Corporate officers of Marriott International told five pro-family leaders on Wednesday that they will respond by July 1 to concerns over in-room pornography.
In a historic meeting, the pro-family leaders, including Tom Minnery, senior vice president of government and public policy for Focus on the Family Action, presented Marriott executives with more than 100,000 signatures of men and women who want to stay in Marriott hotels but don’t want in-room porn.
“Those 102,000 petitions sat in two very fat binders in the middle of the conference room table for the entire meeting, which took well over an hour,” Minnery told Stuart Shepard in a Turn Signal interview distributed to Focus Action e-mail subscribers on Wednesday. The executives seemed impressed that “so many people in such a short amount of time” signed the petitions.
Minnery told the executives many of the people who signed the petition have stayed in Marriott hotels and that nearly 8,000 stay often enough that they are Marriott Rewards Club members.
The hotel chain seems prepared to address customers’ concerns.
“Marriott told us they are about to unveil a new chain of hotels called Nickelodeon, aimed at families, where there will be no pornography,” Minnery said. “We thanked them for that and we praised them for that. We’d like to proclaim from the rooftops steps in the right direction. We’d rather be their friend than their enemy.”
Another pro-family leader who attended the meeting said Marriott will reconsider how it presents video services to its guests.
“One of the things [we suggested] was opting in [for porn movies] instead of opting out, and that means that if somebody wants to watch porn they would have to call the front desk and turn it on,” said Phil Burress, president and executive director of Citizens for Community Values. “I don’t want to be overly optimistic here, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction and there will be follow-up.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
