So, I've been asked by a dear friend to write for the blog site "West Hollywood Wives." You see, it's quite simple, it's a site dedicated to West Hollywood and Los Angeles, and I live in Chicago. Why not, right? Well, I'm going to be submitting some stuff to them from time to time (thanks, Ashley), and this is the first piece that's up on their site, giving the folks from LA a little insight to the recent Chik Fil-A story here in Chicago. If you'd like to "like" West Hollywood Wives on Facebook, go to https://www.facebook.com/WestHollywoodWives?ref=ts and check it out. I'd love it if you did. Now, onto the piece...
I was born here. Even
in our worst times, I can feel a sense of pride in this city. Nine times out of ten, it’s easy to be proud
of my hometown. We’ve led the nation in
several gay issues. And, quite frankly,
this is just a kick-ass place to be.
I’ve lived in Chicago or its surrounding area all of my 40 years, and it
is likely I will draw my last breath here.
I’ve never had Chik Fil-A.
This is not by design, merely accident.
I literally had one chance to have the food about 10 years ago, but it
was Sunday. I remember thinking to
myself “what kind of food business closes its doors on a Sunday?” It would only be a couple of years later that
I’d see my first “Eat Mor Chikn” ad, and I thought it was a cute campaign. But, hey, they weren’t in Chicago, so there
was no more that I could give than an outsider’s view to something. Sort of like Sonic. I’ve been seeing Sonic commercials for years,
but have yet to come across an actual location.
Chik Fil-A opened a location on the Mag Mile about a year or
so ago. From what I understand, the
location has done incredibly good business.
But, as I do not live or work downtown, I hadn’t had the chance to go
give it a try. However, I do work in
Logan Square, and there’s been talk about a Chik Fil-A going on Elston Avenue
right in the heart of the business section of the neighborhood. That is, until
the bru-ha-ha.
In recent times, Dan Cathy came out against gay
marriage. Now, he owns Chik Fil-A, and
he apparently uses his money to help aid
anti-marriage organizations. I found
this to be disheartening, because it seemed that I was finally going to be able
to try the product in a location I could easily get to, and now the owner of
the company doesn’t seem to like me wanting my rights. Okay, well, that’s that, then. Since I don’t know what I’m missing, I don’t
need to worry about boycotting a place or never having their food again. Simple as that. But it wasn’t.
For those of you on the west coast who are unfamiliar to our
city government other than for the scandals that you see on the major news
networks, we have 50 Wards that comprise the city. Each Ward has an Alderman, who is the City
Council representative for the Ward.
Aldermen are elected at the same time as the Mayor. The location of the proposed Chik Fil-A in
the Logan Square neighborhood is in the 1st Ward. It’s Alderman, Proco Joe Moreno, is a guy who
is very much on the side of minorities.
And he’s an across the board kind of guy. Very supportive of gay issues, and has come
out stating he thinks marriage should be a right for everyone. However, his recent statements on the Chik
Fil-A circus bothered me, and it ignited a firestorm.
Alderman Moreno has said he wants to pull the zoning for the
proposed location. He has stated that a
company with values such as Chik Fil-A should not be allowed to set up shop in
the local marketplace of Logan Square, where values like inclusion and equality
ring supreme. A day later, Moreno was
all over every news outlet in the country, and Mayor Emmanuel was backing his
guy. And within days, Mike Huckabee is
stating that our marriage rights are so dangerous to the health of this country
that his followers should ignore their own health issues and go to a fast food
restaurant to show their outrage. And
then there’s kiss-ins scheduled at locations across the country only 2 days
after that.
To quote Ron Burgundy in the movie Anchorman, “that
escalated in a hurry.”
I’ve got to be perfectly clear, here. Am I going to be patronizing a Chik Fil-A now
that I know what the company’s owner’s values are, and how much he seems not to
like folks of my ilk? No. Do I think that a company like that has any
business being able to open a location in a city like ours where we stand for
equality? Yes. I do.
I know this sounds so antithetical to everything that my brethren are
saying right now while filling up the internet airwaves with messages
condemning the far right. But I have a
real reason for this.
The last time I checked, and it does get sketchy at times, we live in America. Dan Cathy, no matter how much I disagree with
him (and let’s be perfectly clear, everybody… I disagree with him), has every
right to say whatever he wants and donate to whatever organizations that he
chooses, so long that he does these things staying short of becoming violent or
encouraging his followers to become violent.
We have to remember that in the fight for our own rights, we’ve got to
remember that what we’re asking for is equal rights, not special ones. And we’re not asking for anyone else’s rights
to be taken away from them, either.
Sure, we’d like that. We’d like
to strip the rights of those with whom we disagree, because in the back of our
minds, we just figure it would be easier if those who controlled the rules
think exactly like we do. But that’s not
how it works, for better and unfortunately worse. But there’s a peaceful easier way to make a
point without screaming or discriminating.
You always hear “people vote with their wallet” when it
comes to election seasons in this country.
People vote for candidates based mostly on what their economic vision
for the next few years is. It doesn’t
just mean the voting booth, either. If
Chik Fil-A opens in a neighborhood where the values do not match those of the
company, and if the citizenry of that neighborhood really don’t want a business
like that to be there, it will vote with its wallet. The store will become nothing more than a
place where you might find tumbleweed blowing around, and it will be forced to
close its doors a short time after opening them. A company will have been given a right to
perform the functions of its business in a legal manner, and the residents will
be given a chance to voice its concerns and not patronize the location. The system will work.
And if it doesn’t work that way? If the location of the restaurant actually
somehow does bang-up business and is able to not only survive, but
flourish? Then perhaps we’re
underestimating or incorrectly estimating the pulse of our own city and
neighborhood. Then, perhaps it’s time to
put the microscope back on ourselves just to make sure we are who we think we
are.
As a gay man, do I want to have the right to marry? Of course I do. It’s only in recent times in having met a
very special individual that it’s begun to mean so much to me. One day, I will marry my partner (just as a
note to him, this isn’t a sneaky way to ask you to marry me, I would do that in
the proper time and context, don’t worry).
And I’ll be on the right side of history, as we’re coming closer and
closer to a time where it’s just not going to matter anymore. But I want the process to be done in the
right way. I don’t want to fight
discrimination with discrimination. I
don’t want to make myself a party to denying rights to others while trying to
secure them for myself. I just want the
ability to love who I love, go about my life in a peaceful manner without
discrimination, and to eat a chicken sandwich that is both tasty, and isn’t
going to make me look like a total tool to my community. Is that so much to ask?
Again, I love this city.
I’m proud of it. It may not be
Los Angeles, and it may not be New York, but we’ve got a lot going on here,
albeit a lack of good seasons for the Chicago Cubs. I’ll defend my home to the death, but I also
would hope that my home would fight the good fight, and defend me to the death
along the way.
No comments:
Post a Comment