When is a purveyor
of locally sourced produce and free-range organic meat not
welcome in Portland? When it’s owned
by individuals who don’t support marriage equality. So this
is really a thing we’re doing now, huh folks?
Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich’s resignation has dominated
online discourse for the last week or so. Eich was hit with an
onslaught of public approbation after being outed
by dating site OK Cupid as a supporter of California’s now
moot same sex marriage ban.
The situation in Portland is interesting because it captures a
lot of the same sides and themes as the Eich
story on a much smaller scale. Here’s some
background, from The Oregonian:
Facebook and other social media sites have exploded over a
soon-to-open fresh meat and vegetable store called Moreland
Farmers Pantry. Neighbors and nearby business owners, once excited
by the prospect of the new shop, are now backing away.“They’re choosing to open a business in a very open-minded
neighborhood,” said Tom Brown, owner of Brown Properties and
president of the Sellwood Moreland Business Alliance. “I think
their personal views are going to hurt.”
There’s something beautiful about a man unironically pointing to
a community’s open-mindedness by way of explaining its committment
to shun those with different viewpoints. Another neighbor called
the store’s owner naive for thinking someone who doesn’t believe in
same sex marriage would be able to sell free-range eggs in such a
tolerant neighborhood.
The Pantry’s owners, husband and wife John and Chauncy Childs,
are self-described Christians and libertarians who believe same-sex
marriage is wrong. This came to the attention of neighborhood
residents though a Facebook wall post from Chauncey. In it,
Chauncey expressed some stereotypically misguided beliefs about
marriage equality (that it will lead to pedophilia, etc.). She also
linked to an article about the right of business owners to refuse
service to gay people.
In a telephone interview with The Oregonian, Childs
said she never thought her Facebook views would become public and
that they don’t have anything to do with the store she’s trying to
open.“We aren’t discriminating,” Childs said. “We have no anti-gay or
anti-racial bias or anything like that. We have members of our
family who are homosexual.”
But as with Mozilla’s Brendan Eich—whom colleagues and employees
both described as being tolerant and supportive of gay
employees—the Childs’ measurable or material actions don’t seem to
matter to detractors. Neither Eich nor the Childs believe
the right things, and that is enough to get one ostracized in
“open-minded” communities.
One of Moreland Farmers Pantry’s neighbors, Sean
O’Riordan, posted a seven-minute video to YouTube tarring the
Childs and their beliefs. In it, he lamented that local children
would be forced to walk by a business with discriminatory beliefs.
He removed the video after Mr. Childs met with him and agreed to
donate money to a local LGBT foundation. However, O’Riordan noted,
he will still be boycotting the store.
There’s certaintly nothing wrong with or novel about choosing to
patronize businesses you find more agreeable (for whatever reason)
at the expense of those you find distasteful (for whatever reason).
But poke anyone’s brain hard enough and you’ll likely find
something with which to disagree. Do we really want a world where
everything
from our web browsers to where we buy our milk have to be in
proper ideological alignment? At The American
Conservative,
Rod Drehrer makes one of the most effortless and eloquent cases
as to why this is so undesriable:
When we lived in Brooklyn, we routinely shopped at a local food
store owned by Yemeni Muslim immigrants. If I had to bet, I would
guess they held strongly anti-gay views, strongly anti-feminist
views, and probably strongly anti-Christian views. But you know
what? They were always polite to us — friendly, even — and their
products were good. They were good neighbors. Who cares what they
think privately, as long as they treat customers with respect?When we lived in Philly, we shopped all the time at a local
organic food co-op that was fairly Portlandish in its
progressivism… If they had known that they were dealing with a
right-wing Christian troglodyte every time they saw me at the
register buying food, it probably would have appalled them. … But
you know what? They were nice and we were nice and we enjoyed
sharing the same neighborhood with them. Who cares what they think
privately, as long as they treat customers with respect?[…] At the Baton Rouge farmer’s market, the best local milk
comes from Mormon dairy farmers, and the best chicken comes from
Muslim chicken farmers. You think they are pure enough for
Portlandia? In my town, which is fairly conservative, some of the
most beloved businesses are run by liberals, and employ gay people.
Nobody cares. Nobody should care. You are a bad
neighbor if you care, and not just a bad neighbor, but an
asshole.
Non-asshole and Portland business ownr Nick Zulkin made similar
comments on Facebook.
He asked those boycotting the Childs’ if they had researched the
religious and political views of other local shop owners. “What
about your dentist, your doctor, your wine vendors? It’s a bad way
to live,” wrote Zulkin. Naturally, community members announced that
they’d be boycotting Zulkin’s business now, as well. Tolerance—or
else!
Bullying “intolerant” individuals into more progressive beliefs
is the wave of the future, apparently. Mind you, gay couples still
can’t marry in many states. “Fag” is still one of the worst insults
young men can hurl at one another, violence against trans women is
common, and I doubt Eich’s or the Childs’ views on marriage
equality have shifted much. But at least everyone on Twitter is
learning to signal progressivism properly! And fewer Portlandian
children will be exposed to non-genetically modified ramps sold by
someone with differing beliefs. Good work, modern liberalism! The
world is that much safer for assholes.
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