Dairy of a Madman

You know what makes me sick?

Michael Lord and Gary Lackey, a gay couple requesting bids for a landscaping job at their new house, received a polite — and, well, honest — e-mail from Sabrina Farber, a co-owner of Garden Guy: “I need to tell you that we cannot meet with you because we choose not to work for homosexuals.”

Stunned, Lackey forwarded the e-mail to 200 friends, asking them not to patronize Garden Guy and urging them to pass the word on to friends and family. “I’m still shocked by the ignorance that exists in today’s society,” Lackey said in his e-mail.

And word was indeed passed on — as fast as the Web could carry it.

Within days, the e-mail had been forwarded to thousands of people around the world, and quickly became the subject of heated and often ugly debates on the Internet. Because of the furor, a professional association of landscapers created a nondiscrimination policy.

A forum on the Garden Guy Web site, normally reserved for discussions about landscaping and shrubbery, was bombarded with angry comments and venomous attacks from as far away as Australia.

It makes me sad — not sick — that people would still have prejudice against people in this day and age — whether racial, sexual, gender-based… whatever. It’s a very Christian thing, I guess. The prejudice, not my sadness.

But you know, it is what it is. The gay thing goes against some people’s beliefs, and so be it. Of course, some people also believe that blacks are lesser people because of their skin tone, and that the world was created in seven days, and that women belong in the kitchen or pregnant. We all have our problems to overcome. But if they want to believe it, then who are you to tell them what to believe? Remember, that could be flipped around on you, too.

And they own their own business, and they should be able to choose their clientele, for whatever reasons (no matter how ignorant or stupid) they have. Action, consequence: they’re gonna find out just how much landscaping comes from a group that they don’t want to service, as well as those sympathetic to that group.

At least they were honest about their reasons, and now they’ll pay for their beliefs by losing business. All is well in the world.

Except (and here’s the part that makes me sick)…

Some people attacked the Farbers’ beliefs, threatened the couple and their five children, and said they ought to be sodomized. Others condemned gays as sinners headed toward damnation.

Farber, whose company’s Web site has long included Biblical quotes and a link to a Web site that opposes gay marriage, said she was shocked by the reaction.

It was just our intent to uphold our rights as small business owners to choose our clientele,” she said. “All the hate, the threats of sodomizing my children, the threats of me being murdered, came out because of a very businesslike straightforward e-mail I sent. The crowd of tolerance and diversity is not so tolerant.”

She says it pretty well. However ignorant she and her family may be — and I certainly think that choosing or rejecting your clientele based on sexual preference is pretty fucking ignorant — that’s her belief. Your beliefs don’t jibe with hers. Is that a reason to threaten them — much less their children?

Isn’t that why people get hanged, beatened up outside of bars, and dragged in chains down miles of highway? Because their beliefs don’t jibe with yours?

If you want to go to their website and post a notice that you think their business practices aren’t fair or right, good for you. Let them know why you’re boycotting them, and why you’re recommending that everyone you know do the same. They won’t support you, you don’t support them. They’re not government subsidized, I assume, and therefore (IMHO) can cater to whomever they wish. If the business suffers because of it, so be it.

Why would you want to give money to people that think you’re evil and wrong and going to hell, anyway?

Tolerance works both ways.

Unless you’re Courtney Love…

You know what else makes me sick?

Courtney Love poses nude for magazine

Images in the piece seen by Access Hollywood show the former Hole frontwoman standing strongly, legs apart and her breasts fully exposed, while strappy, designer panties cover her bottom half. Others show the blonde fully naked with her knees curled up.

If you’ve not already retasted your last meal, read that last sentence again. And then imagine: track marks underneath fake boobs on a forty year old.

Some things you can never unread. So you share with everyone who reads your blog. Happy Friday, everyone!