Anti-gay group accuses hotel of bias - Inn defends cancellation of banquet room

Anti-gay group accuses hotel of bias - Inn defends cancellation of banquet room
BY TIM WALDORF Naperville Sun
Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times
August 30, 2007

The Naperville Holiday Inn Select has turned down business from Americans for Truth.
Now the ultra-conservative, Naperville-based national organization dedicated to "confronting the homosexual activist agenda" is accusing the hotel company of illegal anti-Christian, anti-conservative discrimination.

Peter LaBarbera, executive director of Americans for Truth, said his organization had placed a $750 deposit with the hotel to reserve a banquet room for its annual fund-raiser Oct. 6.

But the hotel canceled the arrangement, LaBarbera said, after he was "naive enough" to acknowledge that the event might draw protests by "homosexual activists."

Holiday Inn Select General Manager Dennis Igoe called LaBarbera's allegations of discrimination "ludicrous."

"We took a look at what we had at the hotel on the same evening. We had a wedding in the other ballroom," Igoe said. "For the safety and security of all of our employees and guests, we decided that it is not a function that we wanted to have, based upon the potential of having a protest."

LaBarbera said his group has booked a different venue in Lombard for the fund-raiser and changed the date to Oct. 5.