Speaking with CNA on Wednesday, Leatherby explained his support for Proposition 8, saying he disagreed with characterizations of same-sex marriage as a civil rights issue.

“I have men’s and women’s restrooms in my establishment. Is that discrimination? No. Why? Because men and women are different!

“They’re equal in dignity but they’re different. A relationship between a man and a woman is different than a man and a man or a woman and a woman, hands down,” especially when children are considered.

“Most of them associate me and my family with hateful, spiteful people that would drag homosexuals out into the street and beat them up.

“It’s amazing. Because of the lies that are told about this, about how supporters are hateful, so many people have bought into that!”

“A majority of Californians are not hateful people. It’s a lie to say that.

“They don’t hate gay people, they support marriage.

“You can’t hold those beliefs any longer unless you’re considered hateful?” Leatherby asked.

“Is Mother Teresa a hateful person? She has the same beliefs I do.

“One of the first houses she opened in San Francisco was an AIDS house for gay men. Some of the first people she reached out to were gay men,” Leatherby noted.

Not all the interactions with critics have been negative.

Leatherby recounted his meeting with a 70-year-old man who was critical of his support for Proposition 8.

“After talking with him, I said I used to work at a certain house for gay men dying of AIDS.

“He broke down in tears and said, ‘one of my partners died there’.”

Leatherby offered to buy him lunch, where he learned that the man had grown up in a Catholic orphanage.

“The man said ‘the Catholic church had done more for me than anyone else in my life.’

“He said he had been abused before he entered the orphanage, and said he wouldn’t have been gay if he had had a strong man in his life.”

He recounted how one man had told a television station he had voted for Proposition 8 after noticing the difference between the two sides and the different examples of their advocates.

Those who would march around with angry signs in front of a good business like this ought to have their heads examined. I’m glad to see it hasn’t hurt them.

–Leslieh

If people think it’s okay to vote against equal rights for others, then that speaks volumes for who they are.

I could be wrong, but that $20K could have been put to use for much more urgent and important causes, say feeding the poor, helping homeless children find a home, funding programs to help struggling families survive…just to name a few.

When I do visit Sacramento Leatherby’s will not be one of the places I spend my out of town dollars.

My kids enjoy ice cream, and while overpriced, Leatherby’s ice cream was a nice treat. This family, however, will be avoiding Leatherby’s LONG after the roadtrips from Simi Valley slow down.

The “anti-blacklist” is great, but those 52% who voted for Prop 8 should remember that just about half the state voted against it. Feel free to spend your efforts propping up businesses who were “on your side” this time around, but realize that unless you are in for a war of contrition with your ice cream-buying dollars (and gas dollars to travel to Leatherbys), the long term outlook is not good for Leatherbys.

While “anti-blacklists” are effective for a day or two, long-term boycotts over time have a far greater effect. It’s a lot easier for me to NOT go to Leatherbys than it is for my neighbor to make a special trip there AND spend his money on their (nice but expensive) ice cream.

“Humiliating defeat” … quite the overstatement!