From Pam Spaulding:
IMHO, I’m not keen on this as an effective protest tool — it’s not about our right to love (ostensibly why gay couples will be there kissing), it’s about Chick-fil-As record of anti-gay discrimination and funding of groups that want us DEAD, endorse “ex-gay” therapy, and to deny LGBTs basic civil rights. The kiss-in seems more like a stunt for shock value that the fundies will try capitalize on by tying the action to sex acts that they abhor. The “ick” factor has been one of the major issues these folks cling to, like it or not.
How do our readers feel about a kiss-in as a response to fundie day at Chick-filA?
These groups that are pushing this silliness, are not really doing much for the average gay or lesbian in the street, so this is just a smokescreen to cover their inaction. How about we try something we’ve never tried before: How about we attempt to address the huge disparity of HIV among same-gender loving men of color. Yeah, it takes real work. None of this Don’t eat a friggin chicken bs. How about we save lives instead of closing down community clinics and drop in centers in the middle of this crisis? Maybe it’s time we applied community pressure to clean up the barebacking sites who are making a profit off of promoting HIV and STD’s. How ’bout we stop playing games and do something real?
How about a hand hold-in? All peace and love, nothing sexual.
The thing to remember is these people just don’t care about us. We care about us so we need to brainstorm about ways to make life better for gay families. The main targets that I can think of are the ex-gay industry and the hate groups that you often talk about on this sight. If you find ways to hit them wear it counts i.e the wallet, then you’ll get their attention. They don’t care about our lives only their own bellies. That’s what i got!!
Remind me: how did we handle Cracker Barrel?
*yawn.
“Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain—and most fools do.” ~Dale Carnegie.
I see one side that takes any word/action that is friendly towards the life of gay citizens and turns it into the first day of the Apocalypse.
I see another side that takes any word/action in line with orthodox Christianity, Islam or Judaism and defines the source as evil incarnate.
I am against turning every name, activity, institution, structure, etc. into a symbol of evil or goodness–dividing up the population–and battling over it. Whether it is Disney or Chick fil a.
We can express our differences to each other without gathering in the CFA parking lot and yelling past each other about CFA. We can seek changes in laws through direct political engagement.
So although I oppose the actions of some of the mayors and support CFA–it is fair to note the mayors took no formal action (they expressed their views) and backed down some of their comments.
IF CFA breaks any laws–they should have their behinds hauled into court.
But I’m not going to turn them into a symbol whereby I can then hit at neighbors by fighting over CFA.
The concern that the Chick-fil-A kiss-in is too provocative, because it will trigger the homophobic disgust reaction in heterosexuals, has been around since the 1950s when the avowed Communist homophile movement leader Harry Hay argued over political protest strategies with the religious and politically conservative Republican homophile leader W. Dorr Legg. Similarly, in the 1970′s gay liberation era when the University of Minnesota law student Jack Baker took his gay marriage case all the way to the U.S. Supreme court in 1972 (his case is still being cited in the current California Prop. 8 case) I witnessed firsthand the screaming matches between gay liberation movement leaders who accused Baker, whose gay marriage had been widely covered in national news magazines, of being a lunatic who would jeopardize the “mainstream political goals” of a then closeted Minnesota State politician named Alan Spear and his acolyte Steven Endean who later became a national gay rights leader in Washington, D.C.. As somebody experienced with gay politics, I believe there is a place for provocative actions when you want to excite your political base into action, but they must be used with caution to avoid doing more harm than good. In my experience, provocative actions are a good way to get younger people involved in gay politics and also to generate some attention when you have an unsympathetic mainstream press, but sooner or later you still need some older gays in suit coats who can represent your civil rights when the real politicians decide the law on the floor of the legislature. I doubt anybody would want to see Barney Frank having a kiss-on on the House floor! My bottom line — I think the kiss-in sounds like fun and it won’t cause any harm.
“I see another side that takes any word/action in line with orthodox Christianity, Islam or Judaism and defines the source as evil incarnate.”
Stop equating bigotry as the expression of those things and you’ll stop seeing that. It doesn’t actually exist to any notable degree.
I’m kind of over this whole Chick-fil-A thing. Their views are bigoted, stupid, and a century behind normal people’s, but the truth is that they’re a privately owned business and their right to speak their views is protected under the First Amendment. You could argue that since they don’t respect our rights under the Constitution, we shouldn’t bother to respect theirs, but when we abandon our principles, we begin acting just like the people we are battling for our equal rights. Unlike simply boycotting, the kiss-in is simply provocative and could incite violence, especially in the most conservative. With the amount of violence against LGBT people that has been making headlines as of late, we should be protesting in a less inflammatory way.
Annie, no one is violating their first amendment rights and their comments aren’t even the issue anyway. It’s the fact that they donate millions of dollars to SPLC certified hate groups and “ex-gay” groups, both of which are party to attempts to commit genocide against us in places like Uganda.
I think we’d be better off having our own “Appreciation Days” for businesses like Starbucks.
@Buffy, what a good idea. I love it!
@Buffy/Darren Starbucks appreciation day is already set for August 7th.
How about we organize a “Shake Your Fist at God Day.”
Thanks, Tim. I’ll have to get myself a Venti Quad Iced Latte that day. :-)
@RainbowPhoenix, I am not defending them in any way, but several mayors of major cities have said that they will not allow Chick-fil-A to open any locations in their cities until they reverse their stance, which is essentially punishing them for expressing their views. I think that if enough LGBT people and our allies boycott, it will cause a significant hit to their sales and eventually they will stop donating to anti-gay organizations or even be put out of business. However, there are so many more effective ways to progress our cause. We have a president who is the most influential LGBT-friendly politician in the world, yet instead of focusing all our energy on getting him re-elected, which could result in further strides for marriage equality and significant funding to help homeless LGBT youth and other equality issues, we’re debating on whether or not we should go make out with our partners in Chick-fil-A just to p**s off right-wing bigots. By refusing to purchase anything there, we’re refusing to give them money to in turn give to people who spend their lives fighting against our rights. But by kissing in a place where we know there may be extremely homophobic people who are just looking for a reason to do us harm, we’re putting our safety at risk and not doing much to further our cause.
That’s not what you said earlier Annie. You implied that any sort of protest was somehow violating their rights. You didn’t specify anything about the mayors trying to block them from opening, something they have backed off on anyway. You’ll also notice that I haven’t shared my opinion on the kiss-in specifically, though we are the ones who will come off looking better if things do get violent.
Why do we have to act in a silly, dumb-a$$ed manner to prove some sort of point? There will be plenty of fundie picture takers there to prove their point to the world and we will have happily helped them. This whole thing is totally asinine. Sure, go show the American people how offensive we can be whenever we get miffed about anything. I prefer dealing with issues in as adult a manner as possible. THIS is not even an issue. It is nothing we haven’t heard or experienced before. For Christ’s sake, people, let’s grow up and, at least, try to act in an adult fashion.
Remind me again of why gays and lesbians kissing in public to protest the head of an organization syphoning funds to groups that want us dead is a bad thing? Why are so many allies still ashamed of t
heir own sexuality? Our enemies will hate us no matter what we do.
That’s a good point Malcolm. The folks who scarfed down the Chick-fil-A will hate us no matter what.
I love the idea. The more we kiss our hearts out in front of them, the more they are forced to deal with the fact that we are here, always have been and always will be.
I just hope the people were good kissers — and didn’t do the cow kiss or the chicken peck. :)
Speaking as a straight woman, the kiss-in is fine with me. Anything that’s a light-hearted tweaking of the homophobes — and which is guaranteed to provoke a truly disproportionate and froth-at-the-mouth response from homophobes — works for me.
The whole point is to emphasize that Chick-fil-A, far from the nice inoffensive mainstream American company its recent ad blitz chooses to depict, is really run by and for homophobes of a particular religious and cultural stripe and agenda, which they use their company to advance. That has been achieved, and that will kill dead Chick-fil-A’s efforts at expanding much more beyond its Deep South homeland. (Take a look at this rather bizarrely-designed CFA website showing states with Chick-fil-A franchises — even the Northern and Western high-population states with the most franchises still have less of them than does low-population Alabama, much less North Carolina or Texas: http://www.chick-fil-a.com/Locations/Browse/ )
The lesson here is that GLBTs are now part of the mainstream, and homophobes (especially religio-racist ones) are not. That’s why Chick-fil-A is a lot more likely to be the next Sambo’s than it is to be the next KFC.
Oh, and by the way: Chick-fil-A’s brand approval has taken a massive hit:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/7/prweb9750812.htm
Gianni said “Sure, go show the American people how offensive we can be whenever we get miffed about anything.”.
A same sex couple kissing isn’t offensive. To those that feel this way further exposure is a good thing because it’ll help desensitize them and allow them to see this as an ordinary thing. The more people get used to same sex couples kissing the better.
Always remember, when straight men see lesbians kissing, they will probably be sitting down to avoid embarrassment.
If homosexuality only occurred among women, I doubt there would be an anti-gay industry.
Priya, I agree that a same sex couple kissing is not offensive – to us and some other mentally enlightened people. To the boneheads and fundies and just most str8 people it is offensive. This kiss-in is being done just to shove it in their faces. I cannot for the life of me see the merit in that.
Gianni, with repetition even they will get used to it and their visceral opposition will diminish.
[...] we participated in the National Same-Sex Kiss Day. Wisconsin has only one Chick-fil-A restaurant, so we drove down to Racine in order to [...]