Judge Vanessa Bryant

Another court has overturned the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act, ruling in Pedersen v. Office of Personnel Management that “no conceivable rational basis exists for the provision.” Judge Vanessa L. Bryant, a district judge in the Second Circuit appointed by President George W. Bush, therefore ruled that DOMA “violates the equal protection principles incorporated in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

The suit was brought by same-sex couples living in Connecticut, Vermont, and New Hampshire who argued they were unfairly denied access to various programs available to other married couples. House Republicans, under the guise of the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) and Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) leadership, intervened at taxpayer expense to defend the anti-gay statute. In her decision, Bryant took BLAG to task for attempting to rewrite the past by claiming that gays and lesbians have not been subject to discrimination throughout history:

The fact that the concept of homosexuality as a distinct category or class wasn’t fully recognized until the late nineteenth century is not indicative of an absence of a long history of discrimination in light of the long standing proscriptions on homosexual conduct – conduct that is central if not tantamount in some sense to identity. Moreover, the pervasiveness of the “closet” in which homosexuals purposefully hid their sexualities could very well explain why it was only in the late nineteenth century that conceptions of homosexual identity emerged as gay Americans moved into cities and began tentatively stepping out of the closet. [...]

In sum, the evidence in the record detailing the long history of anti-gay discrimination which evolved from conduct-based proscriptions to status or identity-based proscriptions perpetrated by federal, state and local governments as well as private parties amply demonstrates that homosexuals have suffered a long history of invidious discrimination. Moreover this conclusion is consistent with the majority of cases which have meaningfully considered the question and likewise held that homosexuals as a class have experienced a long history of discrimination.

Multiple other rulings against the Defense of Marriage Act have already been appealed to the Supreme Court for review in the coming year. This latest rebuke of the law adds to the compelling case already before the Court that DOMA is nothing more than unnecessary, unconstitutional discrimination against same-sex couples.

Perhaps Mike Huckabee’s scheduling of his “appreciation day” is to blame, but there is a valid reason why Chick-fil-A has continued to occupy a prominent space in the news cycle. But despite what many detractors are now trying to claim, it has nothing to do with chicken. The Washington Post’s Alexandra Petri’s mantra, “Judge the sandwich by the sandwich,” exemplifies this emerging attitude that the Chick-fil-A story is irrelevant. Petri, herself a supporter of marriage equality, thinks that the whole situation is a waste of time:

We are getting real life confused with politics, always a dangerous move. In politics, people seldom make much of anything. Gaffes. Pronouncements. Manufactured indignation. That’s about it. When the only thing you make is statements, you should be judged by the statements. That’s why we spend so much time going through all the remarks and half-quotes and misquotes with fine-toothed combs. But if you make anything besides remarks …

Judge the sandwich by the sandwich.

Is this a selfish position? Yes. But it’s consistent. If you want a world where your restaurateurs have to agree with you, you are going to be missing out on a lot of excellent sandwiches. And that is not a world I’d like to live in.

Petri might not wish to admit this, but she debunks her own argument. The position is selfish, but she gets the explanation wrong. The Chick-fil-A story is an important test for all people who claim to support LGBT equality, whether they themselves identify as LGBT or allies. It takes a certain amount of courage to say, “I support marriage equality,” and a different level of courage to say, “I’m not going to buy tasty chicken sandwiches because I know the profits are used to harm LGBT people.” Petri, like the Log Cabin Republicans’ R. Clarke Cooper, can’t be bothered with the task of actually taking personal responsibility to defend LGBT people if it means living in a world without “a lot of excellent sandwiches.”

There is a very obvious reason why all of the conservatives defending Chick-fil-A only talk about it as defending “traditional marriage,” ignoring president Dan Cathy’s vitriolic comments and the company’s odious donations. They want to minimize the validity for outrage and reduce the issue to one of mere First Amendment privilege. Conceding to that spin allows the true harm of funding ex-gay ministries and anti-gay hate groups to go unchecked. Chick-fil-A and its president Dan Cathy are nothing short of religious bullies, and attacking the LGBT community for standing up for themselves is an expression of either ignorance in regards to Chick-fil-A’s offenses, apathy for LGBT equality, laziness, or a combination of all three.

It’s worth noting that there have been no nationwide calls for boycotts of Chick-fil-A. Most of the efforts have been awareness-raising protests and verbal rebukes. In response to Huckabee’s “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day,” one group is calling on people to donate the cost of a chicken dinner (about $6.50) to support an LGBT advocacy organization. A world where LGBT people are free of bullying, violence, harassment, discrimination, income inequality, and health inequity sounds like a much better world than any chicken sandwich could define.

When the Jim Henson Company severed its relationship with Chick-fil-A and promised to donate profits from its current toy promotion to GLAAD, Chick-fil-A responded by pulling the toys from its meals claiming an inexplicable safety concern. The restaurant moved on to its next kids’ meal offer: books from the Berenstain Bears series, apparently about the Golden Rule. The Berenstain family is now also distancing itself from Chick-fil-A, having posted the following note on its home page and Facebook page:

Our publisher, HarperCollins, is marketing several of their Berenstain Bears titles through a kids’ meal promotion at Chick-Fil-A scheduled for August. This program was in development for over a year. We were unaware of any controversy involving Chick-Fil-A until July 25th.

The Berenstain family does not at this time have control over whether this program proceeds or not. We hope those concerned about this issue will direct their comments toward HarperCollins and Chick-Fil-A.

ThinkProgress reached out to the Berenstain family to see if they had specific concerns about Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy’s anti-gay comments, but received no response. Thus, it’s not clear if the Berenstains are distancing themselves because they do not approve of Cathy’s comments (as Lisa Henson specified she did not), or if they simply wish to avoid responding to negative feedback related to the controversy. Regardless, it is becoming evident that the Chick-fil-A brand is toxic because of its condemnations of same-sex marriage and the LGBT community.

The pro-Chick-fil-A, anti-equality sign outside the WhiteBriar Bed and Breakfast.

Joianne Fraschilla is a lesbian mom in New Jersey whose son has been eager to visit the petting zoo at the WhiteBriar Bed & Breakfast they pass by regularly. This week, they noticed a sign outside the B&B promoting tomorrow’s “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” organized by Mike Huckabee, as well as the message “One man, one woman, one God.” Fraschilla wrote on the B&B’s Facebook wall that she would not be bringing her son there because she was disappointed a local business was anti-equality. She received the following response, presumably from WhiteBriar co-owner Carole Lokan-Moore:

Isn’t it wonderful Joanne Fraschilla, that you and your son can enjoy the animals here because I have a traditional marriage with a husband who works with me 90 hours a week to take care of these animals, and the summer camp….we’re 66-68 years old….there were no gays or queers in our time…..if two old ladies chose to live together..so be it, let them deal with God when they get there…but to have the “face sucking” thrown in my face of two gay lesbians who are totally destroying the “normal balance in a child’s life” as you claim your son…where is the role model that your son needs to know how to act like a man? or will he only see the “one sided selfishness” of a “single parent”…and end up an out cast in society by being “gay” himself because he didn’t have a father as a role model. I’ll pray for you….remember what the bible says: “Lay down with dogs, get up with fleas”…..guess that’s why God invented aids…

THIS LOCAL BUSINESS WILL BE ONE MAN ONE WOMAN ONE GOD MAKES MARRIAGE….AND PROUD TO DO SO….YOU SHOULD BE SO LUCKY TO OWN YOUR OWN BUSINESS

Fraschilla has started a Change.org petition calling on WhiteBriar to apologize for the indefensible comment. It’s worth noting that Lokan-Moore ran for the New Jersey Senate, but lost in the GOP primary having garnered only 416 votes.

Many conservatives have asked why it matters what Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy personally believes, and the very easy answer is that words hurt. Cathy’s use of language of condemning marriage equality as “twisted up stuff” that invokes God’s wrath upon society invites others to do the same, complete with AIDS-is-God’s-punishment-for-homosexuality embellishments.