Major League Baseball’s Joe Torre has canceled his big charity event at a Bel-Air hotel owned by the Sultan of Brunei, in protest over the new anti-gay laws enacted in the small Asian nation.
Torre’s annual Safe at Home Foundation L.A. Dinner had been scheduled for April 25 at the Hotel Bel-Air. The event has been held at the same hotel for years. But now the event will be held at the Sunset Tower Hotel all because of Brunei’s new sharia complaint laws, TMZ reported.
Torre is not the only one to pull his event from the Brunei-owned hotels. According to TMZ, The Special Needs Network and The John Wayne Cancer Institute have both fled the Beverly Hills Hotel which is owned by Brunei’s leader, Hassanal Bolkiah.
Last month, Brunei introduced harsh new shariah laws including death by stoning for adultery and gay sex.
The laws, which also include amputation for thievery, made Brunei the first East Asian country to enact such strict sharia laws.
The country’s new laws were enacted in the face of international condemnation.
Torre’s boycott of Brunei hotels comes on the heels of actor George Clooney’s call for Hollywood to cease doing business with Brunei-owned establishments.
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