Source: Denver Post, Colorado Independent
Boulder, CO -- Congressman-elect Jared Polis (D-Boulder) and his partner, Marlon Reis, are expected to join 100 or so other protesters at the Century Boulder Theatre Sunday afternoon to protest a donation given the the theater company's CEO to the Prop. 8 campaign in California.
Alan Stock, CEO of Cinemark-Century Theaters which owns the Boulder moviehouse, donated $9,999 to the Yes on 8 Campaign, approved by California voters this month. The proposition prohibits same-sex marriage and has sparked other protests by equality activists.
The Century Boulder Theatre is being targeted because in December it will begin showing the film Milk, the story of San Francisco's Harvey Milk.
The film by Gus van Sant traces the life and death of California's first openly gay elected official (San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk) who was a leader of a successful 1978 campaign against an anti-gay initiative in California.
Protest organizers hope Sunday's protest will prompt film-goers to see the movie in a theater not owned by Cinemark.
In Colorado, Milk is also being shown at the Mayan Theater in Denver, an independent moviehouse, according to Colorado Independent.
"I think it's great people are voting with their wallets and hopefully going to see this movie elsewhere," Polis told the Denver Post. "Seeing it here (Century Boulder Theatre) contradicts everything Harvey Milk stood for."
Polis said he will ask Stock to make an equal contribution to a gay-rights cause.
"I think the company should make at least a good-faith effort and if they are willing to do that, I think they have an opportunity to regain the loyalty of the gay and lesbian community," Polis told the Post.
Focus Features, which is distributing Milk, intends to play the film in some Cinemark theaters, Los Angeles Times reports. But that has only encouraged online organizers to step up their efforts.
A website, called Anybody BUT Cinemark has been established to help movie-goers find theaters that aren't part of Cinemark's extensive network.
A Facebook group set up to encourage a general boycott of Cinemark theaters has attracted about 2,600 members. Another group on Facebook, No Milk for Cinemark has attracted almost 22,000 members who have pledged to watch the biography of Harvey Milk at a theater not owned by Cinemark.
It's ironic that a film honoring Milk will enrich the man who contributed to the downfall of equal rights for gays in California, said Johann Moonesinghe, a Boulder resident and organizer of Sunday's protest.
"We are not going to support a theater whose owner took away a large portion of our rights," Moonesinghe said, according to the Denver Post.
A similar protest at a Cinemark theater in Evanston, Ill. attracted about 400 protesters who carried signs and shouted chants on the sidewalk outside the theater.
Source: Boulder theater protest set by activists for gay rights | Denver Post
Polis to join anti-Proposition 8 protest at Century Boulder Theater | Colorado Independent