Harrah's Entertainment can use any business leverage it can get these days and it just received the endorsement of Stand Out for Equality, an opposition movement spurred by the passage of Proposition 8 in California (where Harrah's Rincon has been hosting same-sex nuptials). Harrah's is the only casino company listed on The Gay-Friendly List, save for the small (but enlightened) Eldorado Casino in Henderson.
The good news for every other casino is that none of them made The Blacklist, which targets businesses and (in an ethically questionable move) individuals — including several judges and lawmakers — for boycott or "buycott," as Stand Out is calling it, laying particular emphasis on the holiday season. If you're in Vegas this weekend and feel strongly about the issue, there'll be a march from the Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada (953 E. Sahara Ave.) at 3 p.m. on Saturday, ending at the Flamingo Road/Maryland Parkway intersection. Meaning you can A) make a political statement, B) get some exercise and C) ferret out Christmas bargains at Target, near the terminus of the march.
If MGM Mirage would like to carve out a bigger share of the gay dollar, it might rethink its plan of fobbing Luxor off on LGBT patrons as the "gay ghetto." (What, Circus Circus wasn't available?) Seriously, it sounds like one more "try anything" non-solution to the Strip's most identity-crisis-plagued property. It's a lovely thought, too: Give 'em the "death-themed" resort, the one that's home to Bodies and the Titantic exhibit, to say nothing of being designed in the shape of a tomb, fer crissakes. Oh, and it's home to the most reviled show in Cirque du Soleil history.
With Bellagio, The Mirage and Mandalay Bay (home to Broadway on the Strip) from which to choose, why Luxor? But it could have been far worse: MGM could have tried to steer the gay crowd to Excalibur instead … though the exterior does resemble a Village People iteration of Camelot.
