In light of the whole Chic-FIl-A fiasco...

[Carolyn Marie]

This controversy brings a whole new meaning to this overused but classic call to battle:

FOOD FIGHT!!!!!

Carolyn Marie

[Kyla666]

I been fighting with some people on facebook about this and the lack of understanding of many people shocks me =(

The funny thing is before this all happen i never even heard of the place. But my Girlfriend told me we have one down here somewhere lol

My stand is, If the money is being used to hurt people and take away others rights then don't go there... No matter how much you like there food.

Like i put it on facebook... "If he said the money goes to killing kids to save them from the pain of living a hard life would you still go there and eat there food?.... The answerer is NO.

And the very fact that Same sex marriage is illegal blows my mind when we have MANY laws in place to SUPPORT same sex marriage. And the biggest is one set in place at the start of the USA... "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion"

[Bulldog1948]

Guess they have a CFA in Columbus at Polaris Mall. Anyway, the news did a big thing on it last night. All the chickens were lined up around the "coop" and spending their money. Just a few protesters out front. They had to be very careful that the chicken poop from da coop didn't land on them . lol

Besides I don't buy chicken products at returants. I only eat my cajun style brests that moma cooks for me.

Mike

[Guest jennipher]

I was just watching the Daily Show with John Stewart, and I think he summed it up best saying

For people who are gay or support gay marriage, I get how seeing thousands of people come out to make this statement is incredibly disheartening.

But take solace in this; gay marriage is happening. Like drive-thru window lanes, it ain't goin' backwards.

And your bonus is this; you'll get gay marriage, and all your political opponents are going to get is type 2 diabetes.

[Guest Micha]

There can be no justice without equality.

I agree, this isn't about free speech, and anyone claiming otherwise is supporting (consciously or not) a private agenda. If the money goes to anti-GLBT movements, then it's not just opinions, it's social action against equality. And people are proud to support this.

What do people in this country value more? The rights of people to live safe and free? Or the rights of finacially powerful entities to supress minorities?

I am absolutely disgusted.

Salt in the wounds, I read CFA experienced an increase in profits due to this mess. Profiting from hatemongering.

[Imawoman]

I disagree; I think we should run people like this out of the country. It's their right and freedom, and it's our right to create a backlash. Personally I'm glad for this Chik Fil A thing, it's making it clear that there's going to be a kind of 'war' coming and because I know who the winners will be, and what it will do for our society; I'm happy and excited. I'm sick and tired of this Christian --Censored Word-- lie/fallacy where they pretend they don't hate gays, just don't agree, or that God hates the sin, not the sinner, or that they have gay friends, but don't agree. I'm sorry it's --Censored Word--. They want their disgusting cake and they want to eat it too. They know it's hard to function in the Western world by being anti gay, and that they'll lose tons of contacts, and friends, so they try to straddle both lines, but I see their actual hate. Down with bigotry!

[Carolyn Marie]

The Christian right is loud, well organized and are willing to show up at this sort of orchestrated event. But bear in mind that every national poll on same-sex marriage I've seen recently proves that most people favor it, and the numbers in favor have been steadily rising.

The sorts of people who oppose gay marriage are also the types of people who opposed interracial marriage, integration and civil rights. They lost those battles. They will lose this one, too.

HUGS

Carolyn Mari4e

[Guest amanda_s]

Hi i'm in canada so i have never been to this place. on facebook a girl posted companys that surport LGBT community. like Coke which is sold at this place and many other things this place sells. i have been reading hear and other site about this, we have more surport out there, i think it has back fired for them. just my 2 cents

Amanda

[Guest Jenni_S]

My goodness, the amount of hatred for the Christians here is rather astonishing. You know what's ironic, though? This lumping of every Christian into one group that's easily stereotyped, is exactly what everyone here hates having done to them. I am of the Christian faith, and transsexual. One can be both, and having been stereotyped to no end about one of those things, I'd like it if I at least didn't have to be stereotyped to death by the same people who say we're all one under the umbrella. One person's values and beliefs do not trump another's, no matter how much you may dislike them. Here in the US, at least, it's your right to the free exercise of religion. Again, I find it rather ironic that the fervor over this issue has become almost religious on both sides, especially from those saying religion has no place here.

[Guest amanda_s]

This controversy brings a whole new meaning to this overused but classic call to battle:

FOOD FIGHT!!!!!

Carolyn Marie

LOL i saw this you made me laugh have you seen animal house

Amanda

[Guest lairlane]

My goodness, the amount of hatred for the Christians here is rather astonishing. You know what's ironic, though? This lumping of every Christian into one group that's easily stereotyped, is exactly what everyone here hates having done to them. I am of the Christian faith, and transsexual. One can be both, and having been stereotyped to no end about one of those things, I'd like it if I at least didn't have to be stereotyped to death by the same people who say we're all one under the umbrella. One person's values and beliefs do not trump another's, no matter how much you may dislike them. Here in the US, at least, it's your right to the free exercise of religion. Again, I find it rather ironic that the fervor over this issue has become almost religious on both sides, especially from those saying religion has no place here.

Jenni, You have hit the nail squarely on the head. There are more than two Christian transsexual members of Laura's and this has been such a divisive topic I loath to weigh in.

A large proportion of our country's citizens profess the willingness to die for the First Amendment to our Constitution.

Our country is more equally divided regarding marriage, economic solutions, and political outcomes.

Our families cry out for help regardless of gender, race, or sexual orientation.

Lana

[Guest LizMarie]

Jenni, I consider myself a Christian as well, but not a fundamentalist. A friend of mine who has been very supportive calls herself a "recovering evangelical".

For everyone else, I'd urge you to read "Five Reasons the Church Failed Yesterday" by Matthew Paul Turner. I'm not providing the link because it's not TG specific but it is about this Chik-Fil-A incident and it shows the other side of the Christian coin, those people who were upset with and disagreed with what happened at Chik-Fil-A. If you Google that title and the author's name, it will come right up for you. It's an excellent read and demonstrates that not all Christians are fundamentalist bible thumping haters.

[Michelle 2010]

Two thoughts:

One, the rhetoric about christians oppressing the rights of gays and trans people is interesting. I personally know folks who are against gay marriage, yet I know NO ONE who opposes the right of LGBT folks to have every right that marriage provides to heterosexual couples. Family visitation, right of survivorship, joint property, medical insurance, shared names...everything. They just believe that it should be called a union or partnership, etc rather than marriage, because it is their belief that a marriage is the joining of a man and a woman in Holy Matrimony, These people are not homophobe or haters. They simply believe redefining the term "Marriage" is not right, and for some of them, they believe it weakens the institution of marriage.

Two, I don't know what triggered the current drama. CFA's stance has been the same for years. I wouldn't be surprised if this is a clever ploy to mobilize the tea party and republican base for the coming election. The conservative right would love this to be a lightning rod issue to galvanize the undecideds. I think the LGBT communities reaction to this long standing CFA policy is playing into the hands of the Karl Rove fundraisers and Romney handlers. Creating fear and a backlash to take the public's mind off the economy and onto easily manipulated fear of cultural decay is an old political trick. In years past is was abortion, flag burning, being soft on crime, etc.

Ask yourself, "Why is this a hot button issue now?" Hmm, election in November... Romney is tagged as a job destroyer rather than creator... I don't think its a coincidence...

Michelle

[JenniferB]

Jenni, I consider myself a Christian as well, but not a fundamentalist. A friend of mine who has been very supportive calls herself a "recovering evangelical".

For everyone else, I'd urge you to read "Five Reasons the Church Failed Yesterday" by Matthew Paul Turner. I'm not providing the link because it's not TG specific but it is about this Chik-Fil-A incident and it shows the other side of the Christian coin, those people who were upset with and disagreed with what happened at Chik-Fil-A. If you Google that title and the author's name, it will come right up for you. It's an excellent read and demonstrates that not all Christians are fundamentalist bible thumping haters.

I know a few fundamentalists who are wonderful people. One has adopted many children of different races, including handicapped ones. He would do anything for anyone, and hasn't spoken a word about Chick-fil-A. I work with a few very strong Christians at work, and one is totally supportive. We talk about fashion all the time.

[Guest Velanna]

I didn't intend for there to be lashes against Christianity, and in that regard I apologize. One thing I would NEVER do is allow myself to chastise someone based on their beliefs. I may disagree with religion as a whole (I'm agnostic atheist) I do not believe that people shouldn't believe if it works for them. I find that religion works for some and just doesn't work for others!

As to how or why this thread got into this position, well religion IS a touchy subject and this DOES technically deal with religion in a way...so, the battle field is open.

Not my intentions, but I cannot erase the past.

But just keep in mind: I'm sure no one intended to lash out against religion (or more specifically Christianity) in a bad sense but in the sense to prove a point of sort.

[Michelle 2010]

Its ok Nyxis, its a free flowing exchange of ideas; and positions in writing don't always reflect exactly what we meant or can be subject to triggering thoughts in others that seem to distort... I don't think any apologies are necessary.

As I posted, this may be the lightening rod issue that political strategists can use to move from intelligent discussion of how to recover middle class jobs, regaining America's strength, and instead move into hotbutton emotionally driven fear designed to manipulate the public off of the fact that middle class America is being driven to extinction. Politicians would rather talk about culture wars than the fact that the middle class is trading $20-30/hr jobs for $8-12/hr jobs and the fact that we don't make stuff in America anymore. The only politician that told the truth was Ross Perot in the early '90's when he talked about "the giant sucking sound of jobs going south of the border".

The politicians would rather have people vote because of fear of LGBT issues than fear that their children won't have a middle class lifestyles. Sowing fear of minority groups is as old as history. Galvanize the base... bring the fearful into your camp...

Sorry to derail, but it is what it is...

Michelle

[Guest kelise]

Two thoughts:

One, the rhetoric about christians oppressing the rights of gays and trans people is interesting. I personally know folks who are against gay marriage, yet I know NO ONE who opposes the right of LGBT folks to have every right that marriage provides to heterosexual couples. Family visitation, right of survivorship, joint property, medical insurance, shared names...everything. They just believe that it should be called a union or partnership, etc rather than marriage, because it is their belief that a marriage is the joining of a man and a woman in Holy Matrimony, These people are not homophobe or haters. They simply believe redefining the term "Marriage" is not right, and for some of them, they believe it weakens the institution of marriage.

This may be a news flash to Christians, but they didn't invent marriage, the concept OR the word. People got married, even gay married, long before the Bible was written. People get married today in every religion and culture, everywhere in the world. Some allow gay marriage, some don't. Riddle me this: Two heterosexual American Athiests walk into the Justice of the Peace's office at their local courthouse, sign a marriage license, pay a fee, step before a Judge, and are pronounced married without ever saying a prayer or mentioning God. They go on a honeymoon, buy a house, and continue on in their secular lives as a married couple. In what way does this "marriage" fit the "definition" of "Holy Matrimony" in Christians eyes? Christians do not own the patent on marriage. It is a secular concept. That said, no law can ever tell a Church of any kind who they can and can not "marry" in the eyes of their Diety. That's up to them. Legalizing Gay Marriage will not bring down a rash of lawsuits against churches who refuse to marry a gay couple, and no gay couple I know would ever want to have the most important ceremony of their lives be held in a place they are unwelcome. I will marry my girlfriend one day. It WILL be called marriage, and it WILL be the same as any other American heterosexual Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish or what-have-you marriage there is, minus the religious tag.

Two, I don't know what triggered the current drama. CFA's stance has been the same for years. I wouldn't be surprised if this is a clever ploy to mobilize the tea party and republican base for the coming election. The conservative right would love this to be a lightning rod issue to galvanize the undecideds. I think the LGBT communities reaction to this long standing CFA policy is playing into the hands of the Karl Rove fundraisers and Romney handlers. Creating fear and a backlash to take the public's mind off the economy and onto easily manipulated fear of cultural decay is an old political trick. In years past is was abortion, flag burning, being soft on crime, etc.

Ask yourself, "Why is this a hot button issue now?" Hmm, election in November... Romney is tagged as a job destroyer rather than creator... I don't think its a coincidence...

Michelle

Movements sometimes take a while to build momentum. Yes, when I saw all the anti-CFA stuff start up on FB, I thought it was weird at first too, because I knew they were anti-gay and had been personally boycotting them already for years. Same as Domino's Pizza and Winn-Dixie.Then I found out it sparked by some recent comments by the CEO that I guess caught enough attention for the community to become aware of their stance and the millions of dollars the give to fighting us.

[Sally]

I think that the whole thing was summed up on the Daily Show as Jon Stewart responded to the CEO's stance of us being so arrogant as to flaunt God by redefining Marriage saying that it is however OK to restructure God's design of the chicken rendering it all breasts and if you would like we can throw a piece of cheese and a slice of bacon on that because apparently everything in Leviticus is not God's word.

That is it - pick the parts you want to and pound away - I have never believed that the Bible was intended to be a guide for bigotry but most of the world seems to disagree, feeling that it is a guide as to who to hate.

Love ya (All of you!)

Sally

[Guest Jenni_S]

This may be a news flash to Christians, but they didn't invent marriage, the concept OR the word. People got married, even gay married, long before the Bible was written. People get married today in every religion and culture, everywhere in the world. Some allow gay marriage, some don't. Riddle me this: Two heterosexual American Athiests walk into the Justice of the Peace's office at their local courthouse, sign a marriage license, pay a fee, step before a Judge, and are pronounced married without ever saying a prayer or mentioning God. They go on a honeymoon, buy a house, and continue on in their secular lives as a married couple. In what way does this "marriage" fit the "definition" of "Holy Matrimony" in Christians eyes? Christians do not own the patent on marriage. It is a secular concept. That said, no law can ever tell a Church of any kind who they can and can not "marry" in the eyes of their Diety. That's up to them. Legalizing Gay Marriage will not bring down a rash of lawsuits against churches who refuse to marry a gay couple, and no gay couple I know would ever want to have the most important ceremony of their lives be held in a place they are unwelcome. I will marry my girlfriend one day. It WILL be called marriage, and it WILL be the same as any other American heterosexual Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish or what-have-you marriage there is, minus the religious tag.

I, for one, don't care if you get married, or to whom you choose to marry. Most, if not all, of the people I know in my church (I can't say I know how they would ALL feel), really don't either. I'd wish you nothing but happiness, with whatever you choose to do. What you believe is your business, not mine. I've never said otherwise to anyone.

This seems difficult for people to wrap their heads around, but I was schooled in Catholic schools for 12 years. I go to church regularly. I have not kept this whole process a secret from anyone. Nearly four years post-op, and I still work for the Catholic high school from which I graduated, and even had my job expanded last school year. Not one person there, or in my church, has come after me about what I have done. Not one.

But what you have written here is an excellent example of what I said earlier. I don't know what happened to make you feel this way, but I'm sorry that you do. Are all Christians good people? No. I've never said they were. There are bad Christians, just as there are bad Muslms, Jews, Lutherans, Episcopalians, and Atheists. There are bad transpeople, too, much as we would like to believe there aren't. This doesn't give anyone the right to denigrate an entire group of people. It does make it much, much easier to hate them, though. Constantly hearing how awful all the Christians are, being one, because some of them are lousy people, isn't fair to me, and all the other Christians that are not jerks. I will not deny that those lousy people exist; I don't like them either.

We can go about working for change in many ways. I'd like to think I've changed no small number of people's opinions about transsexuality, by simply going to church, doing my job at school, and making friends and, really, showing that I'm just like anyone else. I've made a lot of new friends in these places since my transition began. I've had it said to me before that my experiences have just been lucky, or isolated, or that it can't last. That may be, I don't know, but they are my experiences. But the fact that I haven't been ejected from the church and still have the job says a lot more, I think.

Everyone has the right to not like me, or any Christian. I can think it's unfair, hurtful, unkind, or that you're not very happy. But I can't tell you that you can't feel that way. All I can do is say what I think about it, and say what I have to say. I don't think it makes you much better than the people that hate you for what you are, in the end.

[Guest KimberlyF]

Holy crap that's a great post Jennifer!

Come to town. We'll get chicken

[Drea]

Two, I don't know what triggered the current drama. CFA's stance has been the same for years. I wouldn't be surprised if this is a clever ploy to mobilize the tea party and republican base for the coming election. The conservative right would love this to be a lightning rod issue to galvanize the undecideds. I think the LGBT communities reaction to this long standing CFA policy is playing into the hands of the Karl Rove fundraisers and Romney handlers. Creating fear and a backlash to take the public's mind off the economy and onto easily manipulated fear of cultural decay is an old political trick. In years past is was abortion, flag burning, being soft on crime, etc.

It certainly has been great for publicity no matter how one looks at it.

This seems difficult for people to wrap their heads around, but I was schooled in Catholic schools for 12 years. I go to church regularly. I have not kept this whole process a secret from anyone. Nearly four years post-op, and I still work for the Catholic high school from which I graduated, and even had my job expanded last school year. Not one person there, or in my church, has come after me about what I have done. Not one.

I got a feeling if you wanted to get married in the Church at this point the fact that you been divorced is perhaps more of a sticking point than the fact that you are trans.

On regular basis I see some news new reported about something like a prison guard transitioning and it being touted as some great sign of a new level of acceptance, but.....

....but this isn't news. That prison guard example isn't new, it is far from a first. I know people who have transitioned as prison guard (both MTF and FTM). I know a few who are police officers. I know a couple who are public school teachers. I know one who transitioned as a firefighter. These are not new and unique events, but why is it touted as something new? Perhaps because someone wants to make a big deal of it, want to make political hay out of it, to turn it into a political statement.

All seems to me like political fodder, to push trans to one political point of view while at the same time actually making it more difficult for trans to achieve their self realization that could be achieved much more pragmatically. Or perhaps it is just the part of the trans community that wishes to identify as trans rather than that portion who are transitioning and don't have any intent to present as trans afterwards.

[Candykane]

I was going to make Chicken shnitzel tonight, but now I am so cofused about all this Chicken talk I think I will just make an Omelet.

At least they don't cluck.

Candy Kane

[Candykane]

Well the omelet was out so I ate pork. I hope there is no uprising against it as I am running out of sesitive eating habits. Tomorrow I wil try tofy, YUK.

Candy Kane

[Guest KimberlyF]

Well the omelet was out so I ate pork. I hope there is no uprising against it as I am running out of sesitive eating habits. Tomorrow I wil try tofy, YUK.

Candy Kane

Pork is better than duck or tofu .

I don't know why a place doesn't open a Turk-fil-a?

I've been subbing turkey for everything in recipes. Well for the meat part. Not like 1/2 pound turkey, teaspoon of turkey and two cups of turkey over a low heat.

There hasn't been much coverage of the Kiss-In Friday. Of course candidates announce their worst news Fri evening because it's the worst news slot with the weekend, so it wasn't too well planned to start.

[Carolyn Marie]

You can't go wrong with Kosher.

Nathan's hot dog, anyone?

Carolyn Marie