Chick-Fil-A has become my new favorite hangout. Not too far
from school, not too far from my counselor, not too far from anything in this
little town which is 45 min away from my home. The coffee is decent, (although
my standards have plummeted since drinking Folgers on a daily basis in EMS) and
the food is lovely. If I'm honest though, I come here because I am gay, and
they disagree with me.
Call me what you
will, but I love this country I really, really love it, and what I love the
most about it is that I am free to be gay, and Chick-Fil-A is free to disagree
with me. I know that the Chick-Fil-A controversy is long dead, the reporters
are done hashing it out, people, as people will, have long forgotten it. I have
not though; I have not because I am slightly ashamed of the way it was handled.
As a lesbian follower of Christ, I am ashamed of both sides. We say we are
fighting for the same thing—the Love of Christ, and we show our love by
picketing, shouting, and calling each other dirty names. Really? Could we not
have left this behavior in grade school where it belongs? Although when I hear
the way grade school children speak at times I think they have more pride than to stoop to what we have stooped to.
I wish that instead of picketing the LGBTQ community had
massed at Chick-Fil-A all wearing shirts that said, I’m gay and I support Chick-Fil-A #freedomofspeech. Now that would
have made a statement this country would never have forgotten. We want the
right to publicly and legally marry, but we do not want the right for a CEO
to say whatever the heck strikes his fancy? Am I the only one who sees the flaw
in this logic? Whether we like it or not, we are a community, the internet has
made distance in this country negotiable at best, and as a community we have to
learn to get along. We cannot pick and choose our freedoms, either we are a
free country, or we are not. Either we are free to choose our spouse, and free
to say whatever we want to say or we have neither.
I support the LGBTQ community, obviously, I am part of it. I
support freedom of speech, I exercise this right every day, and this is why I
will continue my silent protest against the way people treat one another in the
name of freedom, and eat at Chick-Fil-A. I might even order my t-shirt and wear
it here one day.
I also support loving those who hate you. Recently, the
leader of the Westboro Baptist Church died, and although I do not know any of
the details that surrounded his death, I heard one of his last requests was
that no one would protest at his funeral. I assume that request was not
honored, although later I heard that there would be no funeral at all. I wonder
though what would happen if instead of picketing a dead man’s funeral if LGBTQ community, and frankly the Christian community who was horrified by the choices
of this Church, flooded the church with condolences.
A man who was loved died. No matter what he did in his life,
and what hate he perpetuated, there are people who deeply grieve his loss. I
know what it feels like to lose someone who is loved; I also know what it feels
like to be hated for loving someone, has not every gay person felt this at some
point in their lives? Instead of returning hate with hate, perhaps we should
return hate with love. Love always makes a more powerful statement than hate.
We want our love to be accepted, whether gay, or Christian, perhaps it is time
we start being known for our love rather than our hate.
Although I have stayed out of these controversies and
avoided social media when they happen, I will not be doing this in the future.
I will be seeking out ways to show love in these situations. I eat at
Chick-Fil-A, not because I agree with what they believe, I do not have to, I
agree with their rights to freedom of speech. I will be sending a card to the
Westboro Church family, not because I agree with anything their leader did, but
because I am truly sorry for their loss, death is hard no matter how old the
person, or who they are death is death, and death hurts, these are small
protests against hate, but I hear every great movement starts with a small
protest.
