R. Clarke Cooper

The Log Cabin Republicans’ R. Clarke Cooper today penned a scathing rebuke of LGBT activists and allies who have been speaking out against Chick-fil-A for its anti-gay policies. Confirming for his conservative brethren that “gay people really are the thought police,” Cooper lashes out at “Chick-fil-A haters” for being “superficial, vindictive, and juvenile”:

Turning a chicken sandwich into Public Gay Enemy Number One makes LGBT people look superficial, vindictive and juvenile — everything that we as a community have worked hard to overcome. Remember, employers don’t want drama queens on the payroll, military service is serious business, and marriage is not a right society grants to spoiled children. While in a perfect world our equality should not depend on our good behavior, in a world where our rights too often hinge on political reality, the way our movement conducts itself matters.

The “movable middle” moves both ways, and they don’t like seeing people attacked relentlessly for their religion. Whatever the nuances, these voters see a man standing up for his beliefs against a politically powerful mob dead-set on driving him out of business. It’s un-American, and when fellow conservatives are finally standing up and speaking out for marriage equality as consistent with the sober values of responsibility and commitment, splashing a popular American company with metaphorical chicken blood in protest is nothing less than friendly fire.

Amazingly, Cooper manages to buy into almost every talking point used by those defending Chick-fil-A while still purporting to support LGBT equality. While some conservatives (and “some” may yet be generous) are speaking out for marriage equality, Chick-fil-A is surely doing the opposite. There’s nothing “friendly” about a company president outright condemning marriage equality advocates as “inviting God’s judgment” while giving millions of dollars to anti-gay hate groups and ex-gay organizations. The Log Cabin Republicans say on their website that theirs is “is the only Republican organization dedicated to representing the interests of gay and lesbian Americans and their allies”;  Chick-fil-A is neither.

The backlash against Chick-fil-A has nothing to do with being “thought police,” but about holding those with money and influence accountable. The struggle for LGBT equality extends far beyond the legal hurdles Cooper reduced it to in this post. Finding acceptance in society and minimizing language that stigmatizes is key to ending the bullying and minority stress at the root of LGBT people’s health and economic inequities. Cooper’s flagrantly offensive argument ignores both the actual lives of a community he claims to represent as well as the harm done by Dan Cathy’s remarks and his company’s donations.

Cooper claims that it’s a struggle to convince conservatives to support equality when the “spoiled children” of the LGBT community are standing up for themselves against vicious public attacks. If he’s willing to sacrifice dignity for equality, then it’s unclear if he’s “representing the interests” of anyone at all.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is leading the charge in defending Chick-fil-A with “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” this Wednesday, but with the new media attention, he has proven his hypocrisy over what warrants a boycott. Breaking from his anti-gay partners at the National Organization for Marriage, Huckabee actually disavowed the group’s failed boycotts of Starbucks and General Mills, but with a tenuous explanation:

HUCKABEE: That’s what I find most offensive. Instead of having an honest, rational, intellectually sound discussion about whether the COO of a company should be able to make statements, whether it’s Dan Cathy at Chick-fil-A or Howard Schultz at Starbucks — which I think is fine. If Howard Schultz wants to make statements, that’s fine. Let him do it. I’m not going to go asking for a boycott of Starbucks. This is a marketplace. If Starbucks starts writing on the side of every cup ‘We Don’t Like Christians,” then I’d have to look at it differently. But Starbucks sells coffee. Chick-fil-A sells chicken. The point of view of its senior executives and their founders is frankly their business. I just find this level of trying to destroy people’s jobs and livelihoods because they don’t agree with them — that’s very troubling, and it gets to the very heart of a kind of America that’s very different than the one we grew up with.

For what it’s worth, there aren’t any nationwide Chick-fil-A boycotts actually being called for. But Huckabee’s qualification of what would make him consider a Starbucks boycott demonstrates why he should actually support, or at least respect, the widespread backlash against Chick-fil-A. As he points out, Starbucks didn’t say anything anti-Christian by supporting marriage equality, let alone donate large sums of money to an explicitly anti-Christian organization (not that any such group of any significance even exists in this country).

On the contrary, Chick-fil-A gives millions of dollars annually to groups trying to demonize and eradicate gay people through ex-gay therapy, and its president said that marriage equality supporters are “inviting God’s judgment” by having the “audacity” to advocate for that “twisted up kind of stuff.” That certainly trumps how offensive a message like “We don’t like Christians” would be, but of course, Huckabee is incapable of understanding that because he shares Chick-fil-A’s beliefs. If, however, he’s really concerned about destroying people’s livelihoods, perhaps he should take some time to consider the actual impact of Chick-fil-A’s anti-gay statements and donations.

(HT: Good As You.)

Supporters of Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) have been pressuring media outlets to pull an ad attacking his position that people who are gay should not be allowed to teach in public schools. Now, the senator’s attorney, Cleta Mitchell, has successfully convinced WCBD Channel 2 in Charleston to pull the ad, inherently proving its very message.

The supposed controversy is a claim that the ad portrays DeMint as being anti-Semitic, though notably no one in Charleston’s Jewish community actually complained about the ad. It juxtaposes a fake headline about DeMint opposing letting Jews be teachers against a real one about opposing letting people who are gay be teachers. WCBD wanted the ad to be edited to clarify  that the fake headline was fake — even though the narration clearly distinguishes between the two — but the ad’s sponsor, the Alliance for Full Acceptance, refused to change it. Watch the ad in question:

The only aspect of this story sadder than the faux outrage and manipulated use of anti-Semitism is the ironic way the response exemplifies the point of the ad. DeMint’s beliefs about gay people are horribly offensive, essentially suggesting that they are all an inherent threat to children. If he were to say that about any other group, be it Jews, people of color, people with disabilities, or people with hazel eyes, he would be instantly decried. Instead, his anti-gay positions continue to be minimized as his supporters invent a different attack on him as a means to defend him and his biases. Hopefully this manufactured controversy helps more people understand DeMint’s reprehensible beliefs and think twice about whether or not gays and lesbians have actually achieved respect in society.

(HT: Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters.)

It seems telling that the political conservatives attracting media attention for coming to the defense of Chick-fil-A and its anti-gay crusades — Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty — are all most recently known for having lost elections. Indeed, the anti-gay vitriol that Chick-fil-A’s president Dan Cathy has repeatedly dispensed has been a loser with the public: YouGov BrandIndex polling shows that the public’s approval of Chick-fil-A has taken a nosedive since Cathy’s interview from 65 to 39:

Meanwhile, a number of prominent leaders have continued to show their displeasure with Chick-fil-A. Here’s a sampling:

• House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): “For the record, I prefer Kentucky Fried Chick. #ChickFilA” (Twitter)
• Washington, DC Mayor Vince Gray (D): “Given my longstanding strong support for LGBT rights & marriage equality, I would not support #hatechicken” (Twitter)
• Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker (D): “Wouldn’t deny a biz a permit on those grounds BUT I’d join my residents in taking my $’s elsewhere” (Twitter)
• Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA): “I disagree with what the CEO from Chick-fil-A said. I was glad he spoke further and said that his company does not discriminate.” (Boston.com)

To clarify Brown’s remarks, Chick-fil-A said it will “treat every person with honor, dignity and respect,” regardless of sexual orientation, but the company still has no employment protections in its official corporate policies. According to Forbes.com, there have been at least 12 lawsuits against the company since 1988 on various charges of employment discrimination.

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D) wrote to the president of New York University, home to the city’s only Chick-fil-A, urging him to end the university’s relationship with the anti-gay restaurant:

NYC is a place where we celebrate diversity. We do not believe in denigrating others…As you know from recent press coverage, the President of Chick-fil-A continues to make statements and support causes that are clear messages of extreme intolerance and homophobia and a belief that LGBT Americans are less than others and deserve to be treated as such.[...]

I urge you to sever your relationship with the Chick-fil-A establishment that exists on your campus. This establishment should be replaced with an establishment where the ownership does not denigrate a portion of our population.

Another university’s leadership has already taken action against a Chick-fil-A on its campus. The president and provost at the University of Louisville released a statement saying that they “will not be eating at Chick-fil-A anytime soon.” Responding to a growing student petition, U of L administrators are currently assessing the contractual arrangements with the franchise on campus to evaluate further courses of action. At least seven other universities also have petitions underway challenging the existence of a Chick-fil-A on their campuses.

Attacking gay people as purveyors of society’s destruction is harmful to many people, and as public condemnation grows, it’s proving to be a losing philosophy for Chick-fil-A.

When he was Vice President, Dick Cheney never expressly advocated for marriage equality — despite his personal support for equality, and his lesbian daughter’s relationship and eventual marriage.

There were political calculations that led Cheney to keep his own support in check while VP, Cheney will explain in an interview with ABC News tonight. Because it would have been bad publicity for the President for whom he was serving, he says, he didn’t understand why he should have advocated for marriage equality:

The former vice president suggested it wouldn’t have done much good and probably would have sunk President George W. Bush’s prospects for office. “Why?” he responded to ABC News when asked in a televised interview whether he should have pushed harder for gay couples to marry.

Cheney’s daughter, Mary, married her longtime partner this June.

During his time running and as Vice President, Cheney always said that he personally believed that “freedom means freedom for everyone,” and supported passing marriage equality in the states. But he ran on a party platform that expressly advocated for a constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage. Indeed, part of the party’s reelection strategy, spearheaded by Karl Rove in 2004, was to piggyback on the anti-gay ballot initiatives in 11 states.

For Cheney, the choice not to publicly support marriage equality may have been a cold political calculation. But for many couples who want the simple happiness of getting married, his question of “why” voice his support is obvious: To fight for equality.