LGBT & Allied Groups Call on Hollywood: ‘Don’t Sleep with the Sultan’

“Don’t Sleep with the Sultan,” says the headline on a full-page ad in the current issue of entertainment industry publication Variety.

Bearing the logos of several LGBT and allied organizations, the ad encourages readers to boycott the Beverly Hills Hotel and the Hotel Bel-Air. Both hotels are Dorchester Collection properties. Dorchester is owned by the Brunei Investment Agency. The hotels have faced a protest and a high-profile boycott as a result of its connection with the government of Brunei, where Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah has begun implementing a shockingly severe version of Sharia law.

Here’s the text of the ad:

When you stay at The Beverly Hills Hotel, the Hotel Bel-Air, or any of the other Dorchester Collection properties owned by the Sultan of Brunei and his Brunei Investment Agency, you’re funding a regime that could soon start flogging women who exercise the right to choose and stoning LGBT people for being who they are.

Please stand with us and send a message to the Sultan of Brunei that his medieval brand of brutality has no place in the 21^st century.

If you’re planning an event at one of the Dorchester hotels, please host it elsewhere. If you’re going out for drinks or a meal, dine at a property whose owner doesn’t support the oppression of women and LGBT people. And please don’t spend a night at any of the Sultan’s Dorchester Collection of hotels.