Holly Fisher is no stranger to people disagreeing with her political
beliefs. But the West Virginia mother has recently been receiving death
threats, some that have extended beyond her to her children.
It all started with this photo, which earned her the nickname “Hobby Lobby Holly.”
Fisher told TheBlaze in their town, the Chick-fil-A and the Hobby
Lobby are next to each other. On the day of the Supreme Court’s decision to allow small companies with religious objections
to decide not to provide certain kinds of birth control as part of
their insurance, Fisher was wearing a “pro-life” shirt and she and her
husband went to the fast-food chain, whose leadership has taken a stance against gay marriage.
“My husband looked at me and said, ‘you look total right winger right now,’” Fisher said.
That’s when Fisher, who had already amassed about 20,000 followers on Twitter for her political views since
the 2012 presidential election, convinced her husband, a member of the
U.S. military who served in Afghanistan, to take a photo of her outside
the Hobby Lobby, holding her Chick-fil-A cup and sporting the “pro-life”
shirt.
Fisher said she knew upon posting the photo that reactions would be a
mixed bag based on people’s political views, but she never expected
what happened next.
“One of first responses I got was from a guy who that said that he
wanted to shove the Chick-fil-A cup down my throat,” she said.
And that was one of the mild reactions.
Some supported Fisher but pointed out that all she was missing in the photo was the American flag, a Bible and a gun.
So on the Fourth of July, Fisher snapped a picture with all those
elements, which she said ended up causing even more of a ruckus than the
first.
Biggest complaint I'm getting about my #HobbyLobby pic is there's no gun, bible, or flag. Tried to make up for it
“I know the picture is kind of ridiculous. It was kind of a joke for
those people saying I was missing the bible and the gun, but it was also
a kind of a ‘just deal with it — these are my beliefs. You’re not going
to bring me down; you’re not going to silence me,’” Fisher said.
This photo was compared by some to an image of Reem Riyashi, an
extremist mother from Gaza who killed four people with a suicide bomb a
decade ago.
“It was Independence Day. I was standing in front of flag, which
represents our freedom, holding my First and Second Amendment rights in
my hands and people are comparing me to a woman who wants to kill
everyone in our country and what it stands for?” Fisher said.
“This week I have realized why our Constitution was written, why our
founders would write this out. It’s like they knew this would happen.
These are the people the Constitution was written for,” Fisher said of
the those attacking her viewpoints and those trying to take away what
she believes are protections made in the Constitution.
For sharing her recent beliefs, which earned her another 16,000 or so
followers on Twitter, Fisher has been blasted not only on the
micro-blogging site but on liberal blogs in a way that she said she hasn’t seen before.
“It’s just been so vile and shocking I can’t even describe,” she said.
One person said he wished she would come down to Florida to be stoned, “you know, for religious fundamentalism.”
And it’s not the only death threat she’s received.
“The exact words were: I hope your murderer husband gets murdered. I
hope your children shoot themselves, and I hope you get killed you
dangerous c***,” Fisher read.
And she doesn’t think if the tables were turned that conservative equivalents would react the same way.
“We’ve seen the women walking around in the vagina costumes, these
outrageous get ups. Code Pink then goes and screams at people…that’s
always the left. We kind of expect that,” Fisher said. “I don’t see my
friends going to those people and saying you’re fat, ugly. I’ve been
called the c-word, the b-word. I don’t see conservative news sites
personally attacking and twisting someone’s views to make them seem as
crazy as possible.”
“I think they’re scared,” she added later as to why there’s such a
backlash to her opinions. “I think they’re afraid that conservatives are
going to gain some ground back.”
Though the harsh words of many have not gotten to her, Fisher said
she does get upset when people say her husband is a murderer and make
personal threats to her children.
Some, she said, have also dredged up her past posts and are spinning them into lies, specifically details about her family losing health coverage they had for a cardiologist for their 10-month-old daughter who had a condition after their plan changed when the Affordable Care Act was enacted.
Even when she was posting about her family’s trials in June, she said
people messaged her saying they hoped her daughter would die “because
that’s one less conservative underling that the world can worry about.”
In light of her more recent posts, Fisher said she’s glad most of the focus is back on her.
Overall, Fisher, who is involved in local politics —
behind-the-scenes stuff like encouraging people to get out and vote, she
said — doesn’t expect everyone to agree with her, she only hopes that
they might seek out the whole story.
Though there have been times when she admits she wants to “crawl
under my bed … at same time I feel like people are counting on me to be
this voice.”
And she intends to continue putting her thoughts out there.
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