Tioga Herald

Dear Gov. Hochul:

As a gay person in a same-sex marriage, I must speak out against the contract to Chick-Fil-A on the New York State Thruway. The thruway has a “captive audience” with drivers who travel on it. Drivers have no choice for choosing various places to eat because the drivers are not able to easily get off and back on again. Please consider the end of such a contract. Here are my reasons.

1. The CEO of this company opposes same-sex marriage and encourages the employees not to do such a thing.
2. The anti-gay bigotry promoted in such a manner encourages New Yorkers who claim to be liberal at times to consider there is no reason to be in opposition to such a contract because they are “not gay,” so why bother oppose such measures? A similar attitude existed regarding gay folks and Jews in the Germany of the 1930s while Hitler was attempting to consolidate his power. If people were Gentiles, what was to bother them by the treatment of Jews? If people were not gay, what was to bother them, should there be something done to gay folks? Blind eyes. Deaf ears. Look what happened.
3. The worst part of this is the advances made for human rights in America by de-segregation. Multi-cultural and multi-racial communities are working out, even if someone makes claims there is some which have not. Quite frankly, I have seen some all-white communities which are a bunch of crap in attitude and other ways. I lived in multi-racial communities and we lived in peace, until some lainbrained idiotic white skinned person with a Confederate flag waving from the back of a pickup truck invades the neighborhood in order to mock the success of integration and multi-racial goodness. What people today are doing with regard to gay folks is working to force us back into the closet of segregation which has been overturned. People who keep their sexual identity hidden get hired in places like Chick-Fil-A while those who refuse to hide in a closet are not hired. In spite of gay folks respecting those who want to remain in a closet, we are being forced there as well, as had been the days before human beings all around were treated with respect and honor, no matter what the sexual identity. We who are gay could be angry and make claims that those in the closet are liars. In fact, they could be considered liars, but we try to have respect for them. Too bad we don’t get respect from the other 90% of the population and those who turn a blind eye and deaf ear towards what happens with Chick-Fil-A on the Thruway.
4. One more thing. I am a diabetic. Chick-Fil-A food is full of carbs. Bread coating on the chicken. French fries. A restaurant like Starbucks has food with a smaller amount of carbs. Arby’s is a fast food restaurant in which diabetics could order a roast beef sandwich and remove it from the bun. What is the reason for giving this contract to Chick-Fil-A when it does not have an overall approach with either sexual identity or with carbs?
5. There should be eating places owned by gay folks, in order to provide overall competition that is fair.

After protesting this, for some reason, I get subjected to mockery by stupid New Yorkers. For instance, someone mocks me with: “Chick-Fil-A has good food.” Did I say the food was not good? Who are the stupid ones who push such drivel in a taunting manner? Who pushes such crap and why do they continue on such a lousy path? As a diabetic, I never say the food at Chick-Fil-A is “bad.” It is a matter, as my dad would say about fried food, “I like it, but it does not like me.” When something drives up my glucose levels, I have to say that the food “does not like me.”