SAN DIEGO -- About 200 supporters of same-sex marriage protested Sunday's appearance of former President Bill Clinton at a downtown hotel owned by a businessman who helped bankroll Proposition 8, The San Diego-Union Tribune reported.

The demonstration started about 11 a.m. outside the Manchester Grand Hyatt, where Clinton was set to address about 2,500 members of the International Franchise Association at 12:30 p.m.

No problems were reported, as about a dozen police watched over the demonstration as people shouted slogans such as "LGBT, we deserve equality."

On Thursday, San Diego City Councilman Todd Gloria, labor leader Lorena Gonzalez and six others sent Clinton a letter, urging him to cancel his appearance, but that apparently didn't deter Clinton.

Doug Manchester, who owns the hotel, gave $125,000 to campaign for voter- approved Proposition 8, which amended the state's constitution in November to outlaw same-sex marriages, which had been legal under a state Supreme Court ruling since mid-May.

A spokesperson for Clinton said the ex-president supported gay rights, but that he was going to honor his commitment to the franchise group, according to published reports. It was unclear how much he might have been paid

Same-sex marriage supporters started boycotting the Grand Hyatt in July when Manchester made a donation to the Proposition 8 campaign. Since then, groups such as the California Nurses Association, the American Association of Law Schools and the International Foundation of Employee Benefits have canceled events at the hotel.