The Gay and Lesbian Services Organization (GLSO) is a Lexington, Ky., outfit obviously made up of mostly homosexuals and most likely the LGBT constituency. There may be other groups represented in the GLSO as well. It has an office and at least one paid employee, a board of directors, newsletter, etc.
Its main objective currently seems to be the bankrupting of a local small business named Hands On Originals, which produces customized T-shirts, notably as containing graphics, lettering and whatever else a customer desires. The effort against Hands On Originals is keyed on convincing potential customers to boycott the business until it collapses, primarily, it seems, through a Face-book effort, whether or not sponsored, though it probably is, by the GLSO. Plans for a protest have been made, as if this is a world-shaking matter.
Hands On Originals won a contract from the GLSO for producing T-shirts on which would appear the three words Pride, Lexington, and Festival entwined within or accompanying the number five. That seems innocent enough but a problem occurred when it was discovered belatedly by Hands On Originals that the product was to be delivered in conjunction with a “gay-pride festival” in June.
The company spokesman, in explaining why Hands On Originals would not produce the shirts but could recommend another company to do the job at the same price, indicated that religious convictions (Christian, in this case) formed the reason for reneging. The GLSO decided to lodge a complaint with the local Human Rights Commission, which is the same as guaranteeing that whatever legal or other means it has will be brought to bear on Hands On Originals, thus enhancing the boycott and further driving Hands On Originals out of business.
Already, the local school system has shut down its business with the company and the university likely will not renew a contract with it that is expiring ($200,000 in the last nine months, according to the local newspaper). The city also is a customer but the mayor is openly homosexual and has offered his personal condemnation.
No harm has been done to the GLSO; indeed, the publicity it has received is something it probably conceives of as a godsend, especially for encouraging contributions in a city of nearly 300,000 in which the consensus seems to be that within it there is a voluminous homosexual community.
There’s a huge irony in all of this. According to the GLSO web-site, anyone using a certain Kroger gift-card guarantees that 4% of the amount charged on the card at a Kroger store will go to the GLSO, courtesy of Kroger.
Hands On Originals is not alone in its convictions concerning homosexual behavior, though it does business with all types of people, including homosexuals. It simply does not do business that encourages homosexual behavior. There are multitudes of like-minded people and institutions in both Lexington and elsewhere.
Suppose the people who believe as Hands On Originals does decide to simply boycott Kroger and set up web-sites and Face-book spots to explain Kroger’s largesse and encourage shoppers to go to Walmart or other grocery chains or local groceries in order to express their disapproval of Kroger’s practices. Suppose they decide to protest on public property at Kroger stores.
None of this creates a pretty picture and there would have been no problem if the GLSO, which certainly understands that multitudes of people consider homosexual behavior not only sinful but just plain wrong naturally (no denying it as a biological and always potentially unhealthy perversion), had just honored Hands On Originals’ right to be against what GLSO is for, especially since GLSO will have no problem getting its T-shirts produced. Vindictiveness is its only purpose. Nothing could be more mean-spirited nor more unnecessary.
This is the new United States, in which political correctness as particularly determined by the “anything goes” crowd will rule the day and the devil take the hindmost. As for the June festival, it will feature perversion as normal, just being politically correct. Religious convictions have been rather well buried under the secularism of the marketplace and particularly by governments on all levels.
In a unique sense, a ruling against Hands On Originals by the Ethics crowd or the city government actually represents an infringement upon the rights of Hands On Originals under the First Amendment. Hands On Originals has the right to practice its faith in this matter without any threat from any government agency. “Congress [any government agency] shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” This includes the local so-called Human Rights Commission and city government.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
No comments:
Post a Comment