A Soldier, My Best Friend, and Chick-Fil-A

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Friday August 03, 2012 · 8:41 AM PDT

2012/08/03 · 08:41

I have known my best friend for the past 34 years and even at the age of 10 she knew she was gay. At that age all you care about is hanging out and having fun. She was my best friend and it didn't matter if she liked boys or girls to me as long as we had fun together. I got a lot of crap from other kids for being friends with her but I didn't care-I was a die hard liberal even in middle school! I remember in high school telling people if they didn't like her then we had no business being friends. There is no love like a best friends love.
Over the years Michelle and I grew up, moved around the country, got married and divorced (me), and had children. Michelle joined the military. She found a great partner and they had a baby together. Michelle has fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. She does her job just like the rest of us and doesn't ask for thanks or praise for protecting our freedoms. She is a great friend, daughter, partner, sister, mother and soldier.
Follow me over the fold to see how Chick-Fil-A plays into this.

Because of our friendship I have always been a huge supporter of gay rights and equality. This week has been really hard seeing all the hateful comments and people supporting Chick-Fil-A. No matter how many times I have tried to explain that boycotting the company was not because of what Mr. Cathy said but because of how they spend their money, it didn't matter. No one seems to get it. So maybe this will help.
I love my best friend more than anything other than my family. We have been together through school, college, marriages, divorces, births, deaths, war and everything else life dishes out. Michelle is a great person and I truly LOVE her with all my heart. So when you line up to buy that Chick-Fil-A sandwich knowing part of the proceeds goes to hate groups that want to prevent my friend from getting married, that want to help fund laws in Uganda to make being gay punishable by death, that want to brainwash people to believe you can "pray away the gay", and so many other hateful things, I take offense at that. I take it as a personal insult to hurt my friends and family. Maybe if I gave my money to companies who wanted to make Christianity illegal you might understand.
Friends and family often ask me "what is the big deal?" The big deal is that everyone deserves to be happy and live a great life. And no one deserves to have other people decide if they should be allowed to get married or adopt children or serve in the military. As a SOLDIER Michelle has protected YOUR freedom to say whatever the hell you want and eat at whatever restaurant you choose. Is it too much to ask that she be afforded that same damn option???

And as a happy side note: Congratulations to my best friend Michelle. She asked her partner Brooke to marry her this week and she said yes!

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