Hilton Hotel & Resorts has made a commitment to the LGBT community:
At Hilton, we are proud to support the LGBT community as a way to further the Hilton brand promise of ensuring that every guest feels cared for, valued and respected.
On November 17 2017 Hilton Sydney will be hosting the Australian Christian Lobby’s Embolden Conference:
The Australian Christian Lobby is committed to eroding the rights of LGBTIQ Australians. They are actively campaigning against marriage equality, Safe Schools, and the dignity, respect and inclusion of every same-sex attracted, intersex, and gender diverse Australian.
In short, the ACL are a hate group that considers homosexuality immoral and does not believe same-sex couples should be parents.
It is unclear to me how Hilton Sydney are “supporting the LGBT community” by hosting an event for an organisation that is actively destroying the lives of LGBT people.
It appears that Hilton are not walking their talk by taking a booking from a prominent anti-LGBTIQ hate group.
At the same time, the ACL have form in booking their events at venues that are known to be openly supportive of the LGBTIQ community, as demonstrated by the 2014 debacle where the ACL booked the pro-LGBTIQ Hyatt Canberra for an event that resulted in Hyatt forging a stronger relationship with Australian Marriage Equality.
It is clearly a tactic of the ACL, to further their victim status, to knowingly book a pro-LGBTIQ venue on the expectation the venue will be called out for doing business with an anti-LGBTIQ hate organisation.
By hosting an ACL event, and with the ACL fulling engaged in the No campaign against marriage equality, Hilton Sydney are complicit in the devastating effect the postal survey on marriage equality is having on the mental health of the LGBTIQ community.
In lieu of Hilton Sydney hosting the ACL event on November 17, the least they can do to show their support for the LGBTIQ community is to donate, up-front, the proceeds from this event to the Yes campaign. An additional donation toward the Yes campaign would go a long way to demonstrating their commitment to LGBTIQ people.
Going one step further I would like to see Hilton Hotels issue a statement advising they will not take bookings from hate groups and organisations that actively lobby to degrade the human rights and dignity of any group of people.
Stand up for equality Hilton. You are better than this.