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Read the press release here.

Demonstrators Protest OUT Hotel Owners' Ted Cruz Meeting

By  Rosa Goldensohn and Danielle Tcholakian | April 28, 2015 2:18pm 

 Protesters said gay patrons should not support the hotel.
Protesters said gay patrons should not support the hotel.
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DNAinfo/Danielle Tcholokian

HELL’S KITCHEN — Dozens of demonstrators marched to West 42nd Street’s OUT Hotel Monday night to protest a meeting between the hotel's owners and Republican senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz.

Protesters chanted “Ignorance is no excuse, apology not accepted” and “Don't Cruz here,”  and unfurled a rainbow “Boycott Homophobia” banner as hotel guests and restaurant diners looked on.

Ian Reisner and Mati Weiderpass, who also own the commercial space at the gay mecca Fire Island Pines, were hit with a maelstrom of fury this week after they hosted Cruz at their penthouse apartment.

A Facebook group promoting a boycott of their properties amassed more than 10,000 likes in less than a week.  

After initially defending the meeting, which they said focused on Israel policy, Weiderpass and Reisner offered apologies to the gay community on Sunday night.

"I am shaken to my bones by the e-mails, texts, postings and phone calls of the past few days. I made a terrible mistake," Reisner wrote.

But demonstrators said the apologies were too little too late. "The only thing that they're sorry about is the money they're going to lose because of our boycott,” said Mark Milano, an activist with ACT UP and Queer Nation. 

They said the Cruz meeting was an unforgivable betrayal.

"Every time that a narcissistic politician like Ted Cruz makes a statement opposing the rights of gay people, the message to teenagers in rural America is that their nature is wrong,” said Peter Acocella of the Upper West Side.

Some guests at the hotel said they would return despite the boycott.

“I was uninformed until I got here about what as going on,” said Jeffrey Cloninger, 38 and visiting from Minneapolis. “But to me, it’s not a big deal. I’m driven by value.”

“If they were supporting or funding his campaign, I think I would be more put off,” said his friend Cory Ecklund, 35.

One protester, 40-year-old Bruch Reed, was holding a sign with a photo of Sean Verdi, a 23-year-old bartender who was found dead of an apparent drug overdose in Reisner and Weiderpass’ apartment last year.

"He was my friend and I'm here for him,” Reed said of Verdi.