Playing Chicken

By now, you are perhaps weary of the hubbub surrounding Dan Cathy and his Chick-fil-a restaurants.  If you aren't up-to-date on this mess, a quick Google search will reveal the details.  In a nutshell, the man whose family runs the chicken sandwich empire gave an interview to a religious broadcaster in which he confirmed his own homophobic sentiments.  He thinks being gay is a violation of the Bible and he opposes same sex marriage.  In the aftermath of his comments, a furor erupted.  Boston mayor Thomas Menino invited the restaurant to clear out of Beantown; Chicago's Rahm Emmanuel did the same.  Conservatives piled in the family van and shot over to the local mall to fill their mouths with chicken sandwiches and and show their support for both the restaurant and the anti-gay point of view its owner expressed.

It's not news that the Cathy family is conservative and religious.  For heaven's sake, Chick-fil-a restaurants are closed on Sunday so that employees can go to church.  It came as no surprise to learns that this man isn't down with me being gay.  But as far as I'm concerned, the 1st amendment protects Mr. Cathy's right to worship as he pleases, tell us his political views, and spend money on behalf of those political causes.  

Of course, I'm not without recourse in this battle.  The same Constitution which protects Mr. Cathy's right to believe as he pleases guarantees that I have the right to spend my dollars at businesses that conduct themselves in ways I find to be politically and socially responsible.  So I won't be eating  Chick-fil-a sandwiches any time soon (which is a damn shame, because that chicken is tasty).  

Freedom's road goes both ways and I'm awfully glad of that.  Gays have grown weary of being excluded from the most basic of rights and given the chance, we are eager to demand equality.   Most states don't protect us from employment or housing discrimination; most don't permit same sex-couples to marry.  That's why there is all this out-cry over a chicken sandwich.   In the meantime, all this condemnation of gays and lesbians does nothing to make us a better nation.   And in the long run, we can predict the outcome of this nonsense.  History proves that justice is always on the side of those seeking equality.