El Coyote Manager Resigns Over Prop. 8 Boycott

The restaurant manager who created controversy with her $100 contribution to the “Yes on Prop. 8″ campaign has resigned from the legendary El Coyote Mexican Cafe in Los Angeles.

Marjorie Christofferson, who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is also resigning as a member of the restaurant’s board of directors, according to a news release issued by Frontiers.

Will Christofferson’s resignation be seen by the LGBT community as reason enough to cease a boycott of El Coyote?  We’ll soon find out.

Billy Schoeppner, the restaurant’s acting manager, told Frontiers:

“She no longer works here,” Schoeppner said on Saturday. “She just told me tonight.”

Christoffersen [sic] created a firestorm of controversy for the 77-year-old L.A. institution after local blogs broke the news she had donated $100 to the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign. Long a popular destination for the LGBT community for its cheap Mexican food and generous Margaritas, El Coyote found itself the target of boycotts and demonstrations after Christoffersen’s donation went public. In a press conference hosted by the restaurant days after the news of the donation broke, Christoffersen tried to explain her donation did not have to do with animus for gay and lesbian people, but was instead tied to her Mormon faith. Christoffersen did not apologize for the donation and did not indicate she would support any No on 8 organization. Boycott organizers and demonstrators were not impressed, and have argued online and in the local news media that Christoffersen’s support for the ban of same-sex marriage was reason to shun El Coyote.

Schoeppner said Christoffersen tended her resignation to her mother, Grace Salisbury, who is described on the El Coyote Web site as the “matriarch” of the restaurant. Salisbury’s sister-in-law founded El Coyote in 1931.

“Everybody is kind of used to her walking around the restaurant with a water pitcher going from table to table to table,” Schoeppner said of Christofferson. “I guess that part is no longer going to exist.”