident who married her partner in June. “Napa is a place that has a world-class reputation and we thought it would be cool to tell the world that we are a place where everyone is equal. It would have gone a long way to make us feel worthy.”

The controversy reflects the divide statewide over gay marriage - but in Napa, a boycott over the council’s lack of support could hurt the town’s many tourism-related businesses. Elsewhere in the Napa Valley, a St. Helena city councilmember is drafting his own resolution in favor of same-sex marriage. …

James Krider, a councilmember who uses a wheelchair and voted against a park project in the past because it wasn’t accessible, said he is familiar with discrimination but said a resolution supporting same-sex marriage would be discriminating against residents who supported Prop. 8.

“I feel like I have to represent everybody, if I discriminate against one, I discriminate against all,” he said.

Read that again. How anti-gay does a person have to be to come up with that kind of tortured logic? Krider doesn’t want to “discriminate” against those who discriminate? That’s the kind of whackadoodle crapola you hear from the radical religionists: “Not letting me kill your civil rights is oppressing me!” (I wonder if Krider is a radical fundy? Anyone know?)

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.”

No, but there is a lack of empathy, decency, and common sense among the city council.

Jiminy Cricket on a crutch, Ms. Inman, are you really as clueless — and ice-cold stonehearted as you sound? Or are you just masking some deep-seated bigotry behind a veil of feigned ignorance?

Holden-Soto also wrote to several Napa bed and breakfast hotels telling them how she felt.

“They assured me that the council doesn’t represent them and they are gay friendly. I’m kind of torn. I don’t want to do business with the city, but I don’t think the inns should be punished.”

Bethany, I think the council made it perfectly clear it would prefer you take your business elsewhere. To be concerned about “punishing” the business owners is very gracious and considerate (far more considerate than the city has been in its official dealings with you), but you are not doing the business owners any favors by caving in — and I’ll tell you why: If you do not make a stand against the city council’s appalling devil-may-care dismissiveness, Napa business owners are going to continue to be represented, and governed, by a council that has demonstrated in no uncertain terms that it does not care about the success — or failure — of those businesses.

As I see it, the primary job of a city council is to keep the money flowing — to spend what needs to be spent to keep the town operating, and to make sure the local businesses have what they need to keep money coming into the city coffers.

The Napa City Council is failing to work for the best interests of its local business owners, and in turn, shortchanging the residents who rely on the health of local business to keep their city functioning.

You won’t be “punishing” the inns, Bethany — the city council is already doing that. You have already made the inns understand that their city council is not representing them well, not working on their behalf, and in truth is actually working against them. If you cave in and stay in Napa now, your words will mean nothing. But if you take Ms. Inman at her word — and you should, as Ms. Inman is speaking in her official capacity as the face of Napa — you should be looking for another place to spend your weekend. (I suggest Guerneville!)

You’ve already done your job, Bethany; now it’s time for Napa business owners to do theirs — that is, decide if nonchalant bigotry is the face they want their city to show the world.

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.

Posted by: Sapphocrat

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