Intolerance. I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means.

And the controversy rages on.

Floating around FaceBook I saw a poster of one of my favorite movie characters of all time, Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride. Printed on the picture is this: "You're banning Chick-Fil-A from your city because they're intolerant. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Clever, eh? No. Because the word intolerance is quite fitting when it comes to the owner of Chick-Fil-A S. Truett Cathy's beliefs. As noted by the MinnPost he discriminates against gay people becoming franchise owners, and even employees. Now he's in his nineties and his policies are being carried forward by his son, Dan Cathy. And now that everyone knows how anti-gay they are (against marriage, against DADT, for DOMA, etc...) people are boycotting them. And I guess it started hurting, because they now say they're out of the political arena and back in the kitchen. Except that once you burst that feather pillow it's impossible to regather them all.

I mean, when even Miss Piggy won't eat your food then you've hit rock bottom.

We know that people who are gay were born that way. YES, all credible medical and scientific sources agree that gayness is in the genes. (Ersatz science disagrees, but then they would. They also cling to the idea that reparative therapy works against all evidence to the contrary.)

And if you're taking it to the Good Book then point out one, even one, condemnation of gays or lesbians from Jesus Christ's lips. You won't be able to find any because He never said one word about gay folks, rather he directed us all to love one another. It always amazes me when self proclaimed Born Again Christians would rather follow the teachings of the ancient Jews than Jesus Christ.

All of which brings up the point that there's direct scientific evidence that narrow minded bigotry IS a learned behavior and can be changed by choice. That's a choice we hope people make by themselves, but when they don't we have a civil rights uprising, as we are experiencing now in our country, and not for the first time.

Soon people will have to declare themselves either FOR tolerance and equality or AGAINST them, just as they did for black civil rights and women's civil rights. Either a person agrees that all American citizens must have equal rights, or disagrees. If one disagrees and thinks that some people deserve fewer rights than others then one would be, by definition, a bigot. (I am NOT calling you a bigot, I don't know your beliefs. I am simply defining the word.)

Chick-Fil-A's owner is intolerant of gay folks, their families, and their having equal civil rights. "Guilty as charged," right? Personally, I think a boycott of his restaurants is in order, although I was surprised to see the mayor of Boston take the same stance for his entire city as I had personally. But then, Beantown was the birthplace of the original Tea Party, rabblerousers one and all.

It's notable that Boston has since been joined in banning Chick-Fil-As by Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. The movement is growing and gaining strength. We can tell because the violence against LGBT folks is escalating. Bigots fight back with bullying, after all.

"...and the times, they are a'changing."