So, this happened in Kentucky:
Several members of the Fairness Campaign were arrested at the Kentucky State Fair Country Ham Breakfast Thursday while protesting what the group calls unfair policies by the Kentucky Farm Bureau.
According to the Fairness Campaign, the Kentucky Farm Bureau promotes discrimination with policies that are anti-LGBT, anti-union, anti-teacher, anti-choice and pro-death penalty. [...]
According to tweets from the ACLU of Kentucky's twitter page, Kentucky State Troopers immediately began arresting people who silently stood up during the Country Ham Breakfast.
There is video of a news report at the link; consider watching it for additional perspective, especially from the protesters.
More here about the protest.
They had tickets to the function, were being disruptive only by standing
silently, and apparently weren't clearly asked to disperse. The statement made by one of the protesters was that they were given the bum rush by the police in attendance and then arrested...as tends to happen to liberals and progressives who protest, or even
journalists who ask inconvenient questions at a press conference. There's a strong whiff of bullshit to the charges yet I have no confidence they will be thrown out. This is about intimidation and sending a message to the state's Left.
What is the KYFB so sensitive about? What specifically are the issues the Fairness Campaign have with the Kentucky Farm Bureau? Why are they protesting?
(continued below)
They are protesting because many of the KYFB's policy stands are discriminatory in nature, don't appear to have anything to do with agriculture or are only tangentially related to business:
- We are opposed to any state-supported agency providing benefits to “domestic” partners.
- The institution of marriage should only be recognized as the legal union of a man and a woman.
- We strongly oppose teacher strikes. We oppose legislation that mandates collective bargaining for public school employees.
- Alternative lifestyles should not be taught in public schools.
- We support the enactment of right-to-work legislation.
- We recommend the federal prevailing wage law be repealed when dealing with government contracts.
- We oppose an increase in the minimum hourly wage.
- We strongly oppose any mandate that would require any government entities to recognize and collectively bargain with employee unions.
- Furthermore, we oppose public employees being permitted to strike, organize work stoppage or slow-downs.
- We oppose unionization of farmers and farm laborers.
- We strongly believe in the value of all individuals both born and unborn.
- We support capital punishment.
I can see why a business-advocacy-and-lobbying-group-cum-insurance-provider
1 like the KYFB supports a couple of those bullets, namely the ones associated with wages.
2 Policy-wise, the KYFB is fairly
okay about the environment, but that's mainly due to the need for agriculture to have access to clean air, land, and water for business purposes. That fits with its
stated mission:
Farm Bureau is a voluntary organization of farm families and their allies dedicated to serving as the voice of agriculture by identifying problems, developing solutions and taking actions which will improve net farm income, achieve better economic opportunities and enhance the quality of life for all.
I'm stuck, however, squaring that mission statement against their animus against collective bargaining for public employees, as I don't know how that impacts farming. And there's more that is not in the above list; I looked through the
KYFB's legislative reports and found a couple other curiosities...
- "We support the idea that those who receive SSI, food stamps, housing, or other government welfare payments should have to submit to random drug testing."
- “We favor inclusion of the study of the Bible in the curriculum of world religions.”
That last point is in reference to a bill that would have
established Bible classes in Kentucky public schools.
3 The first bullet is right-wing zombie boilerplate that
has already been invalidated.
Note that the items bulleted in this diary are largely unknown to the public:
While every state and federal legislator is mailed a “Kentucky Farm Bureau Policies” manual, which details the group’s discriminatory stances, the manual is not sent to paying customers.
What you
don't see if you are a KYFB customer are a bunch of right-wing social conservative wish list items commingled in with the expected pro-industry policy points like legislators do. If the KYFB's policy positions are an accurate portrayal of the people they represent, why hide it from them?
I'm guessing that the KYFB figures it just might be bad for business if the people it insures find out that their premiums are being used to oppose same-sex marriage and unionization:
And some farmers in Kentucky are starting to question the efficacy of the Kentucky Farm Bureau, too. Take a look at Hampton “Hoppy” Henton, a 62-year-old Kentucky farmer who spoke to Leo Weekly. He said that he's become dismayed at the political work of the Kentucky Farm Bureau, and that they should stay out of social issues like gay marriage, and instead focus on helping Kentucky farmers.
“They’ve got policies against gay marriage and against the right of farmers to unionize,” Henton says. “You tell me what the hell does any of that have to do with agriculture?”
You got me, Hoppy. So why does the KYFB choose to highlight those social issues?
The simplest explanation is that the Kentucky Farm Bureau is full of extreme conservatives who are doing it because they can. Well, almost; back in 2007:
Todd Eklof, minister of Clifton Unitarian Church in Louisville, spoke to his congregation in late 2004 about the importance of putting an end to discrimination. He vowed to stop performing marriage and commitment ceremonies for all couples until the anti-gay marriage amendment passed in 2004 is overturned.
Kentucky Farm Bureau (Todd’s employer) didn’t like this stance and fired Eklof shortly thereafter. KFB has claimed in court documents for nearly three years that he was fired for attendance and performance issues, though Eklof has consistently been able to prove [...] otherwise. [...]
Page 29 of the deposition, lines 19 and 20, Moore says in response to the question of why Eklof was terminated, “The marriages, I think. I think that was the main thing.”
This is an organization that has fired a worker simply for publicly voicing support for gay marriage.
The Fairness Campaign has been showing up at the Kentucky State Fair and doing things to raise public awareness of the Kentucky Farm Bureau's conservative and discriminatory policies for a few years now...with little attention being paid even within the state, much less outside of it nationally. Eklof's case got next-to-no local coverage. Maybe it's because of the hundreds of thousands of dollars that the KYFB spends on lobbying and donating to Republicans. I can't find what their media advertising spend is, but chances are it's not inconsequential.
And that's unfortunate, because this small story illustrates the bigger-picture issue of what happens when business crosses that unholy line over into social advocacy, as we've seen similar stories regarding Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A.
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1Kinda like the AARP, only their base are farms and farmers, not the elderly (although there is an increasing overlap between the two.)
2And they do support a guest worker program for non-citizens, though it's combined with the aforementioned elimination of prevailing wage law and preventing a raise in the minimum wage. Best of both worlds, I guess; cheap migrant labor.
3Elective, yes, but standalone and not part of a comprehensive world religions course.
6:53 PM PT: Many thanks for the repubs and the spotlight...