It’s Not About Chicken

It’s not about the chicken. It’s not about freedom of speech, which I am 100% for. It has nothing to do with my spiritual beliefs, or the religion of others. It’s about hate, about wishing ill to someone for no reason other than who they love.

Yes, I’m gay. I’ve been in a committed relationship for thirteen years. Nine years ago, my partner and I flew to Toronto to exchange vows legally. No one from her family was there, and only my brother was there for me. Yet we had a great time with the family we created out of those who loved us for who we are. We’ve been together longer than a lot of our legally wed “straight” friends. 

We pay taxes. We’ve gone to softball games, Little League games, school plays and choir programs. We’ve helped friends and family move, grieved over lost loved ones and celebrated birthdays and anniversaries. We’ve bought Girl Scout cookies, wrapping paper and all sorts of things for school fundraisers, paid to have our cars washed for “free” for good causes and tipped the kids working hard at Sonic to buy uniforms or send them to camp. 

We’ve laughed, we’ve cried and we’ve spent countless hours at holidays – both with gay and straight friends and family. 

I’ve read countless articles on the “gay agenda”. On how “the gays” are trying to force other people into their lifestyles. I didn’t get that memo. My “agenda” is much like everyone else’s – to live my life as well as I can, loving and taking care of my family, my friends and my neighbors.

I support everyone’s right to free speech. But I cannot, in all decency, support hatred. My wife and I live in Texas – a very conservative state, in what has been said to be the most conservative suburb in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Our neighbors know us, wave to us, and even stop to speak to us. Obviously, they have the same agenda as we do.

Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone’s agenda was like that?