Something is deeply amiss when Chik-Fil-A's across the country are jam-packed full of customers celebrating homophobia. I set the record straight among my Facebook friends with the following post, below the cheese curd. Possibly you'll find some lines in here that you can use to respond to your own friends.
I've accepted every friend request from anyone I went to school with. As a result, and because I've made interesting friends in other walks of life, many of my Facebook friends share opinions I don't always agree with. That's fine, I value people's rights to have their say without picking fights or participating in them. It makes for reading a wide range of interesting opinions and learning new things.
That said, I had to draw the line today and unfriend two people for the first time based on their posted content.
Sarah, here is a gloat that you spent $14.65 so that Dan Cathy (son of the Chik-Fil-A founder, and CEO) can donate part of it to the Family Research Council, Exodus International, National Organization for Marriage, and others - groups that have made a cottage industry of homophobia. They are "pro-family" in name but in practice spend the great majority of their resources on homophobia. FRC has advocated in the very recent past for jailing gay and lesbian people and has worked hard against ant-discrimination bills, civil union and domestic partnership bills. They have taken the position that all gay men are pedophiles. In fact TODAY, August 1, they posted praise on their website a deeply flawed, biased and already-debunked study because it refelcts negatively on gay parents. Exodus International exists to "cure" gays, which is impossible - even the founder left to be with a man he fell in love with. NOM exists with the sole goal of supporting and pushing legislation like Proposition H8 in California and similar legislation elsewhere.
Dan Cathy has given these organization $2 million and counting and you want to contribute more to this. In fact,
you went out of your way to eat here even though you really didn't like the food but you had to support the homophobia in principle. Somehow pointing out and calling Dan Cathy on his homophobia is "mistreatment by the socialists and the liberals" so speaking out against this symbolically helps "retain (your) rights and liberties".
I understand the idea of standing with the oppressed but Dan Cathy and his business are NOT oppressed. He has merely been criticized by some and many have decided not to shop there, and even some dumb politicians overstepped their bounds with rhetoric on zoning for Chik-Fil-A restaurants. The same can be said of JC Penney with their Ellen Degeneres campaign and Oreo with their rainbow cookie photo, but I'm sure you haven't set foot in JC Penney or bought Oreos in quite some time. It's because you enjoy the homophobia.
If you go out of your way to spend money in the hopes that it will go to causes that exist solely to deprive me and my friends of our rights, and our pursuit of life, liberty and happiness, you cannot be my friend.
I refuse to be the person you can bring up in any argument when you say, "I'm not homophobic, I even have gay friends!"
8:50 PM PT: I've redacted the names in the images -- something I should have done when I first posted this.
Wow, I'm on the rec list, with my first diary (after years of lurking)! Thanks, everyone!