Bill Clinton deserves credit for being the first president to court support from the gay community. But more often than not, gays have been rewarded for their support with disappointment.

His good intentions about lifting the ban on gays in the military resulted in the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and its bizarre institutionalizing of the closet. And he will forever be remembered as the president who signed the Defense of Marriage Act at the same time he was conducting an extramarital affair.

To his credit, Clinton opposed California’s Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment that repealed gays’ right to marriage last year. But yesterday he broke decisively with supporters of gay marriage by crossing a picket line to speak at a hotel under boycott because its owner was a major Prop 8 donor.

Clinton’s visit to the hotel was met with a robust protest:

Hundreds of gay marriage supporters protested former President Bill Clinton’s appearance downtown Sunday.

That’s because Mr. Clinton, who opposed Proposition 8, made a speech at the Manchester Grand Hyatt. The hotel’s owner, Doug Manchester, donated funds to the Yes on 8 Campaign.

Despite deafening chants from same-sex marriage supporters, former President Clinton arrived as scheduled to deliver a speech at the Manchester Hyatt.

“It’s a real slap in the face by Bill Clinton,” said one protester.

A slap in the face because Clinton – who campaigned against Proposition 8 – refused to cancel his speaking engagement with 2500 members of the International Franchise Association, after learning Doug Manchester, the owner of the San Diego hotel, donated $125,000 to the Yes on 8 campaign.

The engagement to speak to the International Franchise Association had been booked at least six years earlier, but Clinton ignored requests recently from political and labor groups to cancel the gig:

[On] Thursday, eight prominent supporters of organized labor and gay marriage, including San Diego City Councilman Todd Gloria, released an open letter to Clinton requesting that he call off or move the speaking engagement.

“Please do not violate our boycott,” it concludes. “Please do not speak at the Manchester Hyatt.”

Some who signed the letter were unhappy when told of Clinton’s decision.

“It’s shameful and hypocritical that President Clinton wouldn’t stand by his principles and honor two groups that he’s historically supported — labor groups and gay rights,” said Brigette Browning, president of Unite Here Local No. 30, who co-signed the letter.

“I’m very surprised that he would put his corporate sponsors over basic human dignity,” she said…

Cleve Jones, a longtime gay-rights activist who founded the NAMES Project/AIDS Memorial Quilt [and whose entry into politics was depicted in the movie "Milk"] said he welcomed Clinton’s help fighting Proposition 8 but was skeptical of the president’s position.

“The boycott has been in effect and very well publicized since July,” said Jones, who also signed the letter. “He’s had ample foreknowledge of the situation.”

Supporters of same-sex marriage plan to gather outside the hotel Sunday at 11 a.m. and remain there throughout Clinton’s scheduled 12:30 p.m. speech.

Like Pres. Obama’s inviting Rick Warren, the notoriously homophobic megachurch preacher, to give the invocation at his inauguration, Clinton’s violation of the Prop 8 boycott is another sign that the national Democratic Party leadership is out of touch with California liberals and independents on this issue.

On a personal level, you’d think Clinton would have wanted to avoid giving aid and comfort to the Yes on 8 side, which is being led in the state by his old nemesis, Whitewater prosecutor Ken Starr.