Today I woke up to an unfortunate text message.
BREAKING: Supreme Court just ruled 5-4 that some corporations can DENY their employees contraception coverage.
Ugh. Showed it to my girlfriend, took the dog to the park, and brainstormed up a couple ideas for signs.
(She later commented on her lament that she realized too late that sign would have been funnier with "Get out of our lady business".)
With that, we headed out to stand on the sidewalk outside our local Hobby Lobby (Lakewood, WA). That was a genuinely positive experience, lots of honks and waves and grins. A lady hadn't heard of anything Hobby Lobby was doing in court, and decided she'd never shop there. Score!
After a brief intermission for water, we decided operating to the letter of the law was for losers, and took our signs to the front gates of the enemy's hold. Definitely a less positive experience, filled with dirty looks and brief verbal confrontation. Though we stayed out there less than 20 minutes (opted for the sidewalk), we were approached by two women at different times. We watched one pass by, then swing her car into a spot and brake. She came to us to announce that her children wanted to go to Hobby Lobby today, and she hadn't planned on it, but she saw our signs and we were SO wrong that all of a sudden shopping there sounded like a good idea!
Nevermind that we were already THERE, she had to come to Hobby Lobby just to see our signs. She tried defending the company as having great values.
"Yes, but horrible morals," I replied.
"No, biblical morals!" she said.
"That's even worse," I said to her backside as she walked inside. Because deriving your moral code from a 2000+ year old book can't go wrong!
Another, older woman approached us saying we were just wrong.
"Hobby Lobby is great to women," she insisted.
"Unless their employees need contraception," I pointed out.
"They can get their contraception at the grocery store!" she said with a glare. That was so wrong I was actually taken aback. Yes, let's force the lowest tier of our employees to spend their own money on something everyone else has to provide. Freedom!
I'm considering going back. The religious right lives in a bubble, a protected echo chamber where any dissenting ideas or "wrongthink" is quickly shut out and the source removed. An outside perspective (I'm an atheist) could maybe help them open their minds a little?