LGBT donors cancel conference at Brunei-owned Beverly Hills Hotel

A group of high-dollar LGBT donors has cancelled plans to hold its upcoming conference at the famed Beverley Hills Hotel in Los Angeles following news that its owner, the Sultan of Brunei, would institute a revised penal code in his country which calls for death by stoning for homosexual activity.

The Washington Blade reports that the “OutGiving conference,” organized by the Gill Action Fund, notified the hotel on Thursday that the conference would no longer take place at that location, and that a new venue would be chosen asa result of the new laws in Brunei.

The hotel opened in 1912 and over the years has become a destination popular with royalty and celebrities, and is now owned by a development group controlled by the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah.

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Brunei, a predominately Muslim state in Southeast Asia where homosexuality has long been criminalized, will implement a set of extreme Sharia laws that demand death by stoning for homosexual acts, adultery, rape, murder, and for declaring oneself to be a non-Muslim.

The United Nations has criticized Brunei’s adoption of the Sharia Penal Code, claiming it does not meet international human rights standards.

The revised penal code comes into effect on April 22.