Henson issues statement about Chick-Fila-A

Buck-Beaver

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They're spending millions and millions building new prisons here and making prisoners serve longer sentences even though our crime rates are at historic lows. Our Prime Minister had the Republican Governor of Texas (Texas!) write him a letter arguing against our new "tough-on-crime" laws because Texas and other U.S. states have tried the approach to crime that we're using and it doesn't work.
 

D'Snowth

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Well, Texans act like they're big shots anyway, they used to be their own country, and they certainly act like one.

Texas aside, crime rates down here are really high, heck our very own Kevin had Muley make a very "funny 'cause it's true" joke about the Super Bowl when he remarked those playing were, "The Steelers and the Packers? Sounds like shoppers at a Memphis mall" and he's on the opposite side of the same state I live in... on this side, we've had mass shootings in private homes, schools, malls, and even churches and hospitals, and I can't even begin to tell you how many times you hear about meth lab busts on the news, it's almost like an everyday thing. I don't hear nearly as much bad things happening in any part of Canada compared to all that goes on down here: Columbine, the Batman Movie Massacre, among other things.

Then again, a lot of Americans hold this stereotype that Canadians are a bunch of wimps anyway... not saying I agree, but that's probably one reason why the Governor of Texas don't agree with how you guys handle crime.
 

Drtooth

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Canada is a LOT better off as a country, as a nation, as a society than the U.S. is, not just as far as gays are concerned, but there's also a lot less racial tension in Canada as well, and that's another area where it seems like we can never grow out of either, it's like even to this day in America, many whites still feel like they're the superior master race, and many blacks still act like they're being degraded and oppressed, and really, having Obama in office hasn't helped race relations at all.
(Snickers profusely). Anyone thinking having a not white guy in office would improve race relations is completely out of their minds. Though I think to generalize every Republican as a racist because they don't like them is pretty idiotic. There is some of it, that birth certificate crap (which was a dumb conspiracy theory that started out as a bunch of conservatives passive aggressively making insane theories about how he could be impeached on technicalities)... but the main fact is, they don't like him because he's not one of their guys politically. I'm just going to end it there... though I am LOVING this new thing where only black people are racists.I could go on about how they chose Herman Cain as a subversion as a "Oh, you only like women, blacks, gays, and other people we've historically oppressed if they agree with you." Then he was caught being a dirty old man, and that would have hurt them substantially.

There is this irrational fear that the legal acceptance of gay equality will somehow encroach on religious freedoms. The only reasonable concern I've heard concerns adoption. I was adopted through Catholic charities and some of these organizations receive federal dollars. I don't know why, but they do. Could they discriminate against gay couples and still receive government money? I don't know the answer to that. I'd say give the Catholics what they want if that happened to be the only thing standing in the way of gay marriage!
Religious institutions NOT only get tax exempt status, but money from the government. AND they want to have a major say in Constitutional law (basically contradicting half of it).

I forget who said it, but if that's the case, they should have two options. Either drop tax exempt status and have what they believe God's word is law as the law of the land, or as Fry put it, "Shut Up and take [the government's] money!" I especially love how they liken having to give employees, especially non-Catholic ones, government money to get access to contraception (especially when contraception does other things that I can't talk about) to the whole sale slaughter of Jews, Gypsies, Gays, cripples, and basically anyone who wasn't white, blonde, and perfect of bod by a certain psychotic art school reject.

And, as far as the Catholic Church goes, it has centuries of freaking dirt on it's hands. The Crusades? That was them. The church wants everyone to pretend that crap didn't happen, yet they cling to such archaic ideals themselves. I really think South Park did a justice when they mocked them in the episode about the molestations. Change isn't bad at all.... it's necessary to keeping what they're saying relevant so they don't lose followers that disagree with their teachings.

Constitutionally, the law of the land trumps the law of God because not everyone can agree on what those laws are, and not everyone follows them. That doesn't mean killing people and stealing stuff should be legal. That's common ground. Something that biblical scholars are going to debate for centuries that not every major religion, or even factions of that religion can agree with aren't, and that's for good reason. Could you imagine if all conflicting religious teachings, especially implied and exploited by certain leaders? Chaos. An unAmerican police state that would rival anything the Middle East has. There's a reason why we don't let Doomsday Cult leaders make ritualistic mass suicide legal.
 

CensoredAlso

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Not to sound like a downer but at this point I'm not sure what either side has accomplished in this situation...besides choosing sides of course. That seems to be all we're good at in this country lately, lol.
 

jvcarroll

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Not to sound like a downer but at this point I'm not sure what either side has accomplished in this situation...besides choosing sides of course. That seems to be all we're good at in this country lately, lol.
The spotlight on the subject revealed that things are a lot different than most people thought. It also exposed a lot of cockroaches. I have been out for over two decades and even I have learned much! :smile:

  • Henson is not the only mainstream company to support Marriage Equality. Most American companies and brands have already taken a supportive stance on the issue. (Allstate Insurance, Amazon.com, American Apparel, American Airlines, Apple (ipod, iphone ipad), Applebee's, Best Buy (Geek Squad), Boeing, Clorox ( Brita Filters, Glad Storage Bags, Hidden Valley Ranch, Pine-Sol),The Coca-Cola Company ( Fanta, Sprite, Minute Maid, Powerade, Dasani), Concur Technologies, Costco, Delta Airlines, Electronic Arts, Ford (Lincoln), Gap (Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime), General Mills (Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Wheaties, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Green Giant, Hamburger Helper), General Motors (Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC),Google (Youtube, Zagat), Hilton Worldwide (Hilton Hotels, DoubleTree, Embassy Suites, Hampton Inn, Waldorf-Astoria),The Home Depot, IMB, J.C. Penney, The Jim Henson Company (Fraggle Rock, Farscape, The Hoobs, Pajanamals, Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, The Creature Shop, Dinosaur Train, Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas, Sid the Science Kid, The Scrumps), Kraft Foods (Cadbury, Kraft, Nabisco, Oreo, Oscar Mayer, Planters), Levi's, Marriott Hotels (Renaissance Hotels, Ritz-Carlton, Courtyard Inn, Fairfield Inn), McDonald's, Microsoft (Windows, Bing, Xbox, Xbox 360),Nationwide Insurance, Nike (Converse), Olive Garden, PepsiCo (Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Tropicana, Aquafina, Frito-Lay, Quaker Oats), PG&E, Proctor and Gamble (Bounty, Charmin, Crest, Duracell, Gillette, Old Spice, Pampers, Tide, Vicks), Qualcomm, RealNetworks, Inc., Red Lobster, Rite Aid, Sears (Land's End), Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, State Farm Insurance, Target, United Airlines, UPS, Vulcan Inc., Walgreens, The Walt Disney Company (ABC, ESPN, Pixar, Marvel, The Muppets, Walt Disney Studios, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts) and Wells Fargo.)
  • There are several notable companies that continue to work hard to oppose gay rights. (A-1 Storage, AutoZone Inc, Boy Scouts of America, Chick-Fil-A, Cracker Barrel, Cinemark, Dish Network, Domino’s Pizza, ExxonMobil, Golfland, Insure.com, Manchester Grand Resorts, Meijer Inc, OutsidePride.com, Salvation Army, Urban Outfitters and Wal-Mart.)
  • How spiteful and ignorant many American Christians still are toward gays by their show of support for a company's movement to restrict our liberties based on their views.
  • That some Christians truly believe fairness involves the acceptance of anti-gay oppression, including job discrimination, as just a difference of opinion.
  • That the political tide has flipped 8 years after Karl Rove's fear-mongering, anti-gay presidential campaign.
  • Most importantly, that LGBT Americans are finally advancing to the next step in our Equal Rights movement.
  • Oh, and that most of the country and news organizations still don't know where the heck the Muppets live!
 

CensoredAlso

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  • Most importantly, that LGBT Americans are finally advancing to the next step in our Equal Rights movement.
I do get that but I guess what I'm saying is the feuding shows no signs of dissipating and sometimes it feels like that's all there is. Conservatives and liberals need each other to fight with in order to have their identities and it's just destructive.
 

D'Snowth

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(Snickers profusely). Anyone thinking having a not white guy in office would improve race relations is completely out of their minds.
I didn't say it would take a white guy in Office to improve race relations, that wasn't what I was saying at all; my point was that even though African Americans saw Obama's election as a huge step for them at the time, it seems as though his being president overall hasn't helped race relations in this country at all. Look at the Treyvon Martin shooting for example.
 

CensoredAlso

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I didn't say it would take a white guy in Office to improve race relations, that wasn't what I was saying at all; my point was that even though African Americans saw Obama's election as a huge step for them at the time, it seems as though his being president overall hasn't helped race relations in this country at all. Look at the Treyvon Martin shooting for example.
I have to say though some of what we call race issues in this country is really more like poverty issues. If we didn't have so many struggling areas in this country a lot of our problems would be improved.
 

D'Snowth

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I have to say though some of what we call race issues in this country is really more like poverty issues. If we didn't have so many struggling areas in this country a lot of our problems would be improved.
Well, Obama HAS tried to improve the issues in that department, HOWEVER, Republicans seem to have this fear that helping the middle and lower class will mean having to take crowbars to their overflowing wallets, and we all know they don't want to lose one precious cent of the moolah they're just sitting on, so they stand in Obama's way any chance they can to make sure the poor stay poor, and instead, take the old holier than thou, "If these people are so poor, why don't they get off their butts and get a job" attitude, when there aren't even any jobs for them to get.
 

jvcarroll

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I do get that but I guess what I'm saying is the feuding shows no signs of dissipating and sometimes it feels like that's all there is. Conservatives and liberals need each other to fight with in order to have their identities and it's just destructive.
It's par for the course three months before our Presidential Election. Eventually something was going to come along to bring this to the forefront of America's consciousness. I also think that the usual anti-gay activists have become accustomed to power that they no longer have in such numbers. Gays were expected to roll-over by now. That's not going to happen. This issue will eventually subside, but the equal rights cause has gained a steam that will continue.
By the way, great quote:​

 
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