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.”
December 9th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
I personally do not hold anything against this woman for adhering to her lifelong religious beliefs, no matter how much I may disagree with them. Had she reversed her attitude at our behest, she’d essentially be selling out her faith for commerce, in effect trying to “serve God and mammon”, and for a religious woman, what’s respectable about that? As far as I’m concerned, Marjorie will be missed, and El Coyote will be further diminished by her absence. As if it didn’t have enough reasons to be diminished already.
December 9th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
re: selling out her faith…
Drinking is a sin, but she makes money selling world famous margaritas. Mammon – 1; God – 0
If she can sell alcohol and keep a clear conscience, why can’t she let gay people get married?
El Coyote is tainted. I won’t go back anytime soon. And I won’t recommend it to my friends if they’re in town.
December 15th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Congratulations. You gave the beat-down to an old woman AND killed the jobs (during a recession, no less) of those in the gay community.
Well done sir. Well done indeed!
“Sections of the restaurant have been closed, a manager told me Friday during a very quiet lunch hour. Some of the 89 employees, many of them gay, have had their hours cut, and layoffs are looming.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez14-2008dec14,0,5995847.column
January 13th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
The best comment above is about how they serve alcohol and coca-cola. True, I guess she did sell out since caffeine is probably above hating gays on the Mormon Church’s hate list. You’d think Mormons who have been the victims of bigotry for decades wouldn’t have used lies and slander in their ad campaigns. But like I’ve always said the loudest proponents of any religion are the biggest hypocrites.