Kissing is one of my favorite things ever. A good make out session can make me feel like a giggly teenager, with butterflies in my stomach and a smile on my face for the rest of the day. Kissing can have lots of positive effects, but I hadn’t ever thought of using kissing as a form of protest. Sure, I’ve heard of sit-ins, but a kiss-in?
My friend Kelli sent me a link to an article about people participating in same sex kiss-ins to protest Chick-Fil-A. Chick-Fil-A has been in the news quite a bit lately, primarily for their president’s anti-same-sex marriage comments and funding of groups with similar agendas. In the past, I was aware that many people were avoiding eating at Chick-Fil-A due to their supporting of homophobic groups.
As the article mentions, a few weeks ago there was a Chick-Fil-A “appreciation day” where people aimed to eat there that day (my Facebook feed was full of photos of Sarah Palin mugging happily with a bag of food).
Avoiding the food wasn’t making enough of an impact. People wanted to get their message heard, and chose kissing as their avenue. I figure, why not? Kissing is fun, feels good, and they are able to hopefully get their message across loud and clear.
It seemed like just as quickly as I heard about appreciation day, I heard about many friends organizing kiss-ins of their own. I had four separate friends in different cities set up Facebook events to host kiss-ins in front of their local Chick-Fil-A. The plan has been for same sex individuals to kiss in front of any Chick-Fil-A that they can find.
My friend Jill posted an event on Facebook to host a kiss-in and invited females to join her there to kiss. While a few females did show up, she got plenty of messages from males looking to make out with her.
I like the idea of sit-ins and kiss-ins. I prefer non-violent means of protest, and I do think that in many cases sit-ins can be productive and lead to compromise. With that said, I don’t think kiss-ins will work for everything and they may not change the world (but you never know!) Everyone can use a bit more kissing in their lives, so why not give it a shot?
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