Chick Fil-A's Anti-Gay Animus: It's Not About Free Speech

One of the newest lies of the Christianinists and the child rapist enablers in the Roman Catholic hierarchy is that their undisguised animus towards LGBT individuals is all about their right of "free speech" and/or exercising their right to "religious liberty."  In fact, of course, it's not about either of those issues.  Instead, it's all about forcing their beliefs on all of society and punishing those who refuse to bend to the will of the theocrats and Christianist hate merchants.  EVERY single anti-gay law has at its root the desire to punish and stigmatize LGBT people because we are "sinners" under the fear and hate based dogma of the Christianists and Catholic Church.  Take away this religious basis and the purpose of these laws - Proposition 8 and DOMA are prime examples - and no rational basis for the laws exist.  A column in The Advocate looks at this real agenda that is being aggressively pushed by far right religious extremists including those in the Cathy family that dictate Chick Fil-A policy.  Their goal is nothing less than to control and ruin the lives of those who reject their religious beliefs.  Marriage is only the most visible tip of the iceberg.  Here are some column excerpts:

 Mike Huckabee wanted thousands of people to buy some Chick-fil-A on Wednesday in the name of "free speech" — but he seems to think it's only OK for customers to wield their buying power to say something he agrees with.

Surely the former Arkansas governor and Baptist preacher wasn't complaining that his views and those of other Christians are being censored. Because I can hear them loud and clear — whether it's from Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy, who called marriage equality "twisted," or from Huckabee himself, who said the Boy Scouts should be allowed to ban gay scouts and leaders because they might be pedophiles.

Instead, it sure seems like Huckabee prefers that anyone who disagrees with his view of Christianity stop being so angered by its offensive message.

This is a relatively new trick in the playbook of homophobes. It's not them who are being intolerant, they claim, it's the gays. Chick-fil-A is actually the victim, which Huckabee says is "being smeared by vicious hate speech and intolerant bigotry from the left."

This new line of argument from the homophobes pretends that what Santorum says is merely a "political view." But my life is much more than that.

Chick-fil-A has used the money its customers spend to then make huge donations ($5 million and counting) to antigay groups, including those that try to turn people from gay to straight. These groups claim my love for my husband is a sin, a lifestyle choice, or a mental disorder I am suffering — usually all three.   It's wrong for anyone to ask me to "tolerate" that view. That's what the mayors of Boston, Chicago, Washington, and San Francisco all understand   .   .   .   .   they don't want Chick-fil-A in their cities, where the company would only raise money to fund its antigay donations. 

We now are parents to twin foster daughters who we love — and who we probably loved at first sight. Chick-fil-A funds people who say those children should be taken away from us because we are gay.  I can't tolerate that belief. That belief is a danger to my family. And people who agree with that view eventually start to wonder if they should do something about it. 

[T]his isn't about "political beliefs," and it's not about religion. It's about the government's duty to stop discrimination, in all of its forms.  The government is failing in that job in numerous cases. Congress hasn't passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would make it illegal for an employer to fire someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. And that's at least partly why Chick-fil-A, in its defense, has repeatedly sworn it does not discriminate against LGBT people in hiring — because that's actually still legal in a lot of places.

One day it won't be. And when that day comes, there will be no tolerance remaining for Huckabee's present-day and misguided interpretation of Christianity. Every time someone says my husband should be forcibly divorced from me, and my children taken away, and my employer allowed to fire me, all just because I'm gay, those people are rightfully labeled "homophobic, fundamentalists, hate-mongers, and intolerant."

The other thing that I believe is motivating the Christianists is that they are terrified that if people truly come to believe that the Bible is wrong about homosexuality, then what else is it wrong about.  The human genome studies have already shown that Adam and Eve of the Bible never existed.  As the house of cards fictional world of the Christianists increasing collapses under the weight of scientific knowledge and medical and mental health discoveries, we can expect the hate and animus - and lies of the "godly Christians" - to intensify.