Tomorrow is Chick fil A Appreciation Day. I'm not sure why I would want to "appreciate" a fast food corporation, but okay. As most of my facebook friends are conservative I have noted many of my friends are "attending Chick fil A Appreciation Day", specifically to register their support.
I am a business owner and have run my own business for over 20 years. I have an employee, my art director who is gay. She and her partner have been a part of my business family for over 15 years. I am married and have a grown college aged daughter. My art director was there when my daughter was toddling around the office, and all the way through school and now even as my daughter goes off to college. For the last 15 years I have known my art director to have only two committed long term relationships.
As she has been a part of my life, I have been a part of hers. From my point, her relationship with her partner of over 10 years is just like mine with my husband. They have great love and respect for each other. They share money, houses, extended family, caring for each other, vacations, the ups and downs of everyday life. It feels the same as any other committed relationship except for one thing, they cannot legally marry in Georgia. Their relationship feels like they are married, they just aren't. We don't talk about them marrying, and I'm not sure they would even want to, I just know that they can't. And that bothers me.
It feels wrong that I cannot offer health insurance or any other employee benefits to her family partner. It feels like discrimination. I can offer it to my other married heterosexual family, but not her partner. I've always felt this was wrong. I should be able to insure anyone I want, right? It's also about retirement, social security, and all the things that two people have built together. They can't really share all of that...and that bothers me.
My art director and her partner are no different than any other committed relationship. I really don't think it matters. I'm really taken a back by people who actually stand in opposition to this kind of relationship. Why does it matter to them? What are they afraid of? How would my art director and her partner marrying affect someone else's straight marriage? It's weird to me that people actually care whether my art director would want the right to be married and would publicly state that they are opposed to this. It makes me wonder whether those opposed to gay marriage actually know someone who is gay.
To me, Chick fil A doesn't need to be "appreciated". They are just a fast food restaurant that makes a ton of money. Family founder, Dan Cathy has publicly stated he is opposed to gay marriage and only approves of 'biblical' marriages. He's entitled to his beliefs, right? If you've read the Bible, there's some very strange things it says about marriage in the there. Not sure about the part where you're required to marry your dead brother's wife. But now Cathy's beliefs have been tied directly to his corporation and its employees. So much so, that some in the general public feel like they have to have an "appreciation" day. Appreciation for what?
During the 50's/60's many restaurant owners in the South publicly stated they didn't believe that blacks should be allowed to eat in their restaurants. They had the right according to law. Chick fil A may not have a "whites only" sign on their front door, but it feels the same to me.
So in "appreciation" of my art director and her long time partner and as an owner of a corporation I want to publicly state that I am in favor of gay marriage and that gay couples should have to right to marry.