Travel & Leisure receives backlash for gay ad

by Sarah Boone
Journalism Intern

Last week, anti-LGBT group American Family Association created a petition directed towards Travel & Leisure for displaying a Hilton ad that shows a gay couple in bed in its June issue. The group said that readers of the magazine found the ad to be shocking.

Hilton ad featuring two gay men in June issue

The editor, who is gay, of Travel & Leisure has responded and says he is proud of the magazine for running the ad.

Read his letter below, from Travel & Leisure.

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This week we at Travel + Leisure found ourselves at the center of a surprising dust-up: an organization called the American Family Association started a petition against the hotel company Hilton Worldwide, thanks to an advertisement that appeared in our June 2016 issue. While the petition has gathered some steam (reportedly more than 40,000 people have signed it), many have also come out against the AFA’s stance.

The ad, which encourages the reader to book a room at one of Hilton’s many brands at Hilton.com to get the lowest price, includes a photograph of two young and attractive men in bed together, one with his arm around the other, smiling warmly as they listen to something through a shared set of earphones. There is nothing overtly sexual about the image, and the men are not even shirtless (which is how I sleep, personally). It’s a shot that captures an intimate moment of happiness—maybe even love.

So what’s the issue? According to the AFA, by placing the ad in a “mainstream” publication like Travel + Leisure, Hilton is “purposely marketing the promotion of homosexuality to a large segment of the population who finds the idea of two men sleeping together unnatural and offensive.”

Hmm. I think you could also say Hilton is promoting the joy of travel, and the simple fun that two people can have together when they are relaxed and staying in a nice hotel room. But then again, I’m not someone who is offended by the idea of two men sleeping together. Because that’s what I do every night.

I came out when I was 19, and have lived openly and proudly as a gay man ever since. Three years ago, I married my husband, a wonderful man who makes my life—and my travels—so much richer. I write about Charles and the places we’ve gone together fairly often in my Editor’s Note in the magazine, and I have been quietly pleased that there’s been no hate mail or threats of canceled subscriptions. To me, that’s a reflection of how open and accepting the Travel + Leisure audience is—qualities that I think go hand in hand with a love of travel.

The rest of the letter can be read here.

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The Gayly - 8/1/2016 @ 5:06 p.m. CDT