Just a quick update on last night’s post about gays and McDonald’s
I have had very little time to write all summer, so when I wrote this post it took me a few days of little moments here and there. So it was several days ago that I first started looking into the matter. At that time I read some of the vile, hateful comments at boycottmcdonalds.com and decided to leave my own comment there.
My comment was pretty carefully worded; I tried not to be offensive in any way, even though their website really made me want to be offensive. The most hurtful thing that I wrote was some small comment about how their comments prove that a gay rights moment is needed, but that’s as bad as I got. Other than that I just wrote a short little piece about my views that homosexuality will never affect their families, and asked a rhetorical question about why they even care.
Well, my comment didn’t appear at once, so I figured that they moderate the comments, and that it would appear after being approved. Well, I was wrong. Now, several days later, many, many comments from others have been approved and put up, while mine is still missing. My comment, just a small little thing to give them my perspective on the matter, was apparently not allowed on that site, while every gay-bashing word about “disgusting abominations” is allowed.
The American Family Association seems to imply that this is a struggle in the name of liberty and democracy. But somehow they seem to think that it is suitable to censor comments that do not agree with their views.
And it is not just that. You have to agree with their views in the right way too. When I realized that my comment wouldn’t be published I tried, just for fun, to leave another comment. It was a positive comment about the boycott, but since so many of the published comments were talking about God and Jesus, I said that I was supporting it “because homosexuality is a sin in the eyes of Allah”. That one didn’t get published either. Go figure.
Talking about the comments… There are many comments, and texts by the AFA, that claim that it is not at all about hatred against homosexuals. They claim that all they are doing is protesting against the fact that McDonald’s are “taking sides” in such an issue; that they are just expressing the opinion that big corporations should “remain neutral”.
Well, with comments like “Stop supporting a vile and disgraceful lifestyle.” I have a hard time believing that. It really seems like it does have everything to do with hatred of gays. Especially since I am utterly, utterly convinced that these groups would not care one tiny bit if McDonald’s gave such a relatively small amount of money ($20 000, a tiny amount for such a big corporation) to any other organization. I am certain that McDonald’s make donations like that fairly frequently, but only when it is in support of a “disgusting and sinful lifestyle” is it even mentioned.
Do not even try to claim that it is not about homophobia.
Also, I have gotten an e-mail asking me why I care. Why I can’t “respect” the opinion of these people. Well, I don’t know if I should have more respect. You can think what you like, and you can call me vile and evil for speaking out about these issues if you’d like. I’m very much a “sticks and stones…”-kind of guy; it doesn’t really matter to me if a few people think that way about me.
However, I have long had friends that are more easily affected, and who are not straight. Some of these friends have been so hurt by people calling them things like “disgusting” and “sinful”, that they have hurt themselves physically over it. And you can mess with me, but no one messes with my friends. As long as the people I love, and other innocent people, are being harassed and hurt like this, I will continue being a pain about it. No matter who thinks I’m evil or stupid because of it.
Sadly, this is how some people act, especially some “Christians”. I’ve seen several times how they break homosexuals down by berating them with hateful comments about their “sinful lifestyle”. And then, when the homosexual in question seems depressed or angry by the situation they say “See! I’m right; homosexuality is wrong! It makes people depressed and angry!”… Without any regards for the fact that they wouldn’t have any need to be angry, and no reason to be depressed, if they wouldn’t have been harassed in the first place.
|