Ignorance

I'm angry. More than anything, though, I'm hurt. I realize that we all have some pretty strong feelings about what has been going on with Chick-fil-a recently, although I shouldn't say recently because they have always shown a disdain for homosexuals, but quite frankly if you think this is all about freedom of speech you are being ignorant.

What if Dan Cathy had said, "We support the biblical view of slavery," or "We believe that if God intended races to mix we'd all been placed on the same continent."

Of course, if he had been around to say those things when they were actual issues the same kind of senseless arguing that is going on now would have taken place and in fact did take place. Dan Cathy would have been 100% Confederate and vehemently anti-interracial marriage if he had lived in those time periods.

So you see, this is more than about freedom of speech, this is about discrimination. This is about hateful attitudes that lead to senseless suicides, broken people, and needless dissension.

I stopped eating at Chick-fil-a more than a year ago. No one from the company had made any public comments about marriage equality; however, the company had already taken a stance on the issue. Chick-fil-a donates large sums of money to religious organizations that have been designated as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. These groups sit right alongside the KKK on long lists of organizations in American dedicated to destroying tolerance, equality, and diversity. In the past year, Chick-fil-a donated at least $2 million to groups like the Family Research Council and Exodus International.

The Family Research Council regularly publishes bogus "scientific studies" that have no standing in the real scientific community. Every respected medical and psychological entity out there affirms that homosexuality is not a choice.

Exodus International was an organization dedicated to "reparative therapy" for homosexuals, better known in the media as "pray the gay away." The American Psychological Association condemns this practice as very damaging to the subject. Exodus International has recently disbanded and the pioneer of reparative therapy, Dr. Robert Spitzer, has renounced all of his work. He stated that his findings regarding a person changing his or her sexual orientation were "unproven" and he apologized to the LGBT community.

Going forward, I would suspect Chick-fil-a to continue funding groups that are damaging and damning our friends, our neighbors, our brothers and our sisters. This is about more than religious freedom or freedom of speech. Mr. Cathy has every right to say any hateful or inaccurate thing he wants. However,  and more importantly, your children deserve to be loved for who they are, your sister has the deserves the right to marry who she loves, and we all have the right to grow up in a world that doesn't tell us we are disgusting vile demons. Dan Cathy is wrong, and I will not allow my money to fund such atrocities.

Get the facts, do some research, don't just blindly post or "like" pictures celebrating Chick-fil-a's "religious freedom" or "freedom of speech." Every time you click share or like and every time you dip that nugget into some Polynesian sauce, you are sending a message to some kid somewhere that he is doomed, unloved, dirty, and demonic. His blood will be on your hands.