by Claudia Ginanni
Before I ask you a serious question about our relationship, I want to make something clear.
I
am an ardent defender of the First Amendment, and I think it was
wrong--not merely a tactical error, but wrong--for government officials
in Boston and Chicago (or anywhere) to suggest that they would use the
power of public office to prevent a company from doing business in their
cities just because they disagree with the political or religious
beliefs of its owners. That's an abuse of power, and they shouldn't have
done it.
Now, on to my question.
I am a lesbian. Do you think that means that I'm probably a pedophile?
If
the answer is yes, please let me know so I can go ahead and unfriend
you. If the answer is no, allow me to explain why I asked.
Chick-fil-A
(not Dan Cathy as an individual, but the corporation) has donated
millions of dollars to antigay organizations. Among the beneficiaries of
this corporate largesse is the Family Research Council, an outfit whose
relentless defamation of LGBT people has earned it a spot on the
Southern Poverty Law Center's list of hate groups, right alongside the
likes of the Ku Klux Klan and the New Black Panther Party (surprised?
Yes, the SPLC considers antiwhite rhetoric hate speech, too).
Representatives
of the FRC have repeatedly asserted a link between homosexuality and
pedophilia, even though numerous studies by reputable social scientists
have definitively established, many years ago, that there is no factual
basis for this scurrilous claim. That is one of many slanders against
LGBT people that the FRC and similar groups repeat endlessly.
If
Chick-fil-A continues its past pattern of "charitable" giving, some of
the money you spent there Wednesday will eventually fund a propaganda
campaign suggesting that I am a promiscuous, sex-crazed pedophile who
aims to destroy families. That insulting caricature of me and people
like me will be used to justify, among other things, opposition to laws
that would prevent me from being fired just because of my sexual
orientation, a kind of discrimination that is
still perfectly legal in 29 states. I hope you can understand why I'm not giving that a thumbs-up.
And here's my second question:
if you don't believe that I'm a pedophile, and there are people going
around implying that I am, why aren't you defending me against this
slander? Can't I expect that of someone who claims to be my friend?
If
you are a Christian who takes the Bible as a moral guide, let me direct
your attention to Exodus 20:16, which says, "You shall not give false
testimony against your neighbor."
The Bible passages that
can be construed as prohibiting homosexuality for Christians are few and
obscure, and their interpretation is a matter of dispute among Biblical
scholars who have read the text in the original language. But lying and
slander are condemned in so many passages in both the Old and New
Testaments that it's hard to count them, and the injunction against
bearing false witness is one of the Ten Commandments. Shouldn't
Christians be outraged by corporate funding of that?
My
belief is that bearing false witness made the top-ten list because
defamation genuinely injures people, which means that it also violates
Jesus' command to love your neighbor as yourself. And I promise you that
the calumny against LGBT people perpetrated by the FRC and similar
groups has ramifications far beyond denying us the social and material
benefits that heterosexual couples get from state recognition of their
relationships. It contributes to profound human suffering.
At
my age and stage of life, my personal response to the steady stream of
insults from groups like these is mostly anger and frustration, but
young people who are just discovering their sexuality are deeply
vulnerable in the hostile environments this kind of rhetoric creates.
According
to the most recent National School Climate Survey, "84.6% of LGBT
students reported being verbally harassed, 40.1% reported being
physically harassed and 18.8% reported being physically assaulted at
school in the past year because of their sexual orientation." The
percentage of homeless teens who identify as LGBT is hugely
disproportionate, and a large majority of those kids are on the street
as a result of having been kicked out of their homes because of their
sexuality or gender presentation. They are bombarded with messages
telling them that they are disgusting, foul, sinful, unclean, and
fundamentally unlovable--is it any wonder LGBT teens commit suicide at
five times the rate of straight teens?
Chick-fil-A also
funds Exodus, an organization that propounds "reparative therapy," which
tries--and fails--to change people's sexual orientation through prayer
and faith. Michael Busse, one of the founders of Exodus, renounced this
approach several years ago. Busse recently joined three other former
Exodus therapists in apologizing for their role in the organization.
"Some
who heard our message were compelled to try to change an integral part
of themselves, bringing harm to themselves and their families," their
statement said."Although we acted in good faith, we have since witnessed
the isolation, shame, fear and loss of faith that this message
creates." Busse and his colleagues went on to tell some stories that
illustrated the heartbreaking results of the deep self-loathing and
despair that Exodus treatments create. Confronted with evidence of this
failure, Busse repudiated this approach and embraced life as a gay
Christian. But Exodus continues to ignore the suffering it has caused.
Unless
you read lefty or LGBT media, it's likely that you haven't heard much
about the organizations Chick-fil-A supports--the mainstream media has
framed the story mostly as a controversy about Dan Cathy's personal
views on marriage. But if you've read this far, now you know that some
portion of every dollar spent at Chick-fil-A will be used to fund
activities that threaten the reputations, dignity, employment rights,
and even personal safety of people like me. Are you my friend? Then
please don't support those efforts.
(c) 2012 Claudia Ginanni, reprinted with permission
