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Opinions/Editorials Title: Red Hen's LGBT employees should have made sure Sarah Huckabee Sanders got served The LGBT community understands bias and has pleaded for tolerance. How could the Red Hen's LGBT employees lobby to eject Sarah Huckabee Sanders?When Sarah Huckabee Sanders walked into the Red Hen restaurant in western Virginia, it is a safe bet she just wanted to enjoy a meal. She was in America’s heartland and wanted what everyone else did that evening at the Red Hen — a farm-to-table dinner. What Sanders received, however, is a stark reminder that half a century later, America is still asking who has a seat at the lunch counter, and the dinner table. “I would have done the same thing again,” co-owner Stephanie Wilkinson told The Washington Post in defending her decision to kick Sanders out of her restaurant. Was the president’s spokeswoman rowdy or disruptive? Was she on a drunken rampage? Had she been rude to the Red Hen’s staff? Nope. Sanders’ only crime was that she works in the White House for President Donald Trump. “We just felt there are moments in time when people need to live their convictions,” Wilkinson explained. “This appeared to be one.” Rights for LGBT but not Sanders?Wilkinson said her decision to deny Sanders service was due, in part, to the fact that the Red Hen employs members of the LGBT community. These employees were upset that Sanders had defended Trump’s decision to ban transgender citizens from the military. The irony is just too much. For decades, Americans have been lectured to about the treatment of the LGBT community. Bakers, innkeepers, wedding planners have all been exiled because they have refused service to same-sex couples. In 21st century America, the idea that people would be denied service because of who they are or what they think is antithetical to a free society. More: Sarah Sanders guide to refusing service: Christian baker can, Red Hen can't Christians should be ambassadors to LGBTQ community while embracing Scripture's authority Actually the baker in Supreme Court Masterpiece ruling lost, it only looked like he won Understanding the bias in arbitrary denial of services, how could gay employees lobby for the ejection of Sanders? For decades, LGBT folks had been denied service and have pleaded for tolerance. Now they had the opportunity to be the bigger person and show that, in America, political foes can break bread rather serve up a cold dish of revenge. The Red Hen, and its gay employees, passed on that opportunity and showed the nation that pettiness trumps principle. The decision to discriminate rather than dish up is what is at the heart of the Red Hen cluckfest. Whereas Martin Luther King, Jr. argued that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” Wilkinson and the Red Hen modified that by adding, “Unless the injustice is directed to supporters and employees of President Donald Trump.” This is not only wrong; it is also a logic that cannot stand in a time when egalitarian notions rule the roost. As prejudicial as the Christian bakerIf Wilkinson is able to use her convictions — which included a perceived mistreatment of the LGBT community — as a justification to deny service, Christians should be able to, without LGBT objection, use their deeply held religious convictions to do the same. Wilkinson's views would get her a standing ovation at the Tony Awards and a shout-out from Robert De Niro. But that doesn't make those views any less prejudicial than those of a Christian baker unwilling to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding. As a nation, we have a choice: Do we allow people to deny service based upon convictions, or require that everyone gets a seat at the table? We must either stand up to defend the right of all people — even those we disagree with — to enjoy a public service, or we must let service providers decide whom they'll serve. Joseph R. Murray II is administrator of LGBTrump, a civil rights attorney and a political commentator. Follow him on Twitter: @realJoeMurray Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Love
#2. To: Deckard (#0) These employees were upset that Sanders had defended Trump’s decision to ban transgender citizens from the military. Uh-huh. And as Michele Obama said, "When they go low, we go lower." Something like that. No transgenders in the military? After this, perhaps Mr. Trump should ban ALL homosexuals from the military.
#3. To: Deckard (#0) (Edited) As a nation, we have a choice: Do we allow people to deny service based upon convictions, or require that everyone gets a seat at the table? We must either stand up to defend the right of all people — even those we disagree with — to enjoy a public service, or we must let service providers decide whom they'll serve. My answer to this question is this: if you are going to have the privilege of earning money in the American stream of commerce, you will serve everybody who enters and does not cause disruption, or you will stay out of business. The building owner whose doors are open has the right to say who can come through them, but once he goes into business - once he tries to make money off of the American stream of commerce, with American money as his medium, and American law and courts as his protectors, then he loses all right to decide who he may or may not serve. You do not have the right to make money in America if you are going to discriminate based on race, creed, color or religion. And given that political hatred is becoming as stupid and tribal as racial issues once were, looks like political affiliation needs to be added to the list. Democrats and Republicans and Independents should have the RIGHT to walk into any business that is open to the stream of commerce, anywhere in America, and engage in that business's commerce as long as they are properly clad and behave appropriately there on that spot. Business owners who can't stand that need to get out of business. If you're going to open a business in America, you have no right to exclude black people - and if you do anyway, you are going to be put out of business by the law. You do not have the right to earn a living in the American stream of commerce while practicing racism. You don't have the right to express it in the workplace, and you have no right to refuse entry or service to anybody based on race. Many think this is wrong: fuck them. It is the law, and it will be enforced. Looks like we're going to have to expand that view to include political affiliation.
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