The sense of entitlement that the Christofascists feel and the open bigotry they proudly display appears to be growing. Case in point? A restaurant in Kansas - which has no public accommodation law - has put up a sign stating that gays will not be served at the restaurant. It may be but the opening round of a new aspect of the culture wars where we will see the Christofascists do whatever they want because they believe they are above the law not to mention devoid of common decency. These people are rank hypocrites as they divorce, lie, cheat others in business and ignore countless passages in the Bible while clinging to select passages to justify bigotry towards others. The situation shows that there is a need for a national public accommodation law. I hope it also will prompt businesses and professionals to begin turning away Christofascists on the basis that their "sincere religious beliefs" prevent them from serving modern day Pharisees. These people truly need to become social and business pariahs. Topeka News has details on this new, open bigotry:
Proposed Jim Crow laws for gay people are already taking effect in Kansas. 38-year-old Johnny Quinns-Smith wanted to get an egg-salad sandwich for himself and his fiance, Erique Boltzman. He went to his local diner outside Franton, near Scranton, a place where he and Boltzman had occasionally ate over the past 6 years. In fact, it was at this diner that the two met during a lunch hour.
But today, Quinss-Smith encountered something he thought he would never see in his lifetime: a sign. A sign that said, “Service Refused To Gay Couples.”
“I was in absolute shock, I mean, I could not even fathom what was going on,” he said. When he went into the restaurant, all went silent. The locals looked at him, with several pointing and whispering. Wiping out a cup, a server behind the restaurant’s main ordering station stared at him and then looked over at one of the newest signs next to the cash register.
“I looked at where several people’s eyes were tracking. Then there it was, it was a sign that said ‘No Gay Eating Here’.”Shock: “No Gay Eating Here”.Not wanting to make a scene, Quinns-Smith quickly walked up to the stand where he had always been able to order his food. The server who had taken his order and brought him his food for years stood there in front of him and asked, “How can we help?”
“What is wrong. What is this sign meaning,” Quinns-Smith asked, feeling uncomfortable as eyes rested on him.
“It means you and your boyfriend can’t come eating in here no more, unless you find God,” a customer seated offered a response before staff said anything.
“You need to find God and the Bible,” someone else yelled out. The floodgates were open.
“We don’t want your germs on the silverware.” ”Just repent son, you can still be forgiven and be normal.” ”Being gay is not natural. It is not God’s way.”
The Kansas House of Representatives recently passed a bill with a 73-49 vote that allows government workers and businesses the right to refuse services to gay couples. Fortunately, the bill lost traction in the Kansas Senate, but it is still alive and could become law in the state. The story of this restaurant will become reality for more gay couples across the state, facing an unprecedented showing of ignorance that has unfortunately reached back from the turbulent 1960s and into our modern age of progress.
I hope states like Kansas will become pariahs in the larger business community and that when given the option, businesses will choose to locate elsewhere - and tell officials in Kansas why they are doing so. Backward bigoted areas need to decline economically so that bigotry has an increasingly high price associated with it.
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