Unless you’ve been living under a rock or don’t have facebook or twitter (same difference, right?) you already know about the recent fire that chic-fil-a has come under for its stance on gay marriage. Along those same lines I’ve seen several articles about other restaurants and businesses that, as concerned citizens of our world, we should not patronize - Jimmy John’s, White Castle, and Waffle House to name a few.
In America where we have free speech we can all agree that Mr Cathy has the right to say or believe whatever he wants. There are even those who say well he’s only 1 vote and has the right to believe and vote how he wants. While both of these are 100% true, neither of these are the issue. The real issue is that these companies are donating large sums of money to the cause of discriminating against others who believe differently than them. Folks wake up! This is YOUR money that YOU spent on nuggets and hash browns that is now going to help discriminate against people. It shouldn’t matter if you’re gay or straight or black or white we cannot allow discrimination against anyone.
Let’s think back to past civil rights movements. There was a time when it was widely accepted that blacks were inferior to whites, Women were inferior to men and legally others had the right to discriminate against those groups. This type of thought is ludicrous now, and why? Because those groups (and those in other demographics who felt strongly enough to support them) marched and protested and did what was necessary to fight for their rights … OUR rights. These people were sprayed with hoses and tear gassed while fighting for their rights, and right now we can’t seem to get it through to some folks that we are all human and it is NOT ok to harm us or deny us basic rights because of who we are even if it’s different than you.
Granted, we as gay people don’t have separate water fountains and we don’t have to stage sit-ins to be allowed access to local establishments, but our rights are not what they should be. One of the main pro-CFA arguments is that chic-fil-a doesn’t discriminate against gay patrons and gay employees. That argument is seriously equivalent to saying to someone “We’re not racist. We have lots of black people as friends” or “we let you in the house when the weather’s bad”. All you’re doing is telling me how you humble yourself to be nice to me on occasion and I should feel lucky to be treated human in that way. In the meantime, you go behind my back and deny me basic rights. Right now is our time to fight for what we need and deserve. This country was founded on religious freedom and that means freedom from religion if you choose not to participate. So you want to run your company on Christian values. That’s great! I myself am a Christian, and as such I think that one should respect all people’s right to do what makes them happy as long as no harm comes to others. But when you take your beliefs and donate what ultimately is your customers’ money to a cause it should not be one whose purpose is to discriminate against many of the people who patronized you and brought you success as well as some of the very people you employ (who also helped make you successful). That’s a moral issue not a legal one.
No one is arguing that he has the right to do it, but suppose it was for a more obviously (and widely accepted as such) wrong and discriminatory group. Let’s say for instance that McDonalds gave a huge donation to the KKK. If you were seen with a big mac you would likely be chastised by any and everyone you came across. Why? Because what was acceptable 50 years ago as people standing up for what they believe in is now known to be just a bunch of bigots discriminating on people because of the color of their skin.
The message here for my straight Christian friends who believe that this is a free speech issue. It’s not. You have been duped by your churches, the media, and any other influence who gathered you all in masses for the cause of defending Dan Cathy’s freedom of speech. (and making record amounts of money for Dan Cathy and a hellish day at work for the chic-fil-a employees). Most people at some point in our country’s history (or present in many cases) fall into a demographic which are, have been, or will be in the future discriminated against based on some part of you that you wouldn’t change even if you could. Women, we couldn’t vote or own property. Think about that as you go to the polls in Nov and make that mortgage payment every month. Black people, shoooot, we couldn’t use their toilets, drink their water, marry EACH OTHER and don’t even THINK of marrying a white person! I believe that in their hearts they really believe they are doing what’s right. I pray that through the love of God they will see that they have been fear mongered into these beliefs and reconsider their position on this to one of love and inclusion.
I think the message here, gay people and supporters, is that we have to step up our game. As it stands, they are well within their rights to donate money however they want. So if we want to celebrate companies who give to our cause we have to accept that companies are going to go against us too. We need to organize, and work harder to seek out companies who do support us. Don’t bitch about your enemies because negative publicity is the best way to send people running there in droves to support them. Note the crowds at every chic-fil-a all day yesterday. Our organizations that work hard to fight for our rights need our financial help. We can’t just NOT give our money to those who don’t support us. We have to give our $ or our time or whatever we can afford to give in the fight for our own rights. And we need to make moves that make sense and are not just based out of the "that'll really piss 'em off" principle. Obviously, we must stand up for ourselves but there is also a lot of room for some bridge building.
Here’s something to consider. Tomorrow Aug 3 is lesbian kiss day where we’re supposed to go kiss in a chic-fil-a. I have seen postings for some Christian organizations who are actually wanting to be there to show us love in counter protest. If they are successful and that goes well it could be a wonderful day for the two communities and their relations. If we as a community go there with our hearts, ears, and mouth ready to open dialogue rather than with our fists ready to fight, imagine the common ground we could reach across the country!
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