Bill Marriott getting out in front of the Prop. 8 backlash

Bill Marriott is trying to anticipate some possible backlash about California's Proposition 8--opposing gay marriage--on Marriott properties, it seems, with a recent post on his blog.

In case you hadn't heard about it, here's some background on the brouhaha. Joan Eisenstodt recently wondered whether Prop 8's passage, and the Mormon Church's presumed role in its passage, might splash back on Utah as a whole. It hadn't occurred to me that someone might hold it against the Marriott chain due to the religion of its founding family.

Bill's blog post reads, in part:

As many of you may know I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some might conclude given my family's membership in the Mormon Church that our company supported the recent ballot initiative to ban same sex marriage in California. This is simply untrue. Marriott International is a public company headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, and is not controlled by any one individual or family. Neither I, nor the company, contributed to the campaign to pass Proposition 8.