[UPDATE]:
More details from Knoxville’s Metro Pulse:
“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.”
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Apparently Knoxville restaurant The Bistro At The Bijou denied homophobic state senator Stacey Campfield service over the weekend. Sean Braisted has the details, but evidently the proprietor posted this comment over at Facebook:
“I hope that Stacy Campfield now knows what if feels like to be unfairly discrimanted against.”
Predictably, right-wingers are having a hissy fit, calling this hypocrisy and a double standard all sorts of other things. Of course, as I’ve said before, they love the free hand of the market until they don’t. Braisted does a good job explaining why this isn’t hypocritical, and let me also add: Stacey Campfield has a choice about being an oppressive dick. He doesn’t have to use his position of authority to deny not just the rights of thousands of Tennessee citizens, but their humanity as well. But he chooses the path of willful ignorance, knowingly passing off circa-1988 information as the latest in scientific research and choosing to believe fundiegelical anti-gay propaganda instead of professional groups like the American Psychologial Assn.
Conservatives like Campfield are always the victims, though – even when they’ve brought the ire of thinking people upon themselves. So I’m sure we’ll be hearing lots of “I’m oppressed!” and “it’s so unfair!” and “liberals are meanies!” from anti-gay camps today. And you know what? I don’t feel sorry for you.
Playing the world’s smallest violin for Stacey Campfield this morning.
Southern Beale 
What part of “The management reserves the right…” is equivocal? Be willing to bet this will get lumped in with those who love to say “It’s a denial of Free Speech.” (See: Hank Williams Jr.) They seem to always overlook that trivial little detail “Government shall make no law…”
I said this on Balloon Juice and I’ll say it here: these Ayn Rand Capitalists aren’t even very good capitalists.
Since the Knoxville News Sentinel featured his total lies about how only, or rarely hetrosexual folks get AIDS, I demanded that KNS get a medical professional to tell the truth, provide the facts about AIDS also on the front page. He is endangering lives, continuing his “Don’t Say Gay” BS even after 3 teens killed themselves because of being bullied, harrassed and assaulted. I have also shamed him AND KNS on Facebook. He has got to stop. Period. And he needs to be censured in the Legislature by ANY member who can see what he is doing to encourage HATRED of gays, especially of teens who even ‘appear to be gay’. This is just a travesty.
Also, totally off topic, but I’d figure you’d like this Beale: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8YhED4IgQA
LOL. Oh, my. Those calls to defund PBS just ratcheted up a notch.
So if the Bistro decided it did not want to serve Latinos you would support their right to do so even if you disagreed with it?
No, because that would be a clear violation of the law. Refusing service based on color or national origin would be prohibited conduct under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. OTOH, refusing service based on someone being a hateful, ignorant bigot is not specifically prohibited.
Bigoted Latinos yes.
“So if the Bistro decided it did not want to serve Latinos you would support their right to do so even if you disagreed with it?’
Oh, I’m sorry, did I miss where the proprietor denied Campfield service becasue of race, creed, age,physical disability,sex or sexual orientation? I think being an asshole is mutable; granted that Campfield is prolly not gonna have a lot of success at NOT being an asshole.
Yeah he’s not even trying. He opened his mouth and more stupid fell out. Now Africans aren’t “regular people.”
The false equivalency arguments kill me. I never know if people really ARE that stupid, or just pretending to be.
Honestly, SB, I do not believe it is stupidity. I think his outrageous pronouncements, using his “moral values” facade are performed as direct and subtle intent to hate gays, women, even teen girls as well as teen boys who are either gay or appear gay. His history or submitting hate filled and homophobic ‘Bills’ are evident that he is suffering from very psychological problems. I have lived near his District and have watched his circus antics for some years. No, he is not stupid. But he uses his inept, uncaring warped opinions of others to feed his small base of juvenile-bully acting supporters.
I guess there are so many Tennessee state legislators named Stacey Campfield that they now comprise their own ethnic group.
Considering Stacey’s ignorance about basic medical facts, she probably considered letting him eat in the restaurant to be a public health hazard.
The owner just recently talked about how she did serve the KKK members that demonstrated in Knoxville last year…. Probably best that Stacey did not eat there or the story would have been how Stacey supports the KKK.
I don’t know a single conservative, in real life or online, (and as an active blogger, I know a lot) who has complained about the owner’s actions. It was perfectly within her right’s as an owner to deny service to a customer if she wanted to.
Anyone who doesn’t like it can do that conservative/capitalist thing and vote with their wallet by not going to her restaurant. That is the appropriate way to react to this situation.
As that is how I feel, I don’t feel it’s wrong for me to say that, yes, the actions of liberals who are altogether too sue-happy, when social conservatives deny service to gay people, are extremely hypocritical. Any owner of a business has the right to deny service, but they do have to deal with the social/economic repercussions of that decision on their own.
(btw, before you accuse me of being part of the ‘anti-gay camps’ I’ll tell you that I’m a lesbian conservative, proudly supporting Mitt Romney for President in 2012.)
Yes but “asshole” is not a protected class. Maybe you should familiarize yourself with the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
What conservatives never seem to get is that there’s a difference between being denied service for reasons that are beyond your control — you were born black, or Asian, or Hispanic or a woman — and being denied service because you’re being a douchebag. Stacey Campfield doesn’t have to go on television and radio and give interviews where he spouts hateful and even dangerous things about a group of people he despises.
Maybe the reason so many conservatives don’t understand this basic distinction and liberals do is that conservatives really feel like they can’t help being assholes themselves.
And this is why so many GLBT people are fighting to get sexual orientation included in civil rights laws that protect certain groups of people but not others. Because yes they can be “sue happy” all they want, but unless the law recognizes sexual orientation as a protected class (some state laws do, some don’t), they won’t get anywhere.
This is, indeed, the fucking point. Thanks for paying attention.
As for your contention that you’re a lesbian conservative supporting Mitt Romney in 2012? I’d be inclined to call bullshit on that one. But I don’t know you. You could just be an idiot. Also, let me add, not a protected class.
And might I remind those of you who do not know exactly what Campfield’s hate has openly done against the LGBT community. He has sponsored and/or written the most anti-women’s rights bills, and now, anti-gay teens’ rightsbills (Don’t Say Gay, etc) that actually encouraging their assault and bullying. And his latest: misinformation about how one gets exposed to AIDS…. ignorance and lies. Instead of allowing children in our public schools to learn FACTS about human sexuality, including how to PREVENT the spread of SIDs and AIDS, his lies indicate just how he wants to deny children, especially sexually active teens, from learning the TRUTH and how to protect themselves. And if “Meredith” is really a Lesbian conservative and wants to support Romney, you might want to learn about HIS conservative Mormon beliefs, that his ‘faith’ discriminates against people of color, HATES gays, and secretly supports polygamy. And as Mrs. Boggs said..”.Campfield has gone from spreading ignorance to being dangerous in his hatred”. As to your not hearing about negative ‘conservative comments IN SUPPORT of Campfield, you should see all the hate on our Knoxville News Sentinel (knoxnews.com) or the Metro Pulse, our weekly (metropulse,com). They seem to believe that Stacey was ‘discriminated against for expressing his opinion’ as guaranteed by the First Amendment!’ However, these ignorant conservatives did not mention the deaths of 3 young teens to suicide here in TN, because they had been bullied…to death. Nor did they mention women in this community who suffer living with AIDS, nor the babies born with AIDS…they are more ignorant than you. Apparently.
Ah, so it’s okay to deny service to people you find to be “assholes” because of their religious ideas (I’m not saying I have a particular like for the guy myself. Anyone who spends an inordinate amount of time using a political platform to push a social agenda is not in my good books).
However, it’s not okay to deny service to people based on the owner’s religious beliefs?
I understand the distinction you are making, but it doesn’t play well with the idea of private property and private business. If you want the rules to apply to one set of people they must apply to all. I am on the side of business owners to decide how to deal with how they run their business, whether that makes them assholes or not. Capitalism allows us to boycott businesses that make bad decisions, and allows us to (as I said before) vote with our wallets.
Where does the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protect for sexual orientation. Couldn’t find that anywhere.
You want to call “bullshit” on what exactly? That I’m a lesbian, I (and the girlfriends I have had) can attest to that. That I’m a conservative? There is a huge number of GLBT conservatives active in politics these days. Hear of GOProud, Log Cabin Republicans? That I’m supporting Romney? That doesn’t make me an idiot, that makes me an intelligent, informed member of society who knows a good leader when they see one.
As for what “Mary Wilson” (I don’t know what the quotes on my name were about, but I thought I would return the favor) said. Romney knows how to keep his personal religious beliefs out of politics. He isn’t worried about social issues in this term, but about fiscal policy and foreign policy. The two areas that are the most necessary at this moment.
I’m just telling you what the law is. You can’t deny someone service because of their religion — though the Belle Meade Country Club kept Jews out until shockingly recently and who wants to guess what would happen if a Muslim tried to join? But Stacey’s hate is not based on his religion. If you think that’s the case you need to read a Bible. And he was not denied service because he professes to be a Christian.
There are plenty of Christians out there who do not want to destroy GLBT people. Quite a few churches are welcoming to gay families. So don’t for a second pretend this is some kind of religious doctrine. It’s not. It’s a warped hatred of a group of people hiding behing religion. And let me add, that whole “it’s what my religion says” bullshit is the exact same excuse that the KKK and White Nationalists have used for their hate campaigns against blacks and Jews.
I’m really sick of people using their Bible as a screen for their hate. Get the fuck over it.