Homophobia in the News

by Mona Shaw

In October, 2018, I wrote WHBF-TV (a CBS affiliate for the Quad-Cities in Iowa and Illinois) meteorologist Ashe Simpson about his chronic promotion of Chick-filet-A and explained how Chick-Filet-A persecutes LGBT people. He said he was sorry it caused me pain, but he liked their food.

I didn’t ask Ashe to stop shopping at Chick-Filet-A. I just wanted him to stop hurting LGBT people. Instead he chose to double-down, promoting the company more often and remarking, “No one is going to stop me from talking about Chick-Filet-A.”

I then posted several examples on the WHBF Facebook page of the harm the company causes LGBT people. I was ignored.

Then on August 12, 2018 I heard a mocking tone and giggling that reinforced the callous attitude toward this pain.  Not only did Ashe and anchor Redrick Terry promote the company. They punctuated their support with these remarks.

“Amen and Hallelujah.”

“Chick-Filet-A can’t do anything wrong.”

“Amen and Hallelujah.”

Chick-fil-A does great wrong that should not be praised.

Chick-fil-A is a Georgia-based fast food restaurant that opened in suburban Atlanta in 1967. The operations of the chain reflect the religious values of Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer S. Truett Cathy, whose biography notes that he has “built his life and business based on hard work, humility and biblical principles.” Chick-fil-A lives these “biblical principles” through its WinShape Foundation, a charitable endeavor founded by S. Truett Cathy and his wife, Jeanette, by donating millions of dollars to groups with anti-gay agendas. In particular, they seek to reverse the 2015 Supreme Court decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, that made equal marriage the law of the nation.

This isn’t petty, nor is it simply a matter of liking a tasty sandwich. Chick-fil-A is reasonably accused of acts of terrorism against LGBT families. If they have their way, loving families would be destroyed, and these families stand to lose benefits and protections that could cost them and their children their lives.

The First Amendment gives everyone the right to be as racist, heterosexist, sexist, ableist, etc. as they the like. It also gives freedom fighters the right to object.

Still, there seems to be confusion about when things are the same and when they are different. Objecting to oppression is not the same thing as perpetuating oppression. Objecting to the destruction of LBGT families is not doing the same thing. The same thing would be if LGBT were attempting to destroy heterosexual families. No one is trying to stop Ashe from marrying his fiancé or to take away legal protections for his family.

We now witness the tragic resurgence of blunt expressions of bigotry.  Mass shootings by white supremacists and homophobes are the outcome of that resurgence.  It is a terrifying time for people of color and LGBT citizens. I have personally stood over the graves of dozens of LGBT people who were murdered by homophobia.  Each death was hooked to a public event in which a prominent person belittled LGBT people.  When you mock someone, you make them a target for those who will use violence against them.

Moreover, heterosexism is unavoidably racist.  LGBT people of color suffer most violently from this oppression. Indeed, the 15 transwomen who have been brutally murdered this year were all Black.

Bigotry isn’t merely a personal belief. It’s a system that has been institutionalized in our societal fabric. This is settled law.  The Supreme Court has legalized Equal Marriage. The states of Iowa and Illinois have added sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes. These laws obligate anyone who does business with the public to scrub institutionalized bigotry from their institutions regardless of personal beliefs.   If not the letter, WHBT breaks the spirit of the law every time staff promote Chick-Filet-A. Each instance creates a hostile environment for LGBT families.

It’s not as if they’re giving equal time to those wounded by this. Perhaps, I missed it, but I’ve also not seen Pride Groups or Events, on “Living Local,” a program about area happenings which Ashe co-hosts. Though evangelical churches get plenty of play. This is not an issue upon which reasonable people can disagree. Reasonable people don’t persecute others based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The most egregious aspect of this is that WHBF is hurting innocent people. Worse, they’ve allowed it to be fodder for humor.  Millions of American Christians do not share this cruel and narrow view. WHBF could learn from them.

Picket Lines

by Mona Shaw

I don’t cross picket lines.

This has irritated folks I was with more than once. Often someone is misinformed enough to say to me. “But you don’t know both sides.”

I always answer, “There’s a picket line for workers. That’s all I need to know.”

This is not simply a political or moral position. Although it is both. It’s also based on my personal witness of the struggle for workers’ rights.

My mother, Marlene Johns Shaw Gerst, was a labor organizer. She began this fight for justice in 1960. She was a line worker at Champion Spark Plug in Burlington, Iowa. She was only 26. After witnessing one too many atrocities toward workers at the plant, she came home one night, kicked her purse across the living room floor, and said. “That goddamned plant needs a union, and it going to get one!”

It did. She called on the UAW. She passed out cards. She talked to workers without ceasing. She went to their homes, stopped them at their cars and in supermarkets. She convinced men and women to join her at a time when this was not seen as a woman’s role, even by the union. She was threatened with violence and blackballing, but she was not deterred.

This eventually led to an election. The Union won the election, but it was not over. The Company refused to negotiate a contract. After no small amount of agonizing, the workers decided to strike. Calling a strike is a courageous and dangerous thing to do. The consequences can be more than Draconian. We knew this firsthand. My father was the first union person in our family. He was a baker at K & R Bakery in Burlington. Some called him the most talented cake decorator in town. He attempted to organize a union there. He was fired and blackballed. He never worked as a baker again. They took the risk.

My brother Mark and I have clear memories of walking the picket line. We took turns between walking the line and watching our pre-school sister in the strike kitchen. Our baby sister stayed with an aunt. The loose pebbles and cracked asphalt beneath our feet. The smell of chili being cooked in the strike kitchen. I was only 10, but I still remember the recipe for that chili. The stale donuts and jugs of water and coffee on a card table. Those who have never taken risks for justice don’t know how empowering it is to stand up to tyranny. It’s a feeling that you never forget. It was the first of a few defining moments I would have in my life.

On a day, that I stayed home to watch the girls and clean house, Mark ran into the living room crying, “The Union won! The Union won!” We all rejoiced.

The contract gave the workers more humane working conditions, higher wages, and completely paid family health insurance. Upon its signing hundreds of lives changed dramatically for the better.

UAW Local 1237 prevailed, and it still exists. My mother’s efforts were so highly regarded that she was elected vice-president. She told me later with pride, “They wanted to elect me president, but you can’t have a woman president.”

My mother’s gift for organizing did not go unnoticed by the national. UAW secured a proviso that my mother could be pulled from the line at any time to help with other organizing throughout the nation. Eventually, the UAW brought her on full-time. By the time she retired in 1994, she had improved the lives of literally thousands of workers. She was given the Walter P. Reuther Award. When she died last year, Champion Spark Plug hung up a tribute to her and flew their flag at half mast.

My mother wasn’t the only one who made monumental sacrifices. She was gone a lot. My younger siblings lost years with their mother. My brother and I lost our childhood as we were given adult assignments to keep our family going. Her absence combined with other tragedies would tear apart my parents’ marriage. They divorced in 1966. Then and now I feel no resentment for those sacrifices despite their profound damage. We had a higher calling. We were saving the lives of thousands of workers so they could have the benefits that we enjoyed. The biggest benefit may be that my parents never again had to worry about cost when we needed to see a doctor. They could just take us. In more than one instance it’s reasonable to believe this saved our lives.

I remain keenly aware that our sacrifice paled against the sacrifices of the likes of Mother Jones, Sacco and Vanzetti, Lucy Parsons, Cesar Chavez, Eugene V. Debs, and the Hay Market Square martyrs. The history of workers’ rights dates back to the beginning of the nation and includes a cast of millions.

So. When you cross a picket line, or criticize or disrespect striking workers, you not only dishonor my mother’s legacy, you dishonor my entire family. You also dishonor the memory of anyone who’s given their lives for this right. That’s just how it is.