Supreme Court is preparing to consider the constitutionality of the law that would repeal existing protections for gay men and lesbians from discrimination in Denver, Boulder and Aspen. Incidents of gay-bashing, from yelled obscenities to telephoned bomb threats, escalated for weeks after Amendment 2 passed.īeyond that, he said, the boycott was largely promoted by groups from outside the state who failed to consult with local gay business owners and residents before urging tourists-including gay travelers-to stay away from Colorado. In some cases, Jakino said, even regular patrons were afraid to congregate in businesses with a gay label. And the boycott failed to put a dent in the state’s $340-million-a-year ski industry, which enjoyed record snows in 1992. Some groups booked meetings in Denver to take the place of those that had canceled. Entertainers Barbra Streisand and Whoopi Goldberg urged fellow celebrities to freeze out the “hate state.”īy the time the boycott was called off two years later, pending the outcome of court challenges that halted the law’s enactment, the movement had cost Denver alone $38 million in canceled conventions and left Coloradans divided and angry.īut the ultimate financial impact of the boycott is debatable. Nine major cities, including New York, Atlanta and San Francisco, barred their government employees from travel to Colorado on official business. Still, the nation’s largest gay-rights organizations and human-rights groups joined the boycott aimed at overturning the measure that bans state and local discrimination protections for homosexuals. It became politically correct to ski in Utah, Idaho and the High Sierra.įacing a drop in the state’s $5-billion-a-year tourism industry, business and political leaders tried to counter the snowballing movement with desperate public pleas decrying the reaction as harmful to everyone’s interests, including gay men and lesbians.
No sooner was Amendment 2, the anti-gay-rights measure, approved by Colorado voters in November, 1992, than a national boycott of the state caromed from Hollywood to Washington.