State Senator Stacey Campfield, sponsor of a bill that would prohibit teachers from discussing homosexuality in the classroom until 9th grade, was thrown out of a Knoxville restaurant yesterday.
Martha Boggs, owner of The Bistro at the Bijou, refused to serve Campfield, who has compared homosexuality to bestiality and claimed that one cannot contract AIDS through heterosexual sex.
Afterward, she posted a short, devastatingly pointed note on the restaurant's Facebook page defending the establishment's action:
I hope that Stacy Campfield now knows what if feels like to be unfairly discriminated against.
Boggs elaborated briefly in an interview with Metropulse on why she kicked the State Senator out of her establishment:
"I didn't want his hate in my restaurant," Boggs said in a interview this morning. "I told him he wasn't welcome here. ... I feel like he's gone from being stupid to being dangerous, and I wanted to stand up to him."
This heroic stand by Boggs comes during a time when Campfield is advancing a twisted bill through the legislature that would make it illegal for educators to discuss any type of sexual behavior other than heterosexuality from kindergarten through the eighth grade.
It also comes after an absurd and hate-driven interview Campfield gave in which he, well...just read:
"Most people realize that AIDS came from the homosexual community -- it was one guy screwing a monkey, if I recall correctly, and then having sex with men. It was an airline pilot, if I recall," he said in the interview. "My understanding is that it is virtually -- not completely, but virtually -- impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex...very rarely [transmitted]."
This act by Boggs may just be one, small moment in which a private citizen stands up to the hatred and bigotry of an elected official.
However, small moments have power. And some small moments, like this one, have the power to inspire others to action.
May Senator Campfield have a difficult time finding a place in which to dine in Knoxville for a long, long time.
For as Boggs notes, knowing what it's like to be unfairly discriminated against is exactly what those who do so to others deserve and, perhaps, need.
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Author's Note:
Martha Boggs was interviewed by the Knoxville News Sentinel today about her action. Here is a brief clip of her speaking on the matter. (Thanks to Sandy on Signal for passing it along.)