Yes, people will not like you, but not liking and hating are two different things. Have you ever had your car vandalized, including the windows being shattered, just because of the way you are? Are you subject to people telling you to go to hell, that you should off yourself, or someone should kill you on a regular basis? Have you ever been denied employment, terminated from a job, or denied housing or evicted because of the way you are? Have you ever been denied life-saving treatment because of the way you are? It is illegal to do these things, but only if you fall under a privileged or protected class. Being homosexual or transsexual is not a protected class, is obviously not a privileged class, and in many states those who are GLBT are subject to the whims of hatred from employers, land lords, and even doctors who will refuse to operate on ovarian or cervical cancer on a female-to-male transsexual because conveniently he is a guy, not a woman. And not too mention harassment, threats of violence and death, vandalism, and people who go out of their way to try and make you feel like ****.
What makes the struggles for equality among the GLBT community any different from the civil rights movements 50 years ago? It's legal in many states to fire us for no real reason, evict us from housing from no real reason, and we even get the "separate but equal" rubbish of "civil unions" which is only another way of saying "we're better than you/you're not good enough."
If a business leader were to be openly racists towards black people, and funded groups that work to legally oppress black people, there would be a major outcry and instead of an appreciation day people would stop supporting the business because it supports hate. Why should our struggles and hardships be any less?
Cathy can say what he wants, but by even financially supporting his right to say what he wants will only end up supporting the hatred that caused this controversy in the first place.
