Napa
winery to donate funds to support gay marriage
by Chris Rauber,
SF Business Times from the Web, December 6, 2006
O'Brien Cellars, a brand
of
O'Brien Family Vineyard,
said Tuesday it's started a "progressive" philanthropic program to donate 20
percent of revenues from its online Equality Wine Store to a civil rights group
that supports an end to California's
ban on same-sex marriage.
The family-owned
Napa vineyard and winery said it will automatically
donate those funds to Equality California, a San Francisco-based lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender civil rights organization. Winery owners Bart and
Barb O'Brien said their goal is to help wine lovers support equal opportunity.
That makes O'Brien the
latest in a surprising long line of businesses and large foundations to support
the gay and lesbian group.
"We have created an
opportunity for wine lovers to support marriage equality by purchasing a wine
that supports the cause directly," said Bart O'Brien said in the Dec. 5
statement. "We hope to raise over $100,000 for EQCA in 2007."
Geoff Kors, Equality
California's executive director, thanked the winery and the O'Briens for their
generosity and for helping "to create full equality for the gay and lesbian
community."
He also told the San
Francisco Business Times that gays and lesbians have a track record of loyalty
to businesses that support equal rights for all, regardless of sexual
orientation. Further information on the Wine for Equality program can be
found on EQCA's web site at
www.eqca.org and on the O'Brien Cellars web site via
www.seductionwine.com.
Other business-related
supporters of Equality California, listed on the advocacy group's web site,
include
Contempo Homes,
the
Evelyn & Walter Haas Jr.
Foundation,
Proteus Fund Inc.,
Olivia Cruises and Resorts, Atlantis Events,
Century Crowell Communities LLP,
MTV
Networks/Logo,
Shadowrock Development Corp.,
AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP,
Edison International,
Foley & Lardner LLP,
Gap Inc.,
Latham & Watkins
and
Wells Fargo.
Kors said the California
State Automobile Association and
Comcast
have also signed up recently as sponsors of Equality California. His group
has offices in Los Angeles,
Palm Springs and Sacramento, as well
as its headquarters in San Francisco.
Susan Olson, a
spokeswoman for the winery, said the O'Briens also market "very private"
romantic tours of their vineyards and winery, and that some participants of
those tours have been gays or lesbians who have shared their feelings about the
inequities of California's
marriage laws. The owners "are building relationships with other gay and
lesbian organizations as well," Olson told the Business Times.
Earlier this year,
O'Brien Cellars became an EQCA statewide sponsor and it now donates all of the
wine for the EQCA's Equality Awards dinner events. The winery, which
includes a 33-acre vineyard and produces up to 8,400 cases of wine annually,
also was the wine sponsor for the San Francisco Pride Celebration 2006. It
currently produces three wines, an estate chardonnay, an estate merlot, and
Seduction, a Bordeaux
blend.
The O'Briens say their
winery started as a romantic dream 20 years ago, and they want other couples to
share a similar dream, "regardless of gender."
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