Honeymoon spots for same-sex marriages
Same-sex marriages start today in California — the first at 5:01 p.m. — and some resorts and hotels are eagerly awaiting the happy couples. After all, hotels have been courting gay and lesbian travelers for years, but the recent California Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage may boost bookings for weddings and honeymoons.
“I’m excited about this ruling,” says Kenny Karst, spokesman for the upscale Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park, which hosts about 300 wedding receptions each year. “I think it’s going to open up a lot of avenues for gay and lesbian couples to be able to celebrate their lives together.”
The Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles, top, has a special “Celebrate Pride 2008″ offer for same-sex couples who stay two nights: a one-year membership in the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. The offer, which runs through Dec. 30, 2008, is good at 25 of Hyatt’s hotels nationwide that are participating in this program, including the Hyatt at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, where PlanetOut will host a Pride Rocks party on June 28. The package this weekend at the L.A. hotel runs $259 per night. Info: (310) 228-1234.
– Mary Forgione, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
[Photos: Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, top; Ahwahnee Hotel by Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times]
51 Comments on “Honeymoon spots for same-sex marriages”
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June 16th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Bravo! I wish you all much happiness. Don’t let the small-minded naysayers get you down.
- A middle-age heterosexual woman.
June 16th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
That’s great they’re doing that for gay and lesbians. Do they offer the similar benefits and rates for heterosexual couples too????
June 16th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
I will never step into another Hyatt hotel ever again. Rub it in our faces why don’t you. So when would hetero couples get a deal because they are normal. Never again.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
I’m certain that the Hyatt has had straight-only marriage specials from the very day they opened their doors. It’s well-nigh time there are gay marriage specials too.
June 17th, 2008 at 12:29 am
I look forward to Hyatt’s forthcoming promotion offering a discount on rooms coupled with a nice donation to Focus on the Family.
Somehow I don’t think that one will be forthcoming, even though it could arguably drive as much business as the Pride promotion.
Wonder why.
June 17th, 2008 at 2:14 am
People are freaking out about gays having the right to get married, will it’s not about gay rights, it’s about human rights and gays deserve the right to a bitter divorce too! Equality for all
June 17th, 2008 at 4:25 am
This message is for Maria: You small-minded neocon! For many years SEVERAL HUNDRED years, heterosexual couples have had deal after deal, benefit after benefit and special after special. NOW once EVERYONE can participate in LIFE and get a special, you get your feathers in an uproar. This is just a small step in a process that will give equality to EVERYONE, not just heterosexual couples. Get your head out of the sand and out of Rush Limbaugh’s ass for once in your life!
BRAVO California!
Keith and Jim
June 17th, 2008 at 6:21 am
gay marriages make me sick!
June 17th, 2008 at 7:09 am
maria, you sound like an angry hispanic who just crossed the border. i don’t care and you don’t matter…. to this hispanic.
June 17th, 2008 at 7:44 am
In response to Maria: Hyatt hotels have had marriage and honeymoon packages for years for straight couples… so you feel like you’re being discriminated against? Stop playing the martyr just because for the first time in years gay and lesbian couples are being recognized, and that you aren’t being included. Welcome to the discrimination that gay and lesbian couples have been struggling with for decades.
June 17th, 2008 at 8:10 am
I would add anywhere in Canada to the list (especially Banff National Park) and the Kimpton Hotels — Green and GLBT Friendly (they just had a booth at DC Pride)
June 17th, 2008 at 8:18 am
Pretty sick and tired of the whole minority issue. If it were normal, then people would never be able to “come out” of that lifestyle, condemning it for what it is–sexual perversion! The squeaky wheel is getting some grease today, but not without a price!
June 17th, 2008 at 8:29 am
marie, dahllink,
stick to motel 6 like your used to.
cheers,
echoman2000
June 17th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Um, get used to it Maria. And no one’s rubbing anything in your face. Look at all the perks straight people have enjoyed for centuries! A discounted room at a Hyatt is hardly something to get worked up over. I would trade that in a heartbeat for just the acceptance of something as simple as holding my partner’s hand in public. “Every Man is Equal.”
June 17th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Right on California!!! LIFE LIBERTY AND THE THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS!!
June 17th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Never will go to a Hyatt Hotel again. As it is faced as a commercial “freedom” to do that, so is my decision (and millions more) not to accept it. Let’s see for how long they can handle it! That’s disgusting!
June 17th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Oh, my god, you people are hateful! For the length of history, we have not been able to marry and now we are. Don’t you think that warrants a special occasion for Hyatt? There is no such special occasion for straight people - you’ve had the ability to marry all along. This is nothing but a smart business decision for Hyatt.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Seriously - do you people read? The Hyatt special is for : a one-year membership in the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. You don’t need to stay at Hyatt to join - you can join online. Now spend your time learning to read instead of interfering with other people’s lives. Good Lord.
June 17th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
What’s wrong with same-sex marriage? It was our founding fathers who laid the foundation of human rights and privacy in the U.S. Constitution. We all talk about rights and freedom everyday and now not everyone deserves the same rights?
June 17th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
The Hyatt offer doesn’t seem to mention any special pricing, only adding a one-year membership in the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
If Maria wants the membership that badly, I’m sure they’d give it to her. :-)
June 17th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
I will always look at the year 2008 as a very good and history making year from the 2008 elections and the right of same sex people to marry
June 17th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Everyone freaked out when gay marriage began in Massachusetts and Canada in 2003. And now the public there doesn’t care and overwhelmingly supports it.
Same for the five other countries where gay marriages are now legal: South Africa, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, and Spain.
Congratulations to California for leading the way to a more inclusive, compassionate, and civilized America.
June 17th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Can I believe in a God that is infinite yet personal on every level?
Can I believe that that God became man?
Can I disagree with someone, yet still support, love and treat them with respect?
For a religion that is based paradoxes why is the easiest one to understand, so hard to do for so many people?
I don’t know. I struggle with this.
Anyways, congratulations to everyone getting married today. If I had the money I’d by Voluspa candles for everybody!
June 17th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I think life will go on just as it always has…
on June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled, “Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State”
and so it goes, and it will.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
As a conservative Republican who believes in both individual freedom and unfettered commerce, I say, “Good for Hyatt.” Makes me more likely to stay there again, as I did this weekend.
June 17th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
I always thought America was the land of the free. Wouldn’t freedom to marry be included in that? Even if it is against your religion, get over it. No one is telling you who to marry!
June 17th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Maria - perhaps you should just stay home in the trailer park
June 17th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
That’s it? Two mainstream hotels are the best you could come up with for gay honeymoon spots? Come on, you can do better than that.
I’d suggest going to a gay resort where you can celebrate openly without running into hateful people like “maria”. Do a search on “gay resort” in some of these areas and you’ll find a great selection:
Any major city in Canada
Palm Springs, CA
Key West, FL
Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico
San Francisco, CA
Provincetown, MA
Fire Island, NY
most of Europe
Sydney, Australia
Atlantis, Olivia, RSVP, or ‘R-family’ cruises
June 17th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
GROSS! DISGUSTING! SODOM AND GOMORRA ALL OVER AGAIN! THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT NORMAL!! WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO? YOUR DOWNFALL IS COMING!! WHEN JESUS WALKED THE EARTH, THESE PEOPLE WOULD BE STONED!!
June 17th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Gay marriage is so wrong. Now, polygamists and other perverts will be applying for marriage licenses, and committing sodomy at these sinful honeymoons resorts as well.
June 18th, 2008 at 3:56 am
I have friends and relatives who are homosexual, their choice. BUT marriage is for man and woman. The seed of God was NEVER meant for the sewage system of man.
This is NOT about equal rights but it is about special rights. Where will the line be drawn? What about deals for porn addicts, pedophiles, bestiality lovers, etc?
The seed of God in the sewage system of man…People can do whatever, but don’t ask for special privileges.
The government can legislate whatever, it is still not real marriage–man and woman fit like a lock and key–
Lastly, it is perfectly acceptable to have a deep love for the same sex, but again, the seed of God was not meant for the sewage system of man.
June 18th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
looking for newly married gay couples planning to honeymoon in Honolulu. I am doing a story on possible surge in gay honeymoon business here.
Denby
June 18th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Congrats. California for a big step forward in HUMAN RIGHTS. I am horrified by the homophobic comments on this site. Homosexuality is not a choice - you are born that way. If it was a choice do you thank that gays would actually want to be subjected to prejudice and ridicule every day of their lives. Grow up. Its the 21st century. We’re all human beings and the fact that some of us love someone of the same sex is not something to be condemned but celebrated.
June 18th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
I think that some of you people really need lives. Why do you care if gays can get married. It’s not special rights, it’s human rights and I say good for California. They are finally saying what anyone was a mind big enough to process logical though knows, it doesn’t matter who you love, it only matters how you love. In the words of Abraham Lincoln: Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. So keep your petty ignorant thinking to yourself if you can’t become educated enough to know that it’s wrong, but don’t deny gays marriage if you expect the right for yourself.
June 19th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Just remember that England now offers legal civil partnership ceremonies and many churches offer blessings. Suggest you try Brighton on the South Coast. Good luck and ignore the small minded lost souls who bleat about “the sewage system of man”. Love on ya. S
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:01 pm
PLEASE!UNDERSTAND WE LOVE YOU GAY PEOPLE.BUT NOT WHAT YOU ARE DOING REGARDING YOUR SEXUAL PREFERENCE. YOU ARE SO REBELIOUS,SELFISH,STUBBORN AGAINST YOUR CREATOR.AND ALL CREATION WILL SUFFER,BECAUSE OF YOU.EVEN CHILDREN.THE WRATH OF GOD WILL COME. LIKE SODOM AND GOMORRA. REPENT.
June 24th, 2008 at 7:32 am
The Religious Fundamentalist Extreamists are all in a rant about Gay marriage for only one reason. This issue has been used by these hate mongers and their Hate Crusaders as a “Cash Cow”. This issue has raised more money for their hate machine than any other issue, including Abortion. If they are interested in doing “Gods Work” why are they not out feeding the hungry, clothing the poor and providing housing for the homeless? God never once said anything about homosexuality. The men who wrote about it in the bible had the same bias as these crazies today. Won’t judgment day be a day of reckoning!!!!
God made all men and all women just as they are. Live and let live. If you don’t want a same sex marriage don’t have one. If you don’t like the church that performs these weddings don’t go there. If you don’t like the cities gay people live in move. If you don’t like the United States of America and the constitution get the HELL OUT!!!
June 24th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
It seems that all the naysayers ground their retrograde positions in religion. Civil rights in America spring from the Constitution and not the bible. Gay people are constitutionally entitled to the same civil rights as straight people. You can hunker down in your church and preach anything you want to each other. Just don’t try to impose your religious views on the rest of us.
June 25th, 2008 at 3:29 am
It seems from reading Wellsfords proposal that they are really interested in giving gay couples the same advantages as straight couples. They realize that gay couples will need residency…but in reality, they went the extra step to provide an agency to plan the wedding reception or honeymoon which seems to say they are interested in the want to have a great marriage. After all, they could have just stopped at the rebate on the sell if they were not interested in the equality.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
MARIA - MARIA PLEAE ENJOY YOUR FEW MOMENTS OF FAME. I’M NOT SURE WHY THESE PEOPLE ARE GIVING ANY TIME TO YOU. REMEMBER HOW WE JUDGE SO WE GET JUDGED. YOU PROBABLY CAN’T AFFORD HOTEL 6 LET ALONE THE HYATT
June 26th, 2008 at 9:10 am
as a former georgian, never have i been so proud of my adopted home state. this is an issue worth pulling out the state flag for. and for all the bellyachers, especially the woman who said if jesus were around he would be stoning people to death…..you know better. jesus is weeping, and it ain’t because two lesbians are saying “i do”…its because of haters like maria. this is a free country. take your mean, bitter, hateful message to the backwoods and trailer parks where it belongs. luckily your age is coming to an end!
June 26th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I’m proud to live in Palm Springs, CA. I was reminded what a refreshing breath of air this city is when I took a ride up to Joshua Tree for a graduation ceremony at a local school and everyone there seemed to be the most homophobic idiots in the world.
I was born and raised in a small town in Georgia, and even there people weren’t as homophobic. Yikes!
July 1st, 2008 at 9:53 am
Seed of God? Sewage sysem of man?? Whaaaaaa????
Ohhhh, it’s anal intercourse that really sticks in the craw of this Christian! Seed …. sewage … get it?
But …. don’t straight guys have anal intercourse with women — their wives even? And once the man figures out how to do it right, the lady loves it?
We are veering seriously away from the Christian objection to same-sex relations here and heading over the Sodomy thing. Which, you will remember, was resolved for all 50 states in the Texas case.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Have anyone here traveled to the Caribbean at charlisangels adult sex vacations resort?
July 29th, 2008 at 11:27 am
The whole homesexual / same sex marriage thing is vile, disgusting, and repulsive. To raise children is this abnormal environment is reprehensible. I have often wondered why homosexuals feel the necessity to have a parade to flaunt this “normalcy”. If heterosexuals were to have their own parade with floats of near naked men dancing people would be appalled. But should someone complain when this takes place in gay parades, it presents a problem. This latest social experiment will certainly be a part of our downfall.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Editor’s note: A comment posted in June under Mr. Sonderleiter’s name by someone other than himself (referred to above by KDB) has been removed from this thread.
September 18th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Heck… where are the dscounts for single people… Why are we not getting in on the discounts??? why should it be only for married couples and gay people
October 1st, 2008 at 7:30 pm
well to the people who do not believe in gay marriage tough luck. hell we being waiting for a long time.so get your head out of your … cause we are winning,we paid taxes,we work hard, we have nice home,so of us are save we have faith in god do not judge us that’s for god to do. thanks hyatt. next year lf i live to see it me and my partner will be honeymoon thier,you will not lose no money thier accounthell it will only add to it. think you again for giving us somewhere nice to relax at.god bless.
October 2nd, 2008 at 9:19 am
A same-sex honeymoon in Yosemite? Now that’s what I’m talking about. I write a blog for gay travel agents, and I’m always encouraging outside-the-box thinking when it comes to gay travel.
OutTraveler just published their list of Top 5 gay honeymoon destinations, and it kind of reads like a circuit party sampler. Very disappointing. (See http://travelgaygent.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/top-5-homo-honeymoon-spots-really/.)
My attitude is this: Make your honeymoon a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Why get married, then retreat right back to the gay ghetto?
October 20th, 2008 at 11:01 am
If this is advertising homosexual honeymoon vacations how come there is a heterosexual couple at the top of your advertisement? Shouldn’t you be proud of your commitment to the homosexual and have pictures of gay couples?
November 4th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Sorry… homosexuals can never ever achieve a “normal” status because it is unnatural at the least and perverted at the worst. It is not about hate or bigotry it is about biology. It is an insult to me that we even have to vote on an issue that gives special rights and protection under the law, for crying out load,, to a perverted lifestyle for a small group of sexually sick people. Besides we already voted on this and the militant proponents have done what they want irregardless of what the majority wants. We are now on a slippery slope and the two opposing views can not coexist. Lines have now been drawn and the people who support this immoral lifestyle will push it upon every one of us “biological normal” citizens. The only “hate” I’ve seen is coming from their camp and it is directed at anyone who opposes their agenda. So just who is imposing their belief system on whom? Well, I for one will not support any business or organization that supports and encourages sexual perversion. I’m going with God’s definition of marriage. These businesses will find out that they will only have so many clients who will patronize their outfits and then start changing their stripes when they find that the majority will not support them, when traditional families leave them to their gay clientele. I think it is a very stupid business decision, but hey what do I know?