Chik Fil A. Yes, I am talking about chicken sandwiches, waffle fries, Constitutional Amendments, and Christianity.
The big thing with this company is that the CEO of Chik Fil A made some pretty strong comments about how his company supports heterosexual marriage only because of their religious beliefs. You know what? I don't have a problem with that statement in the least. This is supposed to be a free country, where all private citizens are entitled to their beliefs and opinions. It's not really a secret that Chik Fil A was founded by, and is run by, a very strict Christian family. In the grand scheme of things, I agree with Cathy that his operation is family owned and (for the most part) family run, at least on the corporate level. That's like a super-large scale version of a family store/eatery in my eyes, so he's free to blab about whatever he wants to. It's not only his business, it's his right as a citizen to do such things, even if I think he's hypocritical.
My beef (ha) with Chik Fil A has always been that they use direct customer profits to fund not only the WinShape foundation camps...but also groups like NOM and Focus on the Family. These groups are extremist and badly sourced, they're pretty much the PETA of gay rights. That set aside, I have always felt that if a person wants to use his or her private money to support their beliefs and politics...go ham. It's your money, I have no right to tell you not to do things with it. For every right wing nutcase who donates to NOM, there are plenty of others who do the same thing for the opposite view organizations. I know I won't support Chik Fil A so long as the dime from my purchase goes to corporations who would rather see a Hollywood divorce than a successful gay marriage. When the direct profit funding stops, if Cathy wants to back the NOM mobile for the next sixty years...if it's his own money off of his direct earnings, he can do whatever he wants. Business and beliefs can merge to a certain degree, but in my opinion they're best left separate to avoid things just like this.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
A Sad Loss for Minds and Queers, And Mindful Queers too.
"There is no such thing as a homosexual or a
heterosexual person. There are only homo- or heterosexual acts. Most
people are a mixture of impulses if not practices.""Now you have people in Washington who have no
interest in the country at all. They're interested in their companies,
their corporations grabbing Caspian oil."
Just two of my favorite quotes from the recently departed Gore Vidal.
Just two of my favorite quotes from the recently departed Gore Vidal.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Creepster Brewer.
Good morning people!
I am back up on my soapbox for a moment. The governor of Arizona is pushing to have employers not cover domestic partners in benefits packages, and that just about burns my bum like a three foot flame. It is my belief that when it comes to employment-related things of this nature, an employee is an employee regardless of orientation. Therefore, gay employees should be covered under the same family benefits as straight ones are. It is not your employer's business who you go home to. It doesn't cost more to cover a gay person's insurance costs. (Wow can you believe that, we're not all AIDS liabilities after all!)
Things like this drive me up a wall. In a country where it's hard enough to find decent work, let alone decent work with good benefits, this type of issue should really be a nonpoint. What you do for a living has no connection to what your orientation is. Unless of course, you're gay for pay. Then...well, that's a different story.
I am back up on my soapbox for a moment. The governor of Arizona is pushing to have employers not cover domestic partners in benefits packages, and that just about burns my bum like a three foot flame. It is my belief that when it comes to employment-related things of this nature, an employee is an employee regardless of orientation. Therefore, gay employees should be covered under the same family benefits as straight ones are. It is not your employer's business who you go home to. It doesn't cost more to cover a gay person's insurance costs. (Wow can you believe that, we're not all AIDS liabilities after all!)
Things like this drive me up a wall. In a country where it's hard enough to find decent work, let alone decent work with good benefits, this type of issue should really be a nonpoint. What you do for a living has no connection to what your orientation is. Unless of course, you're gay for pay. Then...well, that's a different story.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Yay, Nay, and a Whale of a Tale!
On a Yay! Note:
"Let bygones be bygones, and bi-girls be bi-girls" made me just about squee with joy at True Blood this weekend.
On a Nay! Note:
Looking at pictures from this weekend made me cry. What the FUCK is that redheaded whale doing in my bathing suit?! :'(
"Let bygones be bygones, and bi-girls be bi-girls" made me just about squee with joy at True Blood this weekend.
On a Nay! Note:
Looking at pictures from this weekend made me cry. What the FUCK is that redheaded whale doing in my bathing suit?! :'(
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Obama and The Rainbow Paint.
Hey, so I know it's been a while. Things have been a little bit nuts for the last couple weeks, and I'm in sore need of a vacation. Which I'm taking tomorrow, so I figured I'd get this post in before I left for the weekend.
I want to chip my two cents in on a topic that's been really buzzing in both the political and gay circles for a while now. Barack Obama's reelection/marketing is working serious overtime for a second term. His campaign is now including merchandise and targeted messages for the women, Latino, Black, and gay votes. Obama Pride has been catching a lot of attention. The campaign was giving out free rainbow "Out for Obama" stickers and merchandise at all pride events this year. The White House even had a pride event for the first time in history this June.
On one hand, I am happy to see the Obama administration actually trying to make progress with LGBT issues, like the repeal of the extremely unnecessary and stupid DADT for the US military. On the other, I'm actually a little bit insulted at the flamboyance of all this "rainbow washing". It sort of reminds me of a Family Guy skit where Lois was running for office and was told that undecided voters will pretty much go for anything that hits a chord with them. Insulting.
It's so transparent that this is a tactic for the HRC's backing and the gay vote. That vote is a pretty big deal to the reelection because traditionally the gays have the money to fund politicians that serve their cause. (I guess the hetero half of me keeps me broke, because I don't see ANY financial benefits to being a switch hitter. BOOO!)
I really hate how the gay-friendly wash on Obama is supposed to drag the entire LGBT community to his re-election. There are other issues that have effects on this community besides bullying and marriage, believe it or not. How can we even get into workplace discrimination if our labor situation and economy suck? How can we talk about LGBT health conferences when Americans of every possible creed and orientation can't afford basic health care? We're worried about bullying...when our national drop out rate is rising every year and our education situation is getting more hopeless for all students every day?
Granted, I don't believe that Mitt Romney is good for gays (or America at this time, for that matter) but is the fake spectacle that is "Obama Pride" really necessary?
I want to chip my two cents in on a topic that's been really buzzing in both the political and gay circles for a while now. Barack Obama's reelection/marketing is working serious overtime for a second term. His campaign is now including merchandise and targeted messages for the women, Latino, Black, and gay votes. Obama Pride has been catching a lot of attention. The campaign was giving out free rainbow "Out for Obama" stickers and merchandise at all pride events this year. The White House even had a pride event for the first time in history this June.
On one hand, I am happy to see the Obama administration actually trying to make progress with LGBT issues, like the repeal of the extremely unnecessary and stupid DADT for the US military. On the other, I'm actually a little bit insulted at the flamboyance of all this "rainbow washing". It sort of reminds me of a Family Guy skit where Lois was running for office and was told that undecided voters will pretty much go for anything that hits a chord with them. Insulting.
It's so transparent that this is a tactic for the HRC's backing and the gay vote. That vote is a pretty big deal to the reelection because traditionally the gays have the money to fund politicians that serve their cause. (I guess the hetero half of me keeps me broke, because I don't see ANY financial benefits to being a switch hitter. BOOO!)
I really hate how the gay-friendly wash on Obama is supposed to drag the entire LGBT community to his re-election. There are other issues that have effects on this community besides bullying and marriage, believe it or not. How can we even get into workplace discrimination if our labor situation and economy suck? How can we talk about LGBT health conferences when Americans of every possible creed and orientation can't afford basic health care? We're worried about bullying...when our national drop out rate is rising every year and our education situation is getting more hopeless for all students every day?
Granted, I don't believe that Mitt Romney is good for gays (or America at this time, for that matter) but is the fake spectacle that is "Obama Pride" really necessary?
Sunday, June 17, 2012
On the Brink of Being Totally Off Topic. Almost...
" you can live a lie until you die, but one thing you can't hide is when you're crippled inside..."
One of the things that was really hard for me in figuring out what was going on with my orientation was dealing with what everyone else considered "normal". Growing up, I saw very little representation of gay life and even less of the grey area called bisexuality. When I was really young, before anything really starting coming together, all I knew was that something was different than what everyone else seemed to be. That feeling that you're not "normal" for whatever reason is one of the things that keeps people in the closet, and generally leads to people being very frustrated in their lives. A lot of people go through the motions of what's "supposed to be" in their lives at various points, and completely deny everything that they want or feel normal about internally to fit into other peoples pretty little boxes of expectations. People who are gay or bisexual will sometimes go through their entire lives the way an "average, red-blooded heterosexual" would do it...and this almost always ends in complete failure.
Maybe it's the shrink in me, but I'm fascinated by this entire idea.
Ultimately, everyone involved in these weird situations gets completely fucked in the head. (Sorry but really, it's the only way to totally capture the effect.) All these people who allow other people to run their every move, subconsciously or otherwise, end up in these hollow, miserable circumstances. People get into relationships and sometimes even marry into relationships that they don't even want to please everyone else. People will go into fields of study or careers they can't stand for the same reasons. There's almost always some nagging individual that manages to know exactly how to get into others' minds to manipulate these deeds. At the end of the day, how many people wander around in these fake, elaborate lies? It seems like an absolutely awful way to live, especially when coupled with the idea that these people usually lie to themselves and everyone else to kind of "fake it til they make it" (which is a load of dung if there ever was one).
Then the people who push these expectations and such onto others are really setting themselves up for massive disappointment. Even when their pretty little mice run the maze like they're "supposed to", there's no guarantee that everything works out in these puppet masters' favors. Most of the time, these subjects get to a point where they can't deal with the lie anymore and just crack. Usually in an enormous way that there's no coming back from. Every single shred of the controlling/masochistic relationship goes down the drain for all the involved parties and then everyone is all jacked up.
How in the holy name of God does that sound healthy/appealing? What is it about people that makes it seem like other peoples' opinions are really worth that much? Is it scarring from psychological trauma and bullying, or is it something else entirely?
One of the things that was really hard for me in figuring out what was going on with my orientation was dealing with what everyone else considered "normal". Growing up, I saw very little representation of gay life and even less of the grey area called bisexuality. When I was really young, before anything really starting coming together, all I knew was that something was different than what everyone else seemed to be. That feeling that you're not "normal" for whatever reason is one of the things that keeps people in the closet, and generally leads to people being very frustrated in their lives. A lot of people go through the motions of what's "supposed to be" in their lives at various points, and completely deny everything that they want or feel normal about internally to fit into other peoples pretty little boxes of expectations. People who are gay or bisexual will sometimes go through their entire lives the way an "average, red-blooded heterosexual" would do it...and this almost always ends in complete failure.
Maybe it's the shrink in me, but I'm fascinated by this entire idea.
Ultimately, everyone involved in these weird situations gets completely fucked in the head. (Sorry but really, it's the only way to totally capture the effect.) All these people who allow other people to run their every move, subconsciously or otherwise, end up in these hollow, miserable circumstances. People get into relationships and sometimes even marry into relationships that they don't even want to please everyone else. People will go into fields of study or careers they can't stand for the same reasons. There's almost always some nagging individual that manages to know exactly how to get into others' minds to manipulate these deeds. At the end of the day, how many people wander around in these fake, elaborate lies? It seems like an absolutely awful way to live, especially when coupled with the idea that these people usually lie to themselves and everyone else to kind of "fake it til they make it" (which is a load of dung if there ever was one).
Then the people who push these expectations and such onto others are really setting themselves up for massive disappointment. Even when their pretty little mice run the maze like they're "supposed to", there's no guarantee that everything works out in these puppet masters' favors. Most of the time, these subjects get to a point where they can't deal with the lie anymore and just crack. Usually in an enormous way that there's no coming back from. Every single shred of the controlling/masochistic relationship goes down the drain for all the involved parties and then everyone is all jacked up.
How in the holy name of God does that sound healthy/appealing? What is it about people that makes it seem like other peoples' opinions are really worth that much? Is it scarring from psychological trauma and bullying, or is it something else entirely?
Sunday, June 10, 2012
One of my favorite bisexuals is back tonight!
Muhahahaha! True Blood comes back tonight. I am very excited for this!
(Stereotypical on so many levels, I know.)
One of the main characters is played by Anna Paquin, one of my favorite bisexual actresses. It so rocks to see her decide to be out for a reason, like helping the Give A Damn campaign, where she first publicly came out.
“I’m not someone who endlessly talks about her personal life for no reason, but obviously, as someone who identifies as bisexual, those are issues I really care about.”
I love that. I really think that bisexuals need to make an effort to view "gay issues" in that way, because it DOES have an effect on our lives as much as it does for gays and lesbians. I think some bi bashing comes from the idea that we sometimes blend into hetero society and don't seem very interested in issues like workplace or marriage equality. That's a shame for those that don't bother, and it sucks to be put in that category when you're bisexual and actually DO give a damn!
She also represents well for the bi community in the straight media, which is very hard for bisexuals in straight relationships. It's great to see somebody say what all the people in that situation think everyday, regardless of how people will perceive it.
“I’m someone who believes being bisexual is actually a thing,” she continues. “It’s not made up. It’s not a lack of decision. It’s not being greedy or numerous other ignorant things I’ve heard at this point. … For a bisexual, it’s not about gender. That’s not the deciding factor for who they’re attracted to"
Fang-tastic. (That was bad. Sorry.)
(Stereotypical on so many levels, I know.)
One of the main characters is played by Anna Paquin, one of my favorite bisexual actresses. It so rocks to see her decide to be out for a reason, like helping the Give A Damn campaign, where she first publicly came out.
“I’m not someone who endlessly talks about her personal life for no reason, but obviously, as someone who identifies as bisexual, those are issues I really care about.”
I love that. I really think that bisexuals need to make an effort to view "gay issues" in that way, because it DOES have an effect on our lives as much as it does for gays and lesbians. I think some bi bashing comes from the idea that we sometimes blend into hetero society and don't seem very interested in issues like workplace or marriage equality. That's a shame for those that don't bother, and it sucks to be put in that category when you're bisexual and actually DO give a damn!
She also represents well for the bi community in the straight media, which is very hard for bisexuals in straight relationships. It's great to see somebody say what all the people in that situation think everyday, regardless of how people will perceive it.
“I’m someone who believes being bisexual is actually a thing,” she continues. “It’s not made up. It’s not a lack of decision. It’s not being greedy or numerous other ignorant things I’ve heard at this point. … For a bisexual, it’s not about gender. That’s not the deciding factor for who they’re attracted to"
Fang-tastic. (That was bad. Sorry.)
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