Paul Ryan Continues False Chick-fil-A Narrative

COMMENTARY | Paul Ryan kept up the false narrative built up around the Chick-fil-A controversy in a word association game with CBS affiliate WDBJ in Roanoke, Va., on Wednesday, telling a reporter that the first thing that came to mind when someone said "Chick-fil-A" was "good chicken," quickly followed by "free speech."

"Good chicken," Ryan said, laughing. "Good chicken. Free people exercising their free speech rights."

The second part -- that of "free speech rights" -- of the Republican vice presidential nominee's answer is as misleading as the entire narrative has been since former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee began crusading for a "Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day" and insisting Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy had every right to say what he said, even in the implication that same-sex unions were against biblical doctrine and legalizing them would be courting divine disfavor.

Huckabee and others began repositioning Cathy's words as a "freedom of expression" issue, that gay rights advocates, liberals, and same-sex marriage proponents were attempting to take away or abridge Cathy's right to speak freely. Although factually untrue, the result was a national crusade to support Chick-fil-A and free speech. Conservatives like Mitt Romney and his wife to Sarah Palin and her husband got in on being photographed with bags of Chick-fil-A product in their hands on "Appreciation Day."

But the disconnect between reality and political spin has been rarely touched upon. The reality has always been that Cathy was -- and continues -- advocating against same-sex marriage, a policy that is discriminatory no matter how you look at it. Supporting one's argument with religion does not make it less discriminatory; it makes it religion-based discrimination.

In short, nobody attempted to divest Dan Cathy of his constitutional right to free speech. Various individuals, groups, and factions condemned his words and the way he couched his comments, but there was no mention of abridging his right to voice his opinion on the topic of same-sex marriage.

In short, "Appreciation Day" was built on a false narrative, just as the move to support Cathy's right to speak freely has been.

The one thing the Chick-fil-A controversy is not about is freedom of speech. It never was, no matter what Mike Huckabee and Paul Ryan and other politicians (and/or former politicians) say. It is about discrimination and whether or not it will be allowed. It is about thinly masked homophobic antagonisms and the attempt to deny homosexuals the right to marry same-sex partners.

The Chick-fil-A president implied that same-sex marriages should not be legally permitted because his interpretation of biblical scripture says so. And he has a right to his opinion, not to mention the right to voice it publicly. His right to do so is in no way infringed by others voicing a countervailing opinion.

His opinion, regardless of its base, is discriminatory in and of itself.

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Paul Ryan Continues False Chick-fil-A Narrative