LGBT Donor Conference Moved From Hotel Owned By Brunei Over Stoning Law

The Gill Action Fund has moved a conference planned for next month out of the tony Beverly Hills Hotel over Brunei's institution of death by stoning for homosexuality. The hotel is owned by the sultan of Brunei. The Washington Blade reports:

Kirk Fordham, executive director of Gill Action, informed the Blade that a new venue would be chosen in the aftermath of the announcement from the sultan of Brunei. “In light of the horrific anti-gay policy approved by the Government of Brunei, Gill Action made the decision earlier today to relocate its conference from the Beverly Hills Hotel to another property,” Fordham said. “We are seeking a return of all deposits.“ Even before the latest policy announcement, Brunei had a law on the books unfavorable to gay people. Homosexual acts were punishable with up to 10 years in prison. LGBT activists have previously targeted the Beverly Hills Hotel for its connections to Brunei and its anti-gay policy. Last year, the group Dump the Beverly Hills Hotel posted a quirky online video where individuals announced they were “breaking up” with the hotel unless its owners changed their homophobic ways. Fordham didn’t immediately respond to a follow-up email asking why the Beverly Hills Hotel was chosen for OutGiving in the first place given the anti-gay policies of Brunei prior to the latest announcement and the criticism to which the hotel has been subjected.

The sultan owns ten luxury hotels around the world. The only other US location is the Hotel Bel-Air, also in Los Angeles.

RELATED: On Tuesday the United Nations denounced Brunei for the latest Sharia laws, which are due to go into effect next week.

Frothy Mix: NY Has Destroyed Marriage

And he seems to deny the "man on dog" comment which earned him his Google infamy.

NEW YORK: DId Activist Tim Gill Spend $3M In Marriage Battle?

So claims NOM on their blog. But here's what the article they cite really says.

New Yorkers United For Marriage, a coalition composed of gay rights groups such as the Empire State Pride Agenda and Marriage Equality New York, and underwritten in part by the Gill Action Fund, reportedly spent $3 million on the spring campaign to pass the marriage bill.

Not exactly the same thing, but it's easier to single Gill out and keep him in the headlines as that "anti-family" boogeyman.

New Heights Of Hypocrisy For NOM

NOM is ALL upset because openly gay philanthropist and mega-millionaire Tim Gill has promised to oppose anti-gay politicians in his home state of Colorado. How dare he "threaten to dump" millions to oppose people who don't vote the way he wants them to! Oh wait, last month that's exactly what NOM said they would do to any Maryland legislator who voted for same-sex marriage.

Brittany Novotny Vs. Sally Kern

Sally Kern claims that "out of state gay millionaire" Tim Gill is secretly backing Brittany Novotny. Neither Gill nor his PAC have donated to Novotny.

Activist Tim Gill And Husband Buy Historic Phipps Mansion In Denver

The Denver Post reports today that activist Tim Gill and his husband have bought the historic Phipps Mansion from the University of Denver. Not earth-shattering political news, to be sure, but note how casually the Denver Post's front page story treats their marriage.

Political activist Tim Gill and his husband, Scott Miller, are buying the historic Phipps Mansion from the University of Denver in a deal expected to close by the end of the year. The house, which the university now rents out for events, will be the couple's primary residence. "Tim and I have been looking for a house that was very historic and that has a little bit of land so we can have a proper garden," said Miller, a wealth adviser at UBS. The couple, who married in Massachusetts a year ago, wasted no time making an offer on the house after hearing it was for sale last month. They signed a letter of intent to purchase the 6.5-acre estate a day after touring the property. The deal is slated to close Dec. 15 to accommodate events, including weddings, scheduled through the end of the year.

Just a little real estate news from a local Colorado power couple. Move along.

(Tipped by JMG reader Jerry)

Heavy Hitting New PAC Takes Aim At Anti-Marriage Equality NY Politicians

The powerful Gill Action Fund has joined with other well-financed LGBT activists to create a new political action committee called Fight Back New York, who plans to target the state senators who voted against December's marriage equality bill. First to face the ire of this new coalition is recently expelled NY Sen. Hiram Monserrate, who is running to re-take his seat in a March 16th special election.

The committee will start going after Mr. Monserrate, who was convicted of assaulting his female companion in a confrontation that left her requiring more than 20 stitches, by mailing fliers this week to voters in his district. The flier shows still frames of a surveillance video that shows him dragging his companion, Karla Giraldo, through the hallway of his apartment building in Jackson Heights, Queens. He was acquitted of a felony assault charge by a judge, who convicted him of misdemeanor assault. “He brutally assaulted a woman and tried to cover up his crime,” the flier says. “Now he has the nerve to run again. Many of us have voted for Hiram before. But we cannot vote for him again.” In the three weeks that remain before the election, Fight Back New York expects to send out at least five different fliers, upwards of 100,000 pieces of mail. The district’s population is around 300,000, but voter turnout in special elections is typically quite low. Mr. Monserrate, who would run as an independent, is facing Assemblyman Jose Peralta, a Democrat supported by the party and many leading Democrats.

In related news, the Empire State Pride Agenda has launched "Don't Get Mad, Get Even," a campaign in support of Monserrate's opponent, Assemblyman Jose Peralta. Visit the above link to donate to Peralta's very short but important NY Senate election bid. Monserrate has formed a new party he is calling "Yes We Can" (seriously) and will not be running as a Democrat.

Adding to the "only in New York" bizarreness, former NYC Councilwoman Helen Sears has decided to cross party lines and run against Monserrate and Peralta as a Republican. And the broken down clown car known as the New York Senate wobbles on.

Today: Double Your Donation To Prop 8 With The Help Of Tim Gill

Tim Gill, the founder of software giant Quark and gay social network Connextion, has made a $100K matching donation to No On 8.

Gill said “Proposition 8 needs all of our support to be defeated and protect marriage for gays and lesbians not just in California, but across the country. This amendment would eliminate the equal treatment of all Californians and write discrimination into the state constitution.”

Gill will match dollar for dollar all donations made by midnight tonight via the Connextion giving link.

Tim Gill Terrifies The Jeebus People

Gay activist Tim Gill has got the Christian right positively shaking in their pews.

Gill, the wealthy founder of software giant Quark who was recently named the fifth most influential gay person in America by Out Magazine, was "exposed" by Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcast Network this week as the "stealth" activist behind many recent advances for the LGBT movement in state and local elections across the nation. Gill's good work, while no secret to gay activists, had apparently operated far below the Christian right's radar until now.

But in the CBN feature story bookended by Robertson's commentary, the exposé almost reads more like a love letter to Gill than a condemnation. Go watch the CBN video clip as "family values" strategists describe Gill as brilliant and smart as they tick off the campaigns in which Gill quietly funneled money to gay-friendly candidates and upended right-wingers. Through his Gill Action Fund, Gill helped win dozens of state and local elections for our side - all done while remaining largely unknown to beleaguered Republicans.

From the transcript:

One of Gill's 2004 targets was Ray Martinez of Fort Collins, Colorado. As the three-time Republican mayor of this Republican leaning area, Martinez thought he had a great shot at winning a state senate seat. Martinez told CBN News "the odds looked very good. The polling we saw was very favorable." But in the last few weeks of the campaign, Martinez got hit with an avalanche of media attacking his personal character and pro-life stance.

"We didn't know who was funding it," Martinez said. "We heard rumors of their names, but we could never find their names and we couldn't expose those because they were buried in a barrage of paperwork." Martinez had raised over $300,000 - more than enough he thought to win Fort Collins. But several published reports show Gill and various associates had poured close to $1 million into the race through '527' political organizations.

By taking out Martinez and other Republicans, Gill helped Democrats seize control of Colorado's statehouse for the first time in 30 years. The result? A slew of gay-friendly laws that redefine the family in Colorado.

The Payoff

Today, pro-family lawmakers in the Rocky Mountain state say the "Gill factor" is impossible to ignore. State representative and Minority Whip Cory Gardner says "it puts extreme pressure on people who are trying to make a living at work and trying to raise money for a campaign who don't have deep pockets."

In 2005, Gill started the Gill Action Fund. The fund's mission is "securing equal opportunity for all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression." The next year, the fund's success rocked the political world. According to several published reports, it orchestrated donations worth $15 million to Gill's favored candidates and causes.

The payoff this time was wins in 50 of 70 targeted campaigns and power changes in the state chambers of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Iowa. Gill took out Iowa House Speaker Danny Carroll with one of his favorite stealth tactics: small checks from Gill and friends around the country. Carroll says he never knew what hit him until after the election when he checked campaign contributions for his opponent.

The clip ends with a shot of parents pushing their kids on a swingset as the narrator ominously warns that Tim Gill is looking to "flip statehouse chambers and ultimately, the way the country views sexuality and the family." I spoke with Gill on the phone yesterday and he laughed at that image, saying, "They're trying to say that I'm anti-swingset!"

Pat Robertson closes with this: "What are the Christians doing about this? The answer is 'absolutely zip'. There was an organization that I founded but it's not there anymore. To my knowledge, there is no other Christian grassroots organization that is even coming CLOSE to what Tim Gill is doing on the left for homosexuals."

And that, my friends, is high praise indeed.