Joe weighs in on Chick-Fil-A

I had some different things to write about, but then someone posted the following on FB. Since it is a timely topic of what's going on, I thought I'd add my comments. Sorry if you're offended!  My comments are in red. By the way, I have many, many GLB friends and have lived in a GLB friendly neighborhood for 20 years. But I've been an American for 46 years and I absolutely support our right to free speech and to run a business. Here's the post:

Nothing highlights privilege and apathy more then (sic) hearing people complain about being overwhelmed by the 

coverage of the Chick-Fil-A situation and suggesting that people simply not eat there if they don't care for Dan Cathy's views.

Really?  You can’t think of any analogy that better embodies privilege (which I’m not sure has anything to do with this topic at all) and apathy than this issue?  Me thinks you’re not really trying too hard to come up with examples.

 In 29 states you can be fired for being gay. In 75 countries it is illegal to be gay. In 9 of those countries, being gay is punishable by death.

Other than the states issue, which you can be fired for any reason at all in Illinois and many states, it’s not the US. Not that we shouldn’t care, but we can’t solve the world’s problems. Women don’t have rights everywhere either.

Dan Cathy from Chick-Fil-A has donated $5M to two organizations in the US who have been seeking to criminalize same-sex relations.

Sorry, but there are tons of problematic organizations out there who get money from all sorts of people. It’s a free country. You can't legislate crazy.

This is money that he has received because of consumers purchasing food from Chick-Fil-A.

Consumers expressing their RIGHT to buy food where they want. And boy are those sandwiches good.

This is more than a first amendment issue or a same-sex marriage issue, this is about taking a stand for human rights. Dan Cathy is spending millions of dollars specifically to deny certain humans of their rights, not the other way around. I have yet to hear of any same sex couples donating millions to deny rights to heterosexual couples.

Are there any anti-heterosexual couple organizations?  Seems like a ridiculous comment. 

To suggest that both sides are at fault is like saying that a bully and their victim are both to blame.

Who is saying both sides are at fault? I think the argument is that Dan Cathy has a right to do what he wants with his money, as long as it’s legal. And what a horrible analogy. It gets worse though.

It's a form of tacit approval for systematic oppression. We didn't tell the Jews to leave Germany or complain that they were "whining" when they were forced into concentration camps and we didn't suggest that African Americans move from the South when they were denied the right to vote, we supported them.

Umm, what?  Did you really just try to equate the oppression of homosexuals to the oppression of Jews in WWII or slavery??  Yeah, you might want to rethink that discussion just a bit. Homosexuals aren’t being bused to extermination camps or routinely killed in the street.

So in conclusion, this is personal, because personally, I'd stand up for you if your human rights were being denied. If you don't like hearing about this, then step outside of your privilege and try to understand how it feels to have your human rights questioned.

Aww, how nice of you to try to make it personal! I doubt that you really would stand up for me personally if my rights were being denied (my gun rights in Chicago are currently being violated by the way, but that’s a separate issue).