Lets not go neck deep into the assumption pool. I never made one comment about blame for Maccondo. I know what caused it, and I know what it caused.

Idealists and activists go hand in hand but are not always understanding of the impact of what they do. Your ideals are hurting the people in your community, not BP. While I am sure it is unintentional your hurting the working man and not the Corporation.

In 2008 BP began the exit of the outright ownership of BP gas stations, at that time it owned maybe 100 of the 1000 BP gas stations in operation. Meaning that BP gas station you drive by is owned by a small business man in your community... ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips did the same thing. When you boycott a gas station in your city you are doing absolutely nothing to BP, you are however doing a grave injustice to the John Smith that owns that convince store/gas station and is trying to make a living providing a service and a product to your community.

Are you avoiding BP gasoline by avoiding BP gas stations? Nope. Distributors buy gasoline from wholesale refiners that refine oil from many different suppliers and sell it to many different distributors. Meaning you have as much of a chance of buying gasoline refined from BP oil at a Valero as you do a BP gas station.

You see, oil is oil and it all goes to the same refineries. At those refineries it is processed into different grades of gasoline and diesel. From there it goes to distribution companies where additives are added and then it is sold to retail gas stations.

So when you see... never mind I will make it easy. Can you name 151 different gasoline brands?
Category:Oil companies of the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ironic isn't it that you try to hurt thousands in your community for the transgressions of a select group of no more than seven people that endangered the lively hood of hundreds of thousands and drive past a BP station burning gas that has been refined from BP oil. BTW, that very small select group of engineers and middle management level employees did what they did with out the knowledge of upper level executives.

And here we are nearly 3 years after Maccondo, I am telling you this not because it has any effect on me what so ever, but because the business owners in your community that support it do not deserve to be persecuted for something they had nothing to do with. You may want to give the owners of those CFA's a break also, those restaurants are not owned by CFA, they are franchises owned by people that live in your community that woke up shocked by the same press release you did, and CFA isn't hurt by your drive by.

um, 36 states, the Federal government (DOMA), Chick-fil-a, Urban Oufitters, Putin, Ahmadinejad, the Boy Scouts, and high school jocks everywhere

Do you seriously believe you are more persecuted for your beliefs than a gay person is for their lifestyle?

and by 'anymore', do you mean that the persecution should continue?

but what they are, is discriminated against, just like the black community you mention

Scott, are you certain you know what discrimination is? Let me use an analogy. I know from arguments on the political forum that you are a liberal, and you may remember that I am a conservative. In other words, we disagree with each other's beliefs. Are we discriminating against each other, then?

There are no companies or restaurants who are shutting their doors to gays. They simply do not support the gay rights movement as many of them are christian organizations, as Sapper has pointed out. There is no comparison between that and someone burning down your house because they "don't like your kind". No what I mean?

You patronize the businesses you want, and I'll do the same. I'm thinking that is granted to us somewhere in the constitution.

All those groups and/or states that you just mentioned have taken personal stance, just as I do, and that is in no way persecuting them. They are not being denied service at chik-fil-a or any other place. And 36 states that oppose gay marriage are trying to protect something that used to be sacred and not intended for same sex relationships.

state and federal governments do not take personal stances

The whole reason for marriage comes from the Bible. So if you're a non believer and you want to, in essence, give the word of God the middle finger, then you have no reason to be married. Just live together, and do whatever it is you want to do.

In the bible many men (Esau, Gideon, etc) had multiple wives. Were these bonds also sacred?
And what of the cultures that did not have access to a bible until the Romans showed up or a thousand years later, the missionaries? These ancient cultures had marriages, ceremonies, titles...Were they not married?

Now as far as foreign countries, don't even bother going there. Christians, females (regardless of beliefs) gays , jews, all get murdered all the time. You're talking about brutal dictatorships. Let's not compare them to our country. You're embarrassing yourself with that one.

I am embarrassing myself? You proved my point

And as for your question, I don't consider myself persecuted. I used the word pressure. People like me can get fired from our jobs for saying something as simple as "I think homosexuality is wrong" out loud where someone who disagrees with me might complain. But if that same person were to call me a bigot for my beliefs, nothing would happen to that person. Because heaven forbid we upset a homosexual and have it blow up all over the news about how "intolerent" this person's boss is. It blows up just that quick, and you see it on tv just about every day now.

And why did I say "anymore"? I can't believe I have to explain this, but I'll humor you. Because whereas this country used to take a moral stand (and yes, there was also a greater number of radicals who hated gays rather than simply disagreeing with them) it now praises people for their "courage" and practically forces others to do the same. So there really isn't persecution "anymore". You may have a few isolated incidents, but for every issue involving a gay person there is one for every other person or culture nowadays.

All people care about is if the guy can play football.