Being Considerate

I know everyone's tired of hearing about Chick-Fil-A.  Frankly, I'm tired of it too.  I'm tired of having to daily fight to be considered normal.  I'm tired of having the issue of homosexuality something I'm constantly thinking about.

Dan Savage tweeted this blog post here about Chick-Fil-A.  I strongly recommend that you go read it, if you haven't already.  It is very important to me, and it is very personal to me.

I was greatly disappointed in the outcome of the Chick-Fil-A appreciation day yesterday.  All over the country, people flocked to CFA to buy chicken sandwiches and show their support for Dan Cathy's remarks about "traditional marriage".

Just for a second, let's turn the tables.  Let's suppose that your marriage was in question here.  How would you feel if there was a national debate going on concerning whether you should be able to marry the person that you love?  This is something you have to face every day.  And then, one day, thousands (maybe millions, I'm not sure) of people all wait in extremely long lines to buy food from a company that has just made its policy quite clear: that your marriage shouldn't be legal.  How would you feel?

I made a video about the matter, that I'm enclosing below.  I am greatly disturbed by this matter.  I don't understand why people are so eager to deny other people the rights and privileges that they desire.  I don't understand why people feel it is their moral obligation to make life miserable for others.

This really is serious.  I'm thinking about moving to a foreign country.  After seeing the huge support that Chick-Fil-A got yesterday, I no longer feel welcome here.  Every person in those lines was a vote against me being a part of this culture.  So many people, all waiting to show that they too feel like I shouldn't be able to marry the man that I love.  So, I feel like my only recourse is to go somewhere where I am wanted.  To go somewhere where people will treat me like an equal--like a real person.  And that really hurts.

Why does it hurt so much?  Because, as this picture indicates, I would stand up for you if someone were picking on you.  I think you have the right to believe as you choose, and to live your life as you choose.  It's not my place to tell you how to live, and if someone else is trying to tell you how to live, I'll tell them to buzz off.  And yet, so many people are so eager to side with the bully in this case.  I don't understand.

Below are actual tweets that people made about this CFA appreciation day.  Now, I realize that most people who are against marriage equality are not this radical, and I realize that most people who support CFA and went there yesterday are not as hateful as the people who tweeted these things.  But, I do think it's important to point out how small-minded people can be.  It's important to realize that so many people (on both sides, really) can be so thoughtless and so hateful toward other people.  And, if I were ever to have a conversation with Dan Cathy, I would point out to him that his remarks welcome comments such as these here.  Trying to say that some people are lesser because they are different encourages this kind of thinking.

Just to be fair, I'm also including this picture showing how some people on my side can be just as ignorant.  I do not agree with her, and I do not think that it's appropriate to say things like this.  My wife died of cancer, and it's something I wouldn't wish on anyone.  That's just hateful and mean.  I wish that people would learn how to voice their opinions without being hateful about it.