First, this is a losing battle in a generational war. There are several issues besides stopping gay marriage that are failing to win new minds, such as continuing the drug war, giving rich people all our money while we starve at slave wages and letting big banks have NO regulations. It doesn't matter if you are conservative or liberal, Democrat or Republican, if you are under forty a huge percentage of them believe that these things are the spawn of Satan. But guess what? Younger people are not dying off like the fucking Baby Boomers who in all honesty, can't die soon enough. This is the most spoiled, evil generation ever with no consideration to anyone but themselves and a complete disregard for common sense. Luckily for us, they are not getting any younger and their outdated ideals are dying with them.
Take gay marriage. As little as four years ago, a majority of this country disapproved. Now a slim majority is all for it and that number is growing. This is a dead issue. Sooner or later, the religious right is going to cry themselves out and no one is going to listen. I am sick to death about hearing the sanctity of marriage as defined in the Bible. They must not ever read the damned book because the Bible's definition of marriage include marrying your rapist or your brother in law after your husband dies, spending your menstrual cycle in isolation, support of slavery and being able to be bought for some chickens and a cow. None of these things do we do today because THEY ARE IDIOTIC! The Bible is a great book to learn about things like honesty, morality and leading a just life. Somehow ever other schmuck on the planet sees death to infidels, no better than the Muslims or Jews. How is it so many people can read a book based on living a selfless life and instead misunderstand it to say screw everyone but me and mine? Unbelievable.
The Bible was written by sheep herders who thought the world was flat, the sun revolved around the Earth and pork was evil, not because uncooked pork will kill you, but because "God" said it was bad. All nonsense. Yet we have every moron on earth saying " the Bible is all true and because of that marriage is between a man and a woman." Only it never says that anywhere. I also seemed to have missed the part where Jesus condemns all gay people to hell. Must be in a revision. Or the missing eleventh commandment THOU SHALL NOT BE GAY. A typo I guess. The Rapture seems to be gone as well. My Bible apparently sucks.
As neither Jesus nor God EVER condemn gays, where is it written? Mostly by St, Paul, a notorious firebrand who may have hated gay people because he himself, may have been gay. Other than a few passages in Leviticus which could have been written by anyone, most of the anti-gay rhetoric is solely Paul's. This is not exactly a ringing endorsement for the whole anti-gay tirade the Catholic Church and others have taken up.
Speaking of which, isn't it ironic that the one organization which leads the charge of anti-gayness is still reeling from the gay pedo scandals of the eighties. I went to school with a pedo priest and knew several people he tried to molest before being sent away for "health reasons." He never tried anything with me which means gay men found me as attractive as straight women apparently for most of my youth. So the Bible anti-gay stance is suspect, like most of what is written there. The best way to read the Bible is this way: the Ten Commandment and the words of Christ. Everything else is debatable.
But now we have a shift in perception. Politicians, the democrats in particular, have seen their watershed moment and grabbing it with gusto by acknowledging support for gay marriage and not for bigotry against them. The President did something very smart by accepting gay marriage, ending "Don't ask, don't tell," and now comes word that the platform will be addressed at the DNC. With any luck, Obama will sign an executive order allowing gay marriage as a federal right.
It was recently revealed that famed astronaut, the late Sally Ride, was gay and living with her partner for 26 years. Her partner will be ineligible for SS benefits, a travesty. I am glad to see democrats finally coming to terms with the fact that anti-gay stances are not winning over new converts and actually could be a serious platform instead.
Even businesses are feeling the heat. Chick-Fil-A President and Chief Operating Officer Dan Cathy was vilified when he recently told the Baptist Press that Chick-Fil-A is "very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit." Mayors in Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago all said the business was not welcome in their cities, a fact that may start seriously start hurting his bottom line if others follow suit. Jim Henson cut all ties for toy promotions with them and gay friendly cities like San Fransisco have seen protests outside the chain restaurants.
J.C. Penny saw some early issues with hiring openly gay talk show host Ellen Degeneres as a spokesperson. A Million Mom March was planned to protest the move as well as a total boycott. The rally fizzled and J.C. Penny saw no downtick in profits. That didn't happen until they unwisely eliminated sales which saw profits sink faster than the Titanic, Gay people fine. Getting rid of sales unAmerican.
Other business owners, seeing a trend, have jumped on the band wagon to say they are gay friendly too. Amazon, Microsoft, General Mills, and Elliot Management have all come forward to voice their support and donated millions to gay charities. Studies done since the controversy show that sales will be affected as more people say they will not eat there because of their stance. I rarely went to Blockbuster for much the same reasons as their CEO was a staunch anti-abortion foe and see what happened to them. True, they were mismanaged in an increasingly digital age, but think how many people like myself went somewhere else for years because of their stupid political positions.
This is not the first stupid thing this company has done. Chick Fil A tried to stop a small business owner from using the slogan EAT MORE KALE, which he had been using for almost a decade, because it was too much like EAT MOR CHIKIN and yes that is how they spelled it. The case got them a lot of flack for picking on a little guy for actually having the gall to use English words that everyone uses. Word spread across the Internet and public opinion of Chick Fil A plummeted. They wisely dropped the suit.
Free speech wise, anyone or any company can say whatever they like. But much like yelling fire in a crowded movie theater, having this kind of speech made public will affect your bottom line. Chick Fil A has said they will keep their mouths shut from now on about political or religious matters. Unfortunately, the cat is out of the bag on your true feelings and it's is impossible to get that genie back in the bottle.
We hear how many people are anti-abortion or anti-gay but when push comes to shove, history shows the opposite to be true. Chick Fil A mas made a monumental error in that it may have problems opening new stores in some places until their reverse course. And look what happened to the Kagan Foundation when they got rid of Planned Parenthood for abortion issues. Planned Parenthood got double the donations they usually get while Kagan is on life support with a majority of the board gone. Mississippi couldn't even get a radical anti-abortion law passed when it lost by a wide margin.
The country is becoming increasingly comfortable with gay people, abortion as a last resort, legalization of pot and other "liberal" ideas. This is why the GOP is ultimately doomed as their voters are dying while the democrats are gaining the rest. The election is not going to to be close at this rate regardless of what the pundits say. Obama's numbers are rising in almost all the key states. And while I am far from an Obama supporter, I see the alternative as too frightening to contemplate. This latest fiasco, in a long line of conservative faux pas this week, is just the beginning. The right needs to start coming into the 21st century and if like Plato says you won't, we will drag you kicking and screaming into the light.
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