Anti-Gay Bigotry in Action
Ed Brayton on Aug 2nd 2006 02:42 pm |
This is an unbelievable story. Just when you start to think that maybe there is sanity in the world, you see a story like this.
For J.R. and Robin knight, owning a bed and breakfast is everything they’ve always wanted. “We came here in search of our dreams, my wife always wanted a bed and breakfast and I always wanted a restaurant,” says California native J.R. Knight.
But recently their dream has turned into a nightmare, all because of a flag they’re flying outside. “It’s a rainbow flag – to some people it means friendship to some people it means gay pride,” says Knight. But for knight, it was just a souvenir from his 12-year-old son…
Knight says his son gave him the flag after a trip to Dorothy’s house, a museum about the Wizard of Oz. The flag reminded the boy of “somewhere over the rainbow.”
But the good folks of Meade, Kansas saw that rainbow flag and lost their freakin minds. Get a load of this:
Knight says the local Meade newspaper is trying to put him out of business and was frustrated when it ran an article about the flag and did not even bother to contact him regarding why he put it up. In fact, most people we spoke to in Meade said they didn’t even know what the flag meant until the article ran. But once word got around, the reaction was harsh.
Knight says the radio station has called him threatening to remove the restaurant’s commercials if he does not remove the flag. A local pastor stopped by said it was equivalent to hanging women’s panties on a flag pole. When Knight jokingly said he might consider that – the preacher said he would have him arrested.
His business has suffered – down to only a few local customers. The folks in Meade who’ve boycotted say it’s too offensive for them to eat there.
Local resident, Keith Klassen says the flag is a slap in the face to the conservative community of Meade. “To me it’s just like running up a Nazi flag in a Jewish neighborhood. I can’t walk into that establishment with that flag flying because to me that’s saying that I support what the flag stands for and I don’t,” says Klassen.
Yes, Mr. Klassen, a rainbow flag is just like flying a Nazi flag in a Jewish neighborhood, you fucking idiot. If there was any justice in this world, this kind of stupidity and bigotry would be accompanied by migraine headaches, pus-oozing sores all over your body, and a burning rectal itch that never heals.
Update: I didn’t realize that PZ had already covered this, but he has even more information. It turns out that the son that gave them the flag is dead and the flag is a reminder that he still exists “over the rainbow” to his parents. And some idiot, maybe Klassen or some halfwit who shares a brain with him, cut the flag down. PZ reprints an eloquent email from the parents refusing to back down in the face of such idiotic harrassment. He also includes their contact information, which I will reprint here and urge my readers, if they are ever in Kansas, to give these folks some business so they are not forced out by this town full of vile cretins.
JR & Robin Knight
Lakeway Hotel – Bed and Breakfast Inn
115 N. Fowler, Meade, Kansas 67864
PO BOX 1029, Meade, Kansas 67864-1029
Toll-Free: 877-276-2700 – Phone: 620-873-2700
lakewayhotel.com – innkeeper@lakewayhotel.com
Filed in Uncategorized
Note to self: never go to Kansas “in search of [my] dreams.” Honestly, though, I’ve come to expect nothing better of rednecks from small, isolated communties with small gene pools and small minds. What were the Knights thinking to raise that flag in such a dusty hell hole? I’m sure there are some nice, open-minded, intelligent people in that town – but they don’t rule and they don’t dominate the community the way the bigots and nutcases do.
I’ve lived in Wichita, KS for just about a year now. Please note that this is not the kind of behavior you would expect to see in the state’s 5 largest cities (Wichita, Topeka, KS City, Lawrence & Manhattan), at least not en masse. In other words, in any part of the state that most rational people would be willing to live, you can still follow your dreams.
Oh goodie, here I am, moving into my new home in Kansas tomorrow afternoon, in search of my dreams. Fortunately I’ll be living in Lawrence (a rare blue speck in an otherwise sea of red). I look forward to seeing my well-reasoned votes swallowed whole by ignorance and stupidity in the next few elections.
You can still make a difference in Kansas school board elections, which I understand are fairly close between those who favor creationism and those who favor evolution in the science curriculum.
That is true. I will find out how I can do more.
I was born and grew up in Kansas. I moved away several times, but managed to make in out permanently in 1988. I never looked back, as you can imagine. After finding this story today and following the links to learn all I could, I went to the KWCH-TV website and viewed the video they broadcast about the family. I used to work for this station for several years and decided to call the newsroom and ask them why they had never reported that this couple’s son had died which was the original reason they began flying the flag, in his memory.
They asked me where I got that information because they had never heard that! I told them I had read it on this site and named a couple of others. No surprise, they were skeptical. My reponse was that they didn’t have to take the “bloggers” words for it but, I felt that with the hell these people are being put through, they at least should check with the family as to the truth about the son’s death, and if indeed true, do a follow-up story with that information and offer these people some support.
They promised they would. I still have a son in Kansas so I’ll know if they’ve done that or not. In fact, his best friend is the head of the videotography department at the station so it will be even easier to know if they follow up. Here’s my only question – where did these sites get the information about their son’s death. The father didn’t mention it in the video which ran or in his letter appearing on Pandagon. I hope please, that someone added that if it isn’t true. I would only serve to make their suffering that much worse. At any rate, I’ve written the family and bugged the press. At least it’s an effort on all our parts !
Sorry – Dad does reference his son in the letter. All right, let’s see what station does to make it right on their end.
READ THE LETTER AGAIN IDIOTS!!!! How could his son be dead yet buy a flag – Hum?? Also how could he buy that same flag at a place that doesn’t sell them?? again HUMM?
this fits the saying that if you tell 10 people the same thing you will get 10 different versions when its retold. Ask yourself this also. Why would such a (smart??) man move to a small town in kansas – buy a b&b – tell everybody you love the little town but yet not support anybody else’s business. Then try and ram down “culture” in a steak and potato area. (and then serve lousy food at that). Then to top it off tell tales about how great it was where you came from (Thats something when all want to hear when the economic depression that will soon hit all of america has started here already). Meade Ks is a very nice to place to be – i spent 20 years in Denver, Co and when i moved here i DID NOT bring colorado with me!!!!!!. This JR should just clone himself and move to the Wonderful cities that want to support him and sell used cars and then you people could see his true colors and just shower him with you love and affection.
Mark,
I believe — oh gosh, I hate to have to point this out — I believe that the son purchased the flag before he died.
It usually works that way. You do stuff for a while, then you drop dead. Life’s just like that.
All the best,
Jason
Yep all the best especially when the kids been enrolled in the coming school year.
Do share with us, Mark: On what evidence are you making these claims? (I presume, by your last comment, that you mean to say the child is still alive, and that he neither bought the flag nor enrolled in school while dead…)
Oh yeah by the way – what follows is a quote taken from “mr Knights” letter that was wrote in thanking you all for your support. Now lets be real wouldn’t this letter talk about reminding “DAD” about his son instead of being a reminder TO his son? So many times we read what we want to and tell ourselves it MUST mean this. Lets all try to dig our heads out from the shady side of the moon.
following is the quote
“Our new Rainbow flag will fly as a reminder to my son, never to back down to prejudice and tyranny no matter the cost, because once you do it will never stop”
Yep one thing i agree with prejudice and tryanny will never stop until people look at things from the truthful angle and then swallow their pride and admit their mistakes or lisfortunes whichever it may be. Makes you wonder why there wasn’t an obit or why they never left town for a funeral doesn’t it?
Mark –
I think you’re making a mountain out of a malaprop. And I repeat my question: On what evidence do you claim that their child is enrolled in school this year?
Well, i work with the cook at the school, also i just talked to our local police and asked him what he knew and he said that he had also heard that rumor and it was not true. Yes their son is still alive. I agree it is a pile of poop Or wait – i guess you called it a malaprop. In fact this whole issue is a p.o.p. Why couldn’t this man just let this all go bye (unless of course it is for the publicity).
Now back at you what makes you think he’s dead (deja vu Paul Mc Cartney)
Let’s review another section of the letter. It reads,
This is an odd way to refer to someone who is still alive, to say the least. On the contrary, it clearly gives the impression that the child is no longer with us. I’m willing to admit that the letter might perhaps be interpreted in the other direction, but I just can’t see yours as the more probable reading.
To settle things, I’ve e-mailed the B&B’s owner asking for a clarification. If he contacts me, I will be sure to pass along his answer.
No, he’s right. I read the section above and took it to mean that the son was dead. He is not dead, he is away from his family in California (I do not know why). How that justifies the rest of his sub-literate and rude comment, I have no idea. Crawl back under the rock you came out from.
Ed –
Forgive me, but I’ll have to ask you for your sources, too. It would seem biased of me to accept your conclusions simply because you’re you. I trust, but I’d like to verify.
And Mark, forgive me, but it’s hard for me to take your claims at all seriously when they come hitched to the bizarre rant you made in your first post.
–Why, you ask, would such a smart man move to Kansas? I’d love to know the answer to that question myself. But I understand plenty of smart people do live there. It takes all kinds to run the world.
–Why would he not support anybody else’s business? I have no evidence that he has failed to support these businesses. But even if he didn’t support them, no one has any obligation to buy anyone else’s products. It’s not a free market unless you can choose not to buy.
–Why would he try to ram down “culture” in a “steak and potato” area, as you put it? I don’t know that offering a service in a free market is in any way coercive. If people don’t like his service, no one is forcing them to buy.
–Is it rude for him to tell tales of how great things are where he came from? Perhaps. But in my experience, this would indict many people who grew up in Kansas, too.
–Why would JR want to sell used cars? I was a bit lost before. Now I’m totally lost.
Jason-
Someone corrected me on my blog the the other day, but I forgot to mention that here. I assume that correction was valid, but I suppose it’s possible that it wasn’t. I’m curious to hear what they say as well, because if he is in California I’ve not seen any explanation as to why. I just don’t think it’s really an integral part of the story. The behavior is absurd regardless of why the flag is there.
Just a note to commenters on this thread:
Let’s try to keep things civil. I know that tempers are heated here. But I’ve already admitted that I was apparently mistaken. There was no need, as some deleted commenters have done, to employ profanity or to insinuate some dishonest motive on my part. Given the section that I quoted, and the reports from a few days ago, my response does seem justified. Wrong, but justified based on what I knew at the time.
I would also note that whether the son was alive or not makes very, very little difference here. Cutting down the flag was still a vile act of a bigot. And really, that’s about all that needs to be said.
Anthony, the son, is not dead. He went to California to live with his Grandparents before any of this even happened. JR, the dad, is a nut and is trying to con gay people in to sending him money because his business is going under, which started way before the gay flag thing.
I would also like to point out that if you look in any Meade County News papers before this got all of the attention of everyone who thinks that he is a nice guy and want to support him. I’m sorry to report but he was at every city council meeting giving everyone migraines about stuff that is too dumb for anyone to name because they were small things that he would keep bringing up. Normally JR is a problem to the county with the stupid problems he brings to the city council, now because he’s in the national spotlight he is putting on an act and he’s acting like a nice guy. And everyone is eating right out of the palm of his hand and he’s loving it. And when the majority of the town was asked what they thought of it they said that they don’t have problems with anyone who has a different sexual orientation, but almost every paper puts in the comments that make rural Kansas sound like a bunch of homophobic rednecks and only a few people even cared about the fact that he had the flag there and what it ment until an the local newspaper decided to put a picture of the flag in and then said if you want more information about the gay pride flag go to wikipedia.org. And in saying this I would like to point out that wikipedia is not a valid source, any person who has a computer and thinks they know about the subject can post something. On another note the comment that Mr. Klassen made, but it isn’t the stance of everyone in the state and I also have heard comments from various places that people are calling Meade County Kansas the butthole of the nation and that it is nothing but a wheat field. If this happened anywhere else with any other person where two twelve year old boys (the age of his son) cut down a flag. They would probably have to replace it and that would be the end. And to everyone who posted things about how “the vile rednecks” are stereotyping everyone in Meade and Kansas because of how a few talk that’s like saying that all Texans are vile rednecks because they don’t want Mexicans coming across the border because they take the jobs nobody else wants.
Joe –
Whoa there… I’m not sure I know what you’re suggesting when you write,
Are you implying that the whole “rainbow flag means gay” idea was something that someone just recently thought up and threw into wikipedia? That flag has been around for many, many years, and through that time it has consistently been a symbol of the gay community.
Information on the flag’s history can be found here, for instance:
http://www.indiana.edu/~arenal/Flag.html
As to whether it represents “diversity” more generally, I’m not so sure. A lot of gay people may tell you that it does, but in the United States I rarely see it outside of gay establishments or homes. (It was quite common, as I recall, in Amsterdam, regardless of whether the establishment was “gay” or “straight” in clientele.)
And of course, I’m not about to deny that it might have private meanings for various people too.
As to all Kansans being bigoted rednecks, I don’t believe I personally have said so. I don’t know many people in Kansas at all, but the few I do know are quite decent.
Not all Texans have the same point of view on immigration and they don’t all talk the same so don’t treat or say all Kansans or people from Meade and Meade County are rednecks.
No, I said nobody in the TOWN or COUNTY cared or knew that he had the flag or knew what it ment until the person wrote the story in the paper. Some thought it was a colorful flag and until some saw the artical in the paper about it they thought it was cool, if the person who wrote the story would have left it alone all of the people who would have cared would have stayed ignorant and as we all know ignorance is bliss.
And I had put the word there which implies that I meant the town and also the fact that you put [sic] after my typo means that you are pointing out my error which also means in my mind you never make errors(sarcastically). I feel that it was dumb of the newspaper writer to let the ignorant people know what it meant so then they started caring what it meant.
Correct me if I’m wrong but who died and made Jason the spelling police.
I’d also like to point out that a symbol is what you want it to be and yes because the flag reminded him of his son he might not have wanted it to offend anyone but if the paper would have not made a big deal out of it and let everyone know it was there and what it meant this whole thing probably would not have happened and the fact that everyone makes a big deal of it and the fact that people are coming to protest and say it’s unfair to judge people and other people are coming to protest the protest is dumb.
So many comments… I’ll answer them one at a time.
–In your first reply, I’m not sure what you’re driving at here. I absolutely agree with you that not all Kansans are bigots and/or rednecks (though many of them would, I know, happily claim the second adjective!). I also agree with you that not all Texans are xenophobes. I’m not sure why this point bears repeating.
–In your second reply, I can’t agree that ignorance is bliss. I can’t see why knowledge, here, should ever have been such a big deal.
–As to noting your typo, I’m sorry to have touched a nerve. I do this because potential employers read the blog, too, and I don’t need them attributing any more mistakes to me than absolutely necessary.
–As to your last comment above, I think we are also in agreement. I wrote previously that any symbol may have a “private meaning,” and that seems to have been a key element of the story here. I don’t think that this was ever in dispute.
Allright i currently leave in meade, and the B&B’s son is not dead, he is away in california with some relatives because he was getting teased at school. His son is not severly retarded but is slow, the flag reminded him of something from dorothy’s house. He sent his parents the flag and they didn’t know it stood for gay pride. Someone jokingly told him he should hang it outside of the restauraunt to bring in some business and he did. The nespaper ran it in the paper and now its a huge scandal. Tomrrow some guy named Fred phelps or something is suppose to go 2 the Lakeway (B&B) and have a little sermon kinda deal against gays. His the guy that goes to soldiers funerals and says all soldiers should burn in hell. If i find out more i will keep everyone updated.
Has anyone seen these ads by “WeAreThinking” that feature minority groups challenging gay rights? Very interesting stuff. Here are some links to check them out for yourself on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P…h? v=PLvHA18stY8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C…h? v=CQRCG9gJwRE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O…h? v=OFBn7JcGynQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5…h? v=5py6wNVYMT8
Ive been to wichita many times, my partner comes from there. Its a crap hole of a town. small minded hicks. nothing would surprise me about people in Kansas. the evangelical nazis are no different then the mobs that run around arab countries aresting women for not covering theirs faces. I live on the missouri side of Kansas city, I wont even shop on the KS side. Im not giving my tax dollors to a state the doesnt even want to teach evolution. wants to take away womens rights. wont teach their children about protecting themselves from stds or worse. evangelical churches are no differant then the taliban