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Marriott Hotel CEO Responds to Prop 8 Allegations
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Photo by José Carlos Cortizo Pérez via Flickr
Bill Marriott, the Chairman and CEO of Marriott International, posted a blog entry on the company's website yesterday defending his own and his hotel brand's involvement in Prop 8's success. Marriott is heavily involved in the Mormon community. Is he feeling the financial pressure? Is he unfairly guilty by association? Or is he just chiming into the issue?
As many of you may know I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some might conclude given my family's membership in the Mormon Church that our company supported the recent ballot initiative to ban same sex marriage in California. This is simply untrue. Marriott International is a public company headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, and is not controlled by any one individual or family. Neither I, nor the company, contributed to the campaign to pass Proposition 8. The Bible that I love teaches me about honesty, integrity and unconditional love for all people. But beyond that, I am very careful about separating my personal faith and beliefs from how we run our business...
Our principle is backed up with a formal diversity program, which we established more than 20 years ago. Our Board of Directors has also focused on this priority and helped us be a leader and a better company. We were among the first in our industry to offer domestic partner benefits, and we've earned a perfect 100% score on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index for two years in a row. Many of our hotels have hosted LGBT community functions and events for years.
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