Yesterday, I dashed off a quick post...

...at the end of the day on this whole Chick-fil-A situation. It may not have been one of my better pieces (the analogy between Don Cathy and Lester Maddox is hardly a perfect one), but I felt compelled to say something. I had just gotten off the phone with my mother and she told me that someone -- someone close to me -- had waited in line for four hours on Wednesday to show her support for Chick-fil-A.

I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach.

I know that Mike Huckabee and the folks at Fox are spinning this as a "free speech" issue, but it's really not about that, is it? It's really about the Far Right's hatred for gays and lesbians. Let's be honest.

(I wish someone would ask Huckabee, an ordained minister, "Didn't Jesus say love your neighbor, not hate your neighbor?")

So if you chose to stand on line on Wednesday for four hours (or four minutes, for that matter), you chose to stand with the haters.

Because, think about it: if a member of the LGBT community drove by and saw you in line at Chick-fil-A on Wednesday, they probably didn't think to themselves: Hey, she's standing up for the First Amendment! No, chances are, that person probably thought: Gee, I didn't know she hated gays and lesbians so much. 

And that would be hurtful.

It would be just as hurtful as if someone put up a sign like the one above, IRISH NEED NOT APPLY. I'll bet if the person I'm talking about saw a sign like that, she wouldn't think about that company's right to free speech or right to hire whomever they chose; no, I'll bet she would be hurt. I know I would. And I'd feel betrayed by anyone I knew who chose to support that employer.

Now, the person I have in mind probably doesn't know any gays or lesbians. In fact, she has probably never met anyone from the LGBT community in her entire life -- that's the kind of self-imposed bubble in which she lives. (Actually, if gays and lesbians make up five or ten percent of the population -- or whatever percent, who cares? -- then she has probably known several in her life -- she just doesn't know it. And if you knew her, you would have no trouble believing that.)

But if she did know any gays or lesbians -- whether friends, family, neighbors or colleagues -- and they happened to see her in line on Wednesday, I'd bet they would have been hurt.

So do Mike Huckabee and Don Cathy have the right to say ignorant, bigoted and hateful things? Sure; that's their First Amendment right. Heck, they have the right to say practically anything. And, of course, I would defend their right to free speech. But that doesn't mean I would show my support for whatever stupid things they say.

If you chose to stand in line at Chick-fil-A on Wednesday, you didn't choose to support openness, tolerance and love; you chose instead to support ignorance, bigotry and hatred.

It's that simple.