Monday, January 30, 2012
By the Way Stacey Campfield Denied Service at Knoxville Restaurant
Posted by Jonathan Meador on Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 10:31 AM
Factually challenged Tennessee state Sen. Stacey Campfield had plenty to think about (and on an empty stomach, too) when he was denied service at downtown Knoxville's Bistro at the Bijou restaurant yesterday.
According to the Gay Street establishment's Facebook page, Bistro owner Martha Boggs served Campfield a taste of his own provincial medicine by turning him away like some kind of freak unfit to dine with normal society.
From the Knoxville Metro Pulse:
"I didn't want his hate in my restaurant," Boggs said in a interview this morning. "I told him he wasn't welcome here. ... I feel like he's gone from being stupid to being dangerous, and I wanted to stand up to him."The status went viral last night, exploding all over Facebook and Twitter. As of 9:30 a.m., it had almost 400 likes. There are also several dozen posts congratulating Boggs on her actions. We asked Boggs what she thought about all the support, but she said she hadn't even looked at Facebook.
"I'm busy making soup. I've got to run," Boggs said.
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Comments (74)
Showing 1-50 of 74
Stacie's schtick isn't playing well even in his hometown of Knoxville.
like
dislike
I'm searching the Civil Rights Code right now, and I can't find any prohibition against refusing service due to rank stupidity and ignorance.
Ummm, Andy...YES, yes!!..Here it is, and I quote:
"Those Americans differently-abled due to having their heads shoved completely inside their anuses shall be entitled to the same service in public facilities as those Americans who don't have their heads up their asses."
Stacie has been WRONGED!!!!!!!!
Any server or restaurant owner has the right to refuse to service to anyone for any reason as long as it isn't to discriminating against, race, religion, age or gender. Just like you can be fired at any time for any reason as like as it's not discrimination. Just because the woman has her own opinion means she is able to do so. Thank you America.
Well, I for one will be boycotting this restaurant establishment in the future! It's the second restaurant that I decided to boycott after The Acorn! That one for obvious reasons! I call on all lovers of our blessed Constitution to do likewise! This lady and her restaurant are an abomination! And "Bistro at the Bijou", LOL, what kind of name is that for a restaurant?!?!!
I understand completely. It's the stray cat principle. If she starts feeding him, he'll never go away.
Funny how asshole conservatives like Angry White Patriot and Stacey Campfeeled expect others to tolerate their bigotry. The Constitution doesn't give anyone the right to a bigot, even when they hide behind their religion. Religion has been used to justify all manner of evil.
A bigot is a bigot and I support anyone that stands up to them. Good for Bistro at the Bijou.
Boycotting restaurants is predicated on having restaurants to boycott. The Copper Kettle, etc., just left Columbia.
Jobs, jobs, jobs ...
Beans and rice at home, home, home ... if you have one.
#Priorities.
Dear Screw. At least some of us think "AngryWhite" is kidding, or at least, thinks he is, since if you parody something long enough, a lot of people won't be able to notice any useful difference. . Just sayin' It may not be worth anything.
The milk from my family's dairy cows goes to everyone, regardless.
You're welcome.
#Pure Tennessee grass. ##Not made in China.
@AWP: Don't let 'em get you down. It's off topic but here's an entree to make you feel better.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/26/house-ju….
This is the first time I've seen Campfield on the run. The News Sentinel's poll asking who people support is running 81-15% in favor of Martha Boggs, and that web site has a very conservative clientele. This afternoon, he was dismembered by a very conservative talk show host -- http://www.987newstalk.com/Article.asp?id=2384132&spid -- who had the director of the Knox County Health Department in the studio with him. I've never heard Campfield, who is usually extremely cocky and loves any kind of publicity, so non-plussed. Not even when the story broke that his housemate/tenant was a registered child sex offender.
Brother Gast, that is why I boycotted the Acorn restaurant here in Nashville! Presumably, no Republicans or God-fearing conservatives were allowed there! The arrogance that the ACORN organization would open up a restaurant and be so open about it! But probably due to my boycott, that abominable restaurant closed it's doors! Hallelujah, Amen!!!!!
The line to get in the Bistro was out the door today. Unlike Stacey, the owner is very popular and the restaurant is located across the street from the two biggest office buildings in town, adjacent to federal court and cattycorner from the courthouse, so business is always good.
Today, it just got better. Lotta Republicans in there today, too. El Luchador went a bridge too far this time.
Ah the tolerance of the left... and gracious into the bargain.
Imagine the reaction if a Christian restaurant owner denied service to a gay rights activist.
Yeah, I know. THAT would be different...
charming.
Our family has owned a restaurant. We never refused service to anyone, even Ted Turner, though we reserved the right to refuse service. If known gang members had come in -- and possibly some did -- we might have shown them the door, just so we wouldn't become a gathering place for same and because other patrons are afraid of them.
I was composing a comment regarding the predictable hypocrisy and self-contradiction from the left, but I abandoned it. I've noted that reality so many times. As always, I observe that true conservatives are usually more "liberal" than most self-described liberals and progressives, and more "conservative" than most self-described conservatives.
I want to say one more thing about the comments Stacey made on the recent radio show. Men often look at issues from their perspective as men, without considering how those issues affect women. That may be the basis for Stacey's comments about the ease of HIV transmission in heterosexuals. It is indeed less likely a male would catch HIV from an infected female in such an instance, but more likely a female would catch it from an infected male.
Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood. - Coretta Scott King
I don't have any truck with bigots, regardless.
#Don'tFuelBigotryByToleratingIt
@AWP: Don't let 'em get you down. It's off topic but here's an entree to make you feel better.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/26/house-ju….
George W. Dumbass established this practice when he gave federal social service funds to his favorite Christian charities, his constituents. This is more bullshit from a bullshit conservative "tattler rag," feigning indignation with ominous undertones. Ooooo. It's horse shit. gast is CHOCKED FULL OF IT.
TNGA Stacey Campfield only wanted to get something to eat on "Gay Street"...
Liberals in Tennessee dislike Senator Campfield so much that they are passing up opportunities to spit into his food.
RedHatKnob - "Ah the tolerance of the left... and gracious into the bargain.
Imagine the reaction if a Christian restaurant owner denied service to a gay rights activist.
Yeah, I know. THAT would be different..."
- Yeah, when we don't tolerate bigotry - we're the intolerant ones. Not the bigots. Kudos on your reverse backflip into a tub of bullshit. Imagine the reaction if you ever pulled your head out of your own ass. How's that for gracious, buttercup?
"I want to say one more thing about the comments Stacey made on the recent radio show. Men often look at issues from their perspective as men, without considering how those issues affect women. That may be the basis for Stacey's comments about the ease of HIV transmission in heterosexuals. It is indeed less likely a male would catch HIV from an infected female in such an instance, but more likely a female would catch it from an infected male."
Donna - If I understand you correctly, men are naturally insensitive to female issues and should get a bit of a pass because it is much harder for men to contract from women than visa versa. And men being selfish, insensitive pigs should only be expected to understand as much as is immediately self concerning. A mighty poor perspective.
I think, that is selling yourself and men short. In my America, it's been a long time since most of us understood that discrimination is un-American and in-human. Unacceptable.
"I want to say one more thing about the comments Stacey made on the recent radio show. Men often look at issues from their perspective as men, without considering how those issues affect women. That may be the basis for Stacey's comments about the ease of HIV transmission in heterosexuals. It is indeed less likely a male would catch HIV from an infected female in such an instance, but more likely a female would catch it from an infected male."
Well, Duh. Stacey doesn't like women. That's not exactly hot news. It would be totally out of character for him to care whether any issue is harmful to women. The best you can say is he is indifferent. And that's not when he's being downright misogynistic.
From his own household -- a collection of odd guys renting bedrooms; to his enduring association with deadbeat dads; to his refusal to consider things like the life and health of the mother exception when talking about abortion to his utter disregard for the health of women in his HIV/AIDS pontificating, Dude just doesn't like women, that extra-young girlfriend notwithstanding. (One shudders to think about the dynamics working there)
p.s: One last thing Stacey doesn't consider when he talks about the unhealthy gay lifestyle – lesbians have far lower rates of STDs than heterosexual women, which I guess is another demonstration that it doesn't occur to him that women constitute (more than) half of the human race.
Here's a prediction: Knox County Republicans are tired of being embarrassed. He'll be primaried by someone prominent and well-funded (for a change), and he'll be one and done.
No, Smoothy, I'm saying that men often look at things from the male perspective only, and that is their immediate perspective after all. They don't necessarily mean to be insensitive. It's just the first concerns that come to mind. Not the only concerns, but the first that come to mind. All of us tend to think this way to some extent, just based on what we know from being who we are.
For intelligent people only:http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/factsheets/index.htm
As much as it pains me to say this, I'm opposed to kicking Stacey Campfield out of a restaurant.
I think Campfield is a bigot, a dangerous bigot because of the power he wields as a legislator. He is an embarrassment to Tennessee.
That said, and while I have no problem with private citizens boycotting businesses whose politics they disagree with, I think it is a dangerous precedent to encourage places of public accommodation (like restaurants) to discriminate in serving people with whom they disagree. I'm not saying what the Bistro did was illegal; I'm saying it was a bad idea. Had Ms. Boggs harangued Mr. Campfield until he left of his own accord, I would have no issue with her conduct. Kicking him out of the place was wrong, in my judgment.
Let's don't set up a situation which would enable Campfield and his ilk to stage lunch counter sit-ins in protest of their exclusion.
@Mark: lunch counter sit-ins? That is a great idea! We can even have some intrepid blogger take their pictures and find out their names and let the rest of us know the faces of bigotry, so we can boycott their businesses!
I can see your point. Perhaps they should have wasted his time and given him a table - forgetting to come by and take his order.
Or "accidentally" spill food or drink into his lap. Elmer's spit suggestion is also appropriate.
i have no problem with an establishment kicking out someone who's a trouble-maker.
now if the Bistro had kicked out Sen. Campfield just for having red hair or being a 42 year old "single" man, or for having a girl's name -- now that would be different.
Yes Donna, rationalizing Campfields behavior doesn't make you tolerant. It makes you complicit, "hypocritical and self contradictory" to borrow a phrase. Let me guess, the homosexual bigot Campfield is also anti-immigrant. So he can't be all bad, right? Do I detect a theme here?
Spitting in his food? Now that's tolerance and civility the liberal way.
Wah, wah, wah. Bigots want the right to be bigots and spew detestable bigotry and not be called out on it by the bad ol' meanie weenie liberals.
Smoothy, I happen to be a bit more detached and objective than you appear to be. I have watched you and other folks in blogdom continually twist the words and actions of people you don't agree with. I don't get the same take on what he said on the radio show, all he said. And I don't agree with all he said. I have said I oppose his and other anti-gay efforts with action. You have no idea how much, but I guarantee you it is a lot more than you have ever done, buddy. And my name is on it and has always been on it. And way before it was "cool" to do so! I don't know how much clearer that can be.
And, by the way, as far as I know, Stacey is not anti-immigrant. Neither am I, nor are most folks I know who question U.S. immigration policy and want immigration laws enforced because we are damn tired of our own interests and our children's interests being discriminated against. In fact, I talked with one of the immigrants in the immigration-control movement last night. Are you aware that immigrants, some of them former illegal aliens, are banding together in some states, such as Georgia, to push for immigration-law enforcement -- because U.S. immigration policy is harming THEIR interests now? You are aware of that, aren't you, O ye of selective perception?
Oh, go ahead and smear and twist and lie. This is your collective MO. I am used to it.
If you want an echo chamber here, so be it. Knock yourselves out. You never learn. I am totally bored with this. And one of the cows is out and lost.
in Springfield tn elected officials and police can have you banned in any business such as a restaurant bowling alley or a wal mart.if you have spoke out against a city official or a police officer dislikes you for any reason he chooses they can have you banned .some churches have banned certain people because police asked them.its nothing new here in Springfield tn its been going on for years. according to one local attorney its not a violation of any state or federal law.in other words those with the power can have anything done to a person who doesn't have any power.
Buddy... buddy? Oooo, I've hit a nerve haven't I? What could you possibly know about what I've done for gay rights? I'm not an apologist for bigots, I can guarantee that.
Oh, if only we could all be so detached and objective as to openly associate with braying jackasses like Campfield. You must feel so enlightened. You've out tolerated me in your own mind. Congratulations.
Here goes the name thing again. You use your real name. You are so much more credible than I am. Any lunatic with web access can sally right up to your door. You're so cool! The coolest! Make any excuse you like to dismiss my arguments, not knowing my name is certainly not a valid one.
My perception is selective... you hold your nose to defend a bigot like Campfield imagining that you're tolerant and MY perception is selective? It's getting pretty deep in here Donna.
So I'm a liar. Is that really necessary? What am I lying about? Expose me. Enumerate. What have I twisted? I've smeared Campfield, certainly. I've speculated about your motives in defending him. And I hit pretty close to the nail judging from your reaction. I'll rephrase, I bet he "questions our immigration policy" the same way you do. Maybe you and Stacey can draft us some of that neat Alabama alien immigrant legislation that worked out so well.
Lashing out doesn't become you Donna. You're not very good at it. Leave that to the pro's. I'm extra lashy as you know, my resume speaks for itself. My apologies for boring you. I wouldn't have guessed that you were bored by the length and tenor of your last comment. I guess I've lost a fan. I knew what we had couldn't last.
Martha's serving "Monkey Burger"for lunch today. Dinner's getting booked up fast.
Mark,
Excellent post. All people should be allowed to discriminate or no one should. Anything else ends up with government deciding who's philosophy or religion or culture is justified in its beliefs and who's isn't.
My view is that Red Hat Rob is spot on. If a restaurant owner refused service to a legislator who champions the state income tax or unrestricted immigration or who was an opponent of gun rights, Pith and most of the posters here would be screaming for punishment of the offending owner.
Smoothy,
"Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood."
You mean like the way you characterize conservative Christians?
Your response to RedHatRob is exactly wrong.
"Yeah, when we don't tolerate bigotry - we're the intolerant ones. Not the bigots."
Your position presumes that you are empowered to decide who is or isn't a bigot. Yet, as noted, your wholesale condemnation of some groups would seem to be exactly the sort of behavior you object to in others. That is more or less fine with me but it is no grounds for law. Either you protect the free speech of others, even when it means serving Stacy Campfield, or you permit others to deny service to people who's opinions offend them. You cannot have that both ways.
Also, on a slightly different note, you have no reason to be so rude to Donna and Rob. Both raised valid points. What would Mrs. King say about your behavior?
Who ever suggested that Campfield didn't have the right to say what he did? What law am I challenging? You can't get any of that from anything I've said here. How is government deciding anything about what we're talking about? You've pulled another argument out of thin air Herbert. You are great at putting words in my mouth. Top shelf.
I rub Christian conservatives faces in their hypocrisy. You've been there. I'm sure it stings. I've never even intimated that all Christians are hypocritical. I never claimed they weren't human or don't deserve the right to their own opinions, or don't deserve the right to express them in any way they please. Not once. Well I have suggested that gast is evil incarnate. You've got me there. Perhaps you can't tell when I'm being facetious. That's your problem. Not mine.
I refuse to allow Campfield and his ilk to flaunt their hypocrisy unabated. My response to RedKnobRob is exactly right. You want to equate the ignorance and intolerance of what Campfield said with my assessment of it and call me intolerant. Utter bullshit. I have every right to decide what I think is right and wrong and express that anyway I see fit. I have every right to assess his comments and characterize them any way I please. And I'll be rude to whomever I please. Who's trying to govern speech now? If this exchange is too saucy for you then go have a cup of chinaberry tea and retire the field you pompous cow. Do you think Donna and Rob are not able to defend themselves? You think you can curb me?
Campfield wants to spew ignorance and hate speech and not be called a bigot. But he doest want it both ways? I shouldn't make those kind of judgements? What should we reserve our contempt for? Ms. King may or may not approve of my rhetoric, but I am supremely confident of what she would think of Campfield's comments.
Couple of years ago Mike Chase, owner of Calhouns Restaurants in Knoxville, Gatlinburg and Nashville, lobbied against the Guns in Bars bill. Gun rights folk blew up and said they were going to organize a boycott of his establishments. It didn't work, because he does more business than most anybody (Calhouns on the River behind Neyland Stadium is one of the top sales tax revenue producers in the state), but they had a constitutionally-protected right to say how they felt and to urge others to join in.
Stacey's fans are likewise free to boycott, badmouth and shun Martha Boggs.
Turning that inside out, business owners can ban anyone they choose, as long as it's not someone who is in a protected category.
Works both ways.
The death threats Chase got were a different story.
Wondering how "Judge not lest ye be judged," fits in here. Who will be first to claim it's meant for someone else.
I have a better one, gast. "For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind."
Smoothy,
The only thing about you that stings is the sad recognition that the rest of us are of the same species. It is hard to know when you are being facetious for the simple reason that it is difficult for us to know when you are being intentionally funny and when you are being unintentionally funny and more unintentionally pathetic.
I never said that you said Campfield didn't have the right to free speech.
"I rub Christian conservatives faces in their hypocrisy."
"I've never even intimated that all Christians are hypocritical."
Not surprisingly, you misunderstand. I don't particularly care what you say or how you say it. I believe in your right to express your opinions. But I also think that Stacy Campfield and Paul Krugman and Al Sharpton have the same right to express their opinions no matter how wrong and/or hateful they may be. I strongly suspect that if you had any say in the matter, you would only allow speech that you like.
Over at Tiny Cat Pants Betsy has an excellent post on the implications of Campfield being a legislator and having the potential to pass laws she finds bigoted and harmful. That is a thoughtful differentiation worth exploring. But your hateful diatribes only add to the bigotry and the distension.
Either everyone gets to speak hatefully or no one does.
Ah, the selectiveness of outrage. Let's be a bit more inclusive, shall we? I can expect to see petitions and Katie barring the door against a lot more folks, can I not? You aren't singling out one person to, um, bully, are you? Well? Here are the aye votes that passed Sen. Campfield's "Don't Say Gay in School" bill, SB 0049, in the Tennessee Senate: Sens. Beavers, Bell, Burks, Campfield, Crowe, Gresham, Henry, Johnson, Kelsey, Ketron, McNally, Norris, Roberts, Southerland, Summerville, Tracy, Watson, Yager, Ramsey.
You'll also be including the sponsors of the "License to Bully" bills, I assume?
And I'm sure you won't leave out Stomper Floyd and the anti-gay book author state Rep. Sheila Butt? Ah yes, Sheila Butt, who is way beyond Stacey on this issue. Her message, to children yet, is Don't BE Gay. Oh, I had so much "help" here in Maury County while trying to keep Sheila out of the legislature. Not! I asked several gay-rights activists, local and elsewhere, to write letters to the local newspaper before the election and inform the public, because the newspaper never mentioned Sheila's anti-gay book or her views on this issue. I was banned from that newspaper over this very issue, gay equality, and because of my political activity ("Run an ad, Donna."), but others could have gotten in. I offered to help write the letters and guest columns. No one tried, that I know of. "Well, Donna, if we say anything, that might help her get elected." We see where that strategy got us: In the primary, Sheila defeated a moderate (on this issue) Republican I voted for and who could have used more help, and then Sheila went on to beat the Democratic incumbent -- I just didn't vote in that race in the general.
Most folks in Maury went to the polls not knowing Sheila had written any book, much less an anti-gay book. The newspaper here is very selective with what it reveals about political candidates, but silence from others helped put Sheila into the legislature.
As for Stacey, I can say with some certainty what my sister would do if she were here. She would ask him to play tennis. The one thing she would not be doing is standing in the door of our family's restaurant with a verbal ax handle.
"I strongly suspect that if you had any say in the matter, you would only allow speech that you like."
Supposition. Fabrication. I have never, here or anywhere else, suggested that anyone doesn't have a right to speak. It is your FANTASY to imagine that I'm against free speech rights. Someone PLEASE argue with Herbert about free speech SO HE'LL GET OFF MY SACK!
There are hundreds of my comments for you to sift through and prove to the world that I'm in favor of suppressing speech. Do it. Please do it. Enumerate. Lets go. You have nothing. What else will you accuse me of without a stitch of evidence? Who is pathetic? Or is it just your arguments that are pathetic?
You question why I'm rude to Donna and Rob - but you don't particularly care what I say or how I say it. Which is it Mark? How am I misunderstanding you?
- I love that Stacey Campfield is stupid enough to go on a radio broadcast and prove to the world, beyond a shadow of a doubt his ignorance and bigotry. LOVE IT. I hope every voter in the nation gets the opportunity to hear him - not quoted but in his own words - word for word. I hope they play it on a loop nonstop between now and election day. I don't know how to be any clearer about my conviction that anyone's right to free speech should not be impugned. -
I'm not sure how you'll intentionally misunderstand what I'm saying, but I'm sure you'll work diligently at it. You are disingenuous councilor. You know your accusation is spurious or you'd be hammering me with facts. You are an empty bag, a peddler of fertilizer.
PS - "But your hateful diatribes only add to the bigotry and the distension."
I didn't know my diatribes cause you distension. How wonderful. If I keep it up maybe you'll burst.
Smoothy,
You can promise to promote free speech all you like and still the venom you express towards those who disagree with you makes me confident that if you had your way, Donna, Gast and I, to name a few, would be on our way to a 'resettlement camp' out West with an orchestra and the finest shower facilities available.
I don't care about your opinions but I do care about your rudeness. Other posters here like Chris Allen can be far more effective with their arguments because of the tenor of their remarks while all you achieve is driving people farther apart.
I do not misunderstand or misrepresent you. You are the sort of skulking little nobody that Stalin could rely on to betray anyone in order to make yourself feel important and better than your peers.
I misspelled dissension. I probably dangled a participle too. Now why don't you make like a bad little infinitive and split?
I'm glad you're confident about me Mark. I am confident about you too. You are delusional. Quite a trick defending Stacey Campfield and accusing me of being a Nazi in the same breath. Just another day at the office for a lawyer right? You can't refute me so just make up paper tigers to combat. You're doing great!
If I lose credibility because of my "rudeness" that should work in your favor. So, what are you complaining about? You haven't said one word about being put off by Stacey Campfield, but I'm too rude for you. You are brimming with manure and methane.
If I'm a sulking little nobody, you are a bloated, pompous, boot-licking jackass. I've reduced you to manufacturing accusations from the ether. You don't even deny it. I'm embarrassed for you, watching you cling to these fantasies, but I understand they're all you have left. Your last desperate little tool of malice.
I'm not going away even if it's your most fervent wish. Here you are, THE Mark Herbert Rogers, champion of logic and reason, trying to suppress my speech in this forum while accusing me of censorship. You should look up the words irony and hypocrisy. Commit those definitions to memory.
I will continue to express myself freely in this forum and as nastily as I please. You are more than welcome to censor yourself and not read me. You're an empty bag and a hypocrite. Go back to ignoring me, it is your last and only hope here.
Calling me intolerant for calling Stacey Campfield a bigot is the intellectual equivalent of "I'm rubber, you're glue. Everything bounces off me and sticks to you." Well done councilor. You've raised the level of debate here to about the third grade. Or should I invite you not to post at all, you know tit-for-tat?
In the interest of dispelling any naivete about the workings of our state government: No bill gets passed or killed in the state Senate unless your lieutenant governor and Senate speaker Ron Ramsey okays it or unless the governor's people override any objections Ramsey has. As I mentioned above, the Senate passed the "Don't Say Gay in School" bill, last year with Ramsey's vote.
So, when you slam some door in the lieutenant governor's face and/or kick him out of some restaurant, put it on the news and let us all know, because I'll be interested to see that. Since y'all are truly serious about this. Well, aren't you?
I'll say one more thing about state bills. Many, even most, of them are bought and paid for, and many, even most, are campaign donors' and/or political supporters' and/or constituents' ideas.
