Fuck. The "Christian" terrorists have won this one.
striking until it's confirmed
While I understand the desire to not make waves, excessive deference to the dominant culture has (I think) a greater deleterious effect than open conflict. Such deference reinforces the idea that a given non-dominant-culture group must defer to the dominant culture even when the dominant culture's values and sentiment diverges from the law....and that is a very bad idea.
Damn, Matt, I love your spicy brains. Keith O pointed out that they have more to fear from us, than us from them. There's this recurring theme where when a certain segment of the US white Christian population* encounters anything out of their experience, they experience it as having that thing "shoved in their face." I don't they are self-aware enough to realize that racial, cultural, religious, and sexual minorities have the dominant culture shoved in their face every damn day, and they are (in some cases literally) dying for safe spaces and a little leeway to express themselves and be who they are.
I know that I both chose to live in other countries and am extraordinarily priviliged to have been able to do so, but I wish every American could have that experience, be able to see their country and culture from the outside, let go of the poison of American essentialism and xenophobia.
* Please note my care in not tarring all whites and/or all Christians with the same brush, and I am certainly not referring to Buffistas here.