Hilton Gives Free Wedding to Gay Couple Refused by Sheraton

Gay vlogger turned away by Sheraton.

LGBT Americans are targets of the Trump/Pence regime in its quest to grant special rights to Christofascists and to legalize anti-gay discrimination.  In this atmosphere, it makes it all the more important that LGBT individuals know who their allies are both in society and in terms of the corporate world.  A situation arising in Mexico concerning a gay wedding has made it clear that some businesses are LGBT allies and some are not. In the situation involved, Hilton Hotels are allies and Sheraton Hotels arguably are not.  A piece in LGBTQ Nation looks at Sheraton's rejection of a same sex couple and Hilton's coming to the rescue, if you will. Here are highlights:

The Hilton hotel in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico will host the destination wedding and reception of Josh Rimer, the gay travel blogger and winner of Mr. Gay Canada 2019, for free after the rival Sheraton Buganvilias Resort & Convention Center turned Rimer away because it doesn’t “specialize” in same-sex marriages. Rimer has accepted the Hilton’s offer to host his April 2020 wedding and has also accepted the offer of a free honeymoon cruise to Lisbon, Portugal from the travel company VACAYA.

Two days after Rimer published a video about the Sheraton resort’s initial refusal to host his same-sex wedding, the Hilton tagged Rimer in an Instagram post, stating, “We’ll gladly host your wedding ceremony and feast for FREE for you and your 45 guests at Hilton Puerto Vallarta!”

In response, Rimer wrote, “Amazing, what a kind offer!”

The take away?  When traveling, stay at Hilton hotels rather than Sheraton properties - at least until Sheraton fires the management that trashed this gay couple. The pink dollar has power and we need to use it.  Another LGBTQ Nation piece looks further at Rimer's reaction with which I agree:

He thought that a hotel chain might welcome a gay travel vlogger like him who has 34,200 YouTube subscribers that could be influenced to stay at their resort. He’s also disappointed that the resort didn’t at least say that they had plans to accommodate same-sex weddings in the future.

Rimer said until he received answers about what happened, he’ll never to stay at another Sheraton resort again.