Saturday is my 27th birthday and for nearly all of those years I have hated really only one “class” of people: white trash. However, for the past year and a half now I have begun to find a new target for my sarcastic and satirical jokes and that group is: Religious zealots. Now I know what you are going to say, “Shane a majority of uber-religious freaks are white trash by default”. I know this to be true, but there are many zealots that may live wonderful suburban lives or have successful jobs while in their spare time devote their lives to hating others.

Over the past year Starbucks has created a campaign that places notable quotes on their cups. These quotes are designed to make people think and maybe look at things in a new light. Recently there was a quote by a famous gay author that read:

"I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don't make that mistake yourself. Life's too damn short."

Gay hate groups have planned to boycott Starbucks and insist their members confront the store manager. To me this isn’t a very “gay” quote. It can apply to many facets of life and sexual orientation is only one of them. Gay hate groups spend hours upon hours of their personal (and surely work) time in finding ways to hide hate as an expression of God. They disguise their hate with cute Christian names such as, Concerned Women for America, Christians for Liberty, and American Family Association. They make people think that they are doing good work for America and that every family should ban together and save the “institution”.

These same groups even tried to boycott P&G for its support of the repeal of an anti-gay law in Cincinnati and Ford for supporting the “gay games” Who cares if a bunch of queers want to get together and see how far they can throw 36 inch dildos?

Aren’t there more pressing issues in the United States then whether of not Starbuck’s puts a questionable quote on its cups? The last I heard the poverty level in the US rose to an all-time high. How does that take a back seat when it comes to activism?

I think John McCain said it best when he stated, “the second greatest threat to the United States next to terrorists are the extreme religious right”

Please see: http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/09/092005coffee.htm for more on the story.