A secret, high-dollar LGBT donor conference planned at The Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles has been moved following news that its owner, the Sultan of Brunei, would be instituting a death-by-stoning penalty for gay people in his small Southeast Asian country.
The Washington Blade reports:
The OutGiving conference, known this year as “Winning the Heartland,” was set as of Thursday to take place at the Beverly Hills Hotel from May 1-4, according to the registration website for the conference.
The hotel is owned by Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah [pictured], who announced this month plans for his country to start punishing same-sex relations with death by stoning in addition to subjecting perpetuators of rape, adultery and extramarital sexual relations to the same punishment. That policy would be consistent with Islamic Sharia law in the predominately Muslim country.
After the Washington Blade raised the connection on Thursday with the Gill Action Fund, which organizes OutGiving, the organization said it had notified the hotel earlier in the day the conference would no longer take place at that location.
The paper adds:
The United Nations has already criticized the new policy in Brunei. Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said, “Application of the death penalty for such a broad range of offences contravenes international law.”
