In defense of Chick-Fil-A's rights to freedom of speech
UPDATE: [Based on my discussion of this position with a colleague on Facebook, I’ve changed my support of it. In his words: “If Dan Cathy had made racist or anti-Semitic comments and his corporate foundation had funded racist and anti-Semitic agendas, there would understandably be little objection to public officials saying, Don’t come here.” This is a very good point and I now think that communities should have the ability to stop Chick-Fil-A from opening stores.]
Dan Cathy, the president of the fast-food franchise Chick-fil-A, doesn’t like same-sex marriage. He believes that ”we’re inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say we know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage.” The company has put its money where its mouth is, lavishing anti-gay rights groups withmillions of dollars in donations.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that a Chicago Alderman named Joe Moreno has pledged to block construction of a Chick-fil-A restaurant in his ward over Cathy’s anti-gay views. Boston Democratic Mayor Thomas Menino is also trying to block construction of a Chick-fil-A restaurant over its president’s anti-gay views.
Chick-fil-A should not be prevented from opening businesses because of the views of its leaders, or his donations to anti-gay causes. But gays and lesbians in Illinois and Massachusetts have the right to be free from discrimination in employment based on who they are. They also have a right to protest, boycott, and make Chick-fil-A’s customers aware that their purchases fund anti-gay activism. If Chick-fil-A discriminates in hiring or refuses to serve customers on the basis of sexual orientation, the local authorities can and should hold him accountable.
The Green State: Hate groups and Chick-Fil-A's profit
Which hate groups does chik-fil-a give to?
Meg at Cognitive Dissonance:
This article discusses it in detail very well, with facts and figures. Many of these groups, like Family Resource Council, are listed in the Southern Poverty Law…
Source: cognitivedissonance
Gay Couple Discriminated Against in Hospital
Target: Director, Saint Barnabas Behavioral Health Center
Sponsored by: Paul Zilber
Recently, while visiting my partner, Christian, in New Jersey’s Saint Barnabas Behavioral Health Center, we both experienced the heartbreaking and embarrassing experience of being openly discriminated against by members of the nursing staff because we are in a gay relationship.
As Christian’s grandparents hugged and kissed him goodbye for the evening, I started to do the same, when suddenly two nurses yelled: “No contact, that is inappropriate!” When I questioned the fairness of their orders, I was promptly removed from Christian’s visitors list and was unable to have any communication with him until he was released.
Not only was this a cruel and inhumane action, but it clearly goes against President Obama’s 2010 mandate toThe Department of Health and Human Servicesprohibiting discrimination against gay couples hospital visitation rights.
Saint Barnabas is the largest hospital system in New Jersey, this gives them opportunity to openly discriminate against countless other gay couples. Please demand theyadjust their policies to adhere to the President’s mandate and stop discriminating against gay couple’s rights!
One Million Moms Protests Gay-Themed Show It Hasn’t Even Seen Yet
One Million Moms has announced its latest protest: NBC’s The New Normal, a sitcom about a committed gay couple who hire a surrogate so they can have a child. The show doesn’t even premiere until September, but the hate group thinks it’s “harmful” enough that the show will have gay content at all [emphasis is original]:
NBC is using public airwaves to continue to subject families to the decay of morals and values, and the sanctity of marriage in attempting to redefine marriage. These things are harmful to our society, and this program is damaging to our culture. […]
Millions of Americans strongly believe that marriage should be between one man and one woman. NBC’s “The New Normal” is attempting to desensitize America and our children. It is the opposite of how families are designed and created. You cannot recreate the biological wheel.
One Millions Moms exists only as a symbolic PR tool. It is not itself a real organization — having no names or faces to represent it — but is merely a subsidiary of the American Family Association, a hate group run almost entirely by men.
Don’t know if the “OMM as PR tool for AFA” is documented or not, but it makes sense as a theory. On both sides of the political spectrum, these “coalitions” use branding to lead their base in a certain direction. Calling yourself “One Million Moms” is brilliant branding, because it literally brands you as the voice a million moms, with or without this actual number of moms. Of course: this is also highly unethical and manipulative branding, unless of the course the organization is constantly backed by that exact number of moms…
(via forgottenvanburen)
Source: justinspoliticalcorner
Today my hometown was struck by a disgusting hardship.
A woman this afternoon was found by a neighbor, bleeding and naked. She was attacked in her home because she was gay. Two or more men broke into her home through the basement and proceeded to tag her basement. They found the homeowner, who is an open lesbian, and stabbed, assaulted, and carved “dyke” into her chest. They attempted to burn her house to the ground, but the gas only sparked. Somehow, this woman (who remains anonymous until she decides to come out on her own time) was able to escape. She was found naked, bound with zip ties, and bloody. She is still alive and in the hospital. A candle light vigil was held in her name tonight, where more than 500 people from Lincoln and surrounding cities and states joined to talk about the hate and to pay homage to the victim.
A recovery fund has been set up to help her cover medical bills and anything she may need. That link can be found here, along with a link from the original news story.
http://starcitypride.org/victim-recovery-fund/
http://journalstar.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/hundreds-attend-vigil-after-reported-hate-crime/article_d0892b58-9ec9-566c-8b66-bb0a032b8e03.html
Notes: Article taken directly from the Lincoln Journal Star website
Pictures are courtesy of Lincoln Journal Star and Steve Andel Photography. I do not own any rights to anything posted.
Crying.
Absolutely terrifying. All my babies please be careful.
The real issue we need to focus on around LGBTQ rights: never having anything like this ever happen again…
Source: loobypls
New Chinese Dictionary Leaves Out “Gay” Definition of Word
The latest edition of one of China’s most authoritative dictionaries contains a glaring omission. Gay rights advocates say that, amid the 69,000 entries, 13,000 Chinese characters and more than 3,000 new phrases in the newly revised sixth edition of the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary, a definition for a commonly used word for “gay” in Chinese has been excluded.
One of the dictionary’s compilers, linguist Jiang Lansheng, said that he and his colleagues were indeed aware of the different meanings of tongzhi. He said they refused to put tongshi‘s meaning of “gay” into the dictionary because “we don’t want to promote these things. We don’t want to draw attention to these things.”
Homosexuality was illegal in China until 1997 and has still been considered a mental disorder; discriminatory attitudes clearly still exist. The BBC points out that the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary does include internet slang such as geili for “awesome” and weibo for microblog (as well as NBA). But the omission of tongzhi as the “most commonly used, non-offensive term” for homosexuals in Chinese (as a gay rights advocate identified as Nan Feng says to Xinhua) shows how the “preferences and values” of the dictionary’s compilers shaped its content.
In English, the use of the word “gay” to mean homosexual goes back to the 1940s or even the 1920s, says the Online Etymology Dictionary. In the US, it was not until 1973 that homosexuality was no longer considered a mental disorder and removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
LGBT rights and advocacy are still in their infancy in China. According to a 2010 Agence-France Presse article, there are about 30 million homosexuals in China, with 20 million of them are men. Zhang Bei-chuan, one of China’s authorities on HIV/AIDS, told China Daily in February that about 90 percent gay men in China marry heterosexual women because of “pressure to conform” — the same pressure that led the dictionary compiles to ignore the reality of how words are used in China and to leave out the “gay” definition of tongzhi.
Sad: Boy Scouts Reaffirms Bigoted Anti-Gay Ban
This is beyond too bad. One might have thought that the swelling current of acceptance and change around sexuality which is sweeping up everyone from the music community to national political figures would would dislodge the stubborn rock of the Boy Scouts’ institutionalized homophobia.
But apparently that rock isn’t ready to be moved, and it may not be in the near future. The AP’s David Crary reports:
After a confidential two-year review, the Boy Scouts of America on Tuesday emphatically reaffirmed its policy of excluding gays, ruling out any changes despite relentless protest campaigns by some critics.
An 11-member special committee, formed discreetly by top Scout leaders in 2010, “came to the conclusion that this policy is absolutely the best policy for the Boy Scouts,” the organization’ national spokesman, Deron Smith, told The Associated Press.
