(NOT) SPENDING MONEY IN SAN DIEGO:
A few months back, I told you about how gay activists were boycotting the Manchester Grand Hyatt, a major location for those attending Comic Con International at San Diego, because of the hotel owner’s donations to anti-gay causes including Proposition 8 which will de-legalize gay marriage in California.

It does my heart good to hear that the boycott is being discussed by some of the creators who will be attending the Con this week. At this point, it’s too late to decide to give up a room at the Hyatt as a moral stand. However, as Christopher Butcher points out, the Hyatt is also a popular place to get a drink with three bars that are usually crowded every night and, thus, it’s still possible for LGBT-supportive Con attendees to take a stand – with so many bars in the area, why not spend your drinking money elsewhere?

Being one of the closest hotels to the Convention Center, the Manchester Grand Hyatt is known as a good place to spot comic creators and one reason to get a drink there is the possibility of spending time around popular artists and writers. Hence, I’m happy to see various industry names like SLG Publications’ Jennifer de Guzman, DMZ and Channel Zero creator Brian Wood, supporting the boycott in comment threads at Butcher's site and at The Beat. Meanwhile, the always-outspoken Lea Hernandez suggests people save their bar tabs and send it to the hotel as documentation of how much money they didn’t spend at the Hyatt’s bars.

Oh, and while we’re on the topic of who gets your money when you’re in San Diego, might I remind you about the time the nearby Omni Hotel shut down Margaret Cho’s performance because they disapproved of her material?

WHO WATCHES THE FILM TRAILER EDITORS?:
Last week, we got a trailer for the Watchmen movie and, overall, it looks great. Still, I’ve got to ask – why does a trailer for a movie that’s supposed to deconstruct and examine the superhero genre look so much like a typical superhero movie trailer? I’m a little worried here.

You can check out the trailer here, what do you think?

I know a high-profile, big-budget movie like Watchmen isn’t going to find a wide enough audience by playing up the themes and moral questions raised by Alan Moore, but without those parts why bother turning Watchmen into a movie? Maybe I would feel better if there were a falling bottle of Nostalgia Perfume amongst the visuals?

WE'VE GOT MEET UP SIGN!:
If you want more to anticipate in San Diego (and if you’re going, you’ve got plenty of good stuff ahead) here’s one more thing to get excited about – the Gays in Comics meet up on Saturday night. This year’s event at Flicks will be the first team-up between Prism Comics and gay comics site Pink Kryptonite. I really need to make sure I don't miss another trip to Comic Con next year.

After the break: Anti-gay comics and comic book villainesses!

So, although the Romance Writers of America decided, after some soul searching, to continue to define romance as that sweet, sweeping feeling of insanity love between two people (rather than, as some members wanted, between a "man and woman"), Hyatt Hotels apparently doesn't feel the same.

Male/male romance novelist Laura Baumbach attended the Romantic Times convention in Houston last week, and found out that the host hotel, the Hyatt Regency Houston, had a problem with her books, her promotional material, and apparently, gay romance in general.

On her blog, Sensually Wicked Man Love (would I make that up? COULD I?), she wrote:

I write gay erotic romance and fiction. I write in a RWA accepted genre. I’m at a romance conference. My writing wins awards. My books are on best selling lists on both Amazon and B&N. My work is good! I own a small press that print publishes only gay erotic romance and fiction, MLR Press. But I couldn’t find my promo and that of the other gay work I represent anywhere.