Just some (final?) perspective on Chick-filled-cray-cray

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08/03/2012

by Jeremy Hooper

For every person who showed up at a fast food chain this week to "send a message" to us "prideful, arrogant" voices of equality for all American citizens, there were hundreds of thousands of others who wouldn't have been caught dead at such a protest.

I'm from Nashville, Tennessee, originally, which is essentially ground zero for plucked-and-fried chicken flesh that's then placed on a pickled bun. This week, I've had an outpouring of supportive messages from friends from back home—many of whom are politically and even socially conservative, btw—who are 100% on our side in terms of Dan Cathy's extreme words and the company's equality-hostile actions. Honestly, I'm not even certain that some of these people are with me in every way in terms of LGBT rights. However, they understand that [a] our choice to raise questions about a prominent America business' regard for a certain portion of the population is not the free speech violation that Mike Huckabee's fib-willing political conscience is duping people into believing it is; and that [b] saying gays are shaking a fist at God and bankrolling groups that are aggressively against every aspect of LGBT life (not just marriage) is not the same thing as "defending the family."

People showed up because it was an uber-easy ask (buy a sandwich? really?) motivated by the all-too-common conservative tactic of turning the person who cast the stone into the supposed victim. The story, however, is in the millions who didn't show up. The ones who wouldn't think of showing up. Those who now know why they can't show up until Dan Cathy and Chick-fil-A actually address this matter in the way that it needs to be addressed. Simply saying you will take the LGBT customer's dollar is not an acceptable out.