We Founders of the Washington Spa Alliance (WSPA), an organization founded to ensure that the ideals of spa are met through policy and action, hereby request the larger hospitality, spa, and wellness communities repudiate the statement that there is “blame on both sides” in the Charlottesville violence, and repudiate white supremacists and Nazis, including the marchers in Charlottesville, whom President Donald Trump described as including “fine people.”
Which is why we now request of our professional colleagues that no spa or wellness or hotel industry events or galas be scheduled to be held at Trump properties, either in D.C., or elsewhere until President Trump clearly affirms—without equivocation or self-contradiction—that he was wrong to blame “both sides” for the murder of Heather Heyer and wrong to excuse those who marched beside those wearing Swastikas or bearing Confederate banners.
Fortune 500 CEOs have taken a stand. Now it’s our turn.
We support a growing number of voices speaking out against bigotry, including such esteemed non-profits as the American Red Cross, the American Cancer Society, and the Cleveland Clinic that have recently announced the cancellation of events and galas at Trump-owned Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach.
Fortune 500 CEOs have taken a stand. Now it’s our turn.
As spa, wellness, and hospitality professionals, we recognize that Donald Trump is the first hotelier to hold the office of the U.S president; Donald Trump is the first spa owner to hold the office of the U.S. president; and we recognize that those of us who also work in these fields hold a special responsibility to speak clearly and to speak now to state there is no place in the hotel industry or in the spa and wellness communities for the defense of white supremacy or Nazism.
Submitted by the following WSPA Founders,
Mary Bemis • Mary Gendron • Mary-Elizabeth Gifford
Sign the Petition