While waiting on line I took pictures of the large crowds standing on line and the procession of vehicles backed out onto the Lincoln Highway. When I got home I posted one of the pictures to Facebook. Several other Facebook friends posted various items generally supporting the Chick-fil-A event.
My sister took offense to all this in a Facebook status post:
I have never been one to use Facebook as a forum to voice my personal beliefs, convictions and opinions. I am hesitant to start now but I feel the need to respond to family and friends who have decided to use this forum, whether directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally to support discrimination. So, to those of you who have decided where to buy your chicken based on the words of one man and because two other men told you too I’m curious how far you are willing to take this. Have you called the CEO of your local supermarket to ask their opinions about marriage equality? If you have, then good for you, I support your conviction and consistency even if I don’t agree with your views. If not, enjoy your ride on the bandwagon and I’ll see you when you get off at the next stop. You should also realize that your convictions appear to be stronger than those of Mr. Carey. His company bowed out of the controversy as quickly as they started it stating that they will be leaving “the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.” Mr. Carey also pointed out that the company executives are all on their first wives, so am I Mr. Carey and our relationship is as strong as any I know. I like the idea of a business founded on Christian principles. Christ taught us to be fair and kind and not to judge. I won’t judge your marriage if you don’t judge mine. There is so much more I can say on the issue but Facebook will only allow me so much space so I will end with a note to those of you who have chosen to publicly state your opposition to marriage equality. I do respect your right to have any opinion you want and I commend your conviction to express your opinion but it does hurt me. To know that people I love are willing to take such a public stand regarding an issue that directly effects me and will never effect them hurts.I attempted twice to respond by comment on Facebook but both times the website crashed on me so I am returning to my long-neglected blog to explain my view of the situation.
I am sorry that I offended Lesley with my post. That was not my intention. In fact, the whole Chick-fil-A thing wasn't even about same-sex marriage. Dan Cathy, Chick-fil-A's CEO, gave an interview in which he stated his opinion about same-sex marriage; the same opinion recently held by Barack Obama. If people opposed to Mr. Cathy's views had chosen to criticize him, publicly denounce him, or even try to organize a boycott of his business, I don't think you would have seen the response you did on Wednesday.
But a gaggle of local politicians, chiefly Rahm Emmanuel and Tom "Mumbles" Menino, chose to make not-so-subtle threats to use the power of government to punish a business for the religious/moral/political views of one of its officers and shareholders. This is what offended me as well as the people I spoke with while waiting on line.
Rahm Emmanuel famously said that "Chick-fil-A's values are not Chicago values." Frankly, that sounds like an endorsement to me given what I know about "Chicago values." But Emmanuel surely meant it as a condemnation. So what organization would be compatible with Chicago values? Emmanuel recently embraced the Nation of Islam, whose views on homosexuality make Dan Cathy look like Perez Hilton. Tom Menino made land belonging to the City of Boston available for a mosque run by an organization whose leader thinks homosexuals should be executed. But these reprobates posed as champions of gay rights because they saw political advantage in it.
By the way, Chick-fil-A never "bowed out" of the controversy because Chick-fil-A was never in it. Mr. Cathy stated his personal view. Chick-fil-A merely restated its existing policies against discrimination.
Finally, because this is an issue of free speech, I disagree with the assertion that it doesn't affect me. What these government hacks attempted to do is unconstitutional, un-American and a flagrant violation of our liberties. This affects all of us. Whatever your position on same-sex marriage, I would hope that you would condemn any attempts to use the power of government to enforce ideological conformity.
