By Todd Craig
Yesterday, Facebook made me smile.
Today,
it made me sad. Sad because I noticed that my marriage rights were
reduced to culture war-status as the religious right fired back against
the Chick-Fil-A boycott movement.
Two people from my Facebook friends list posted a graphic saying, "I support Chick-Fil-A."
Normally, I let that sort of thing go. I don't expect everybody to agree with me on every political
issue.
But not today. This time, it's personal.
So
I wrote. It's what I do. Feel free to copy and paste this anywhere
you see a "I support Chick-Fil-A" graphic on the internet:
The
problem when you post a graphic saying that you support Chick-Fil-A is
that you're supporting a company who uses their profits to support
discriminatory laws against a specific segment of the American
population. These actions SEGREGATE. These actions DISCRIMINATE -
specifically against me, my husband, our son and families like mine.
Chick-Fil-A may have the right to do that, but that doesn't make it
right.
It might feel good to choose a side in the culture wars, but in supporting Chick-Fil-A, you ally yourself with such blessed luminaries as the Westboro Baptist Church. They're on your side, you know! Aren't you proud? Sure, your graphic doesn't say God Hates Fags, but it's now implied that you do.
But on an even more serious note, there are over 1,000 rights and benefits that come with marriage at the federal level. Chick-Fil-A uses their freedom to limit others' freedom in regard to those rights. That is unabashedly un-American. If I don't follow your religious beliefs, the beautiful thing is that I don't have to go to your church. That's freedom of religion! But I don't try to pass laws to limit your religion, nor do I support any businesses who would. Conversely, I hope that if you don't believe in gay marriage, then don't get one. I wish you wouldn't try to pass laws limiting my family's freedom or support businesses who would.
It might feel good to choose a side in the culture wars, but in supporting Chick-Fil-A, you ally yourself with such blessed luminaries as the Westboro Baptist Church. They're on your side, you know! Aren't you proud? Sure, your graphic doesn't say God Hates Fags, but it's now implied that you do.
But on an even more serious note, there are over 1,000 rights and benefits that come with marriage at the federal level. Chick-Fil-A uses their freedom to limit others' freedom in regard to those rights. That is unabashedly un-American. If I don't follow your religious beliefs, the beautiful thing is that I don't have to go to your church. That's freedom of religion! But I don't try to pass laws to limit your religion, nor do I support any businesses who would. Conversely, I hope that if you don't believe in gay marriage, then don't get one. I wish you wouldn't try to pass laws limiting my family's freedom or support businesses who would.
Apparently not, however. I'm not going to lie, seeing this graphic hurts. It hurts terribly.This whole thing isn't about Christians versus gays. It's about the law. It's about those 1000+ rights denied to hundreds of thousands (over 600,000 according to the last census) of gay and lesbian couples and our children. We are hard-working, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens who deserve nothing less than same treatment under the law. We are Americans after all, too. We may not be equals in your belief system, but your belief system isn't the law. We should all be equal in the eyes of the law regardless of Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddist, or Atheist beliefs. That's American.
That's
why the outcry against Chick-Fil-A is so strong. Freedom and equality
in the eyes of the law are very much worth the outcry; it's supposed to
be self-evident that we are all created equal, after all.
