The row between Chick-fil-A and human and gay rights activists and supports seems no signs of slowing down, in fact it is all set to increase to near epic proportions! Wednesday 1st August was an ’appreciation’ day orchestrated mainly by Mike Huckabee and the homophobic Christian movement, which saw many turning out in force to support the anti-gay chain and its chief executive Dan Cathy.
But why? Well, Cathy has not been shy and retiring when it comes to his views on same sex marriage, in fact he has been rather vocal about the whole thing saying, ‘if you support gay marriage, you "are inviting God's judgment on our nation," and that we "shake our fist at Him" when we do. That’s not all, he also said same-sex marriage is the result of a "deprived" mind and called it "twisted up kind of stuff.”
As you can imagine this angered rather a lot of people, including some staff members, it also got the gay rights activists a little hot under the collar. Various protests were started, including a general call to boycott the chain of restaurants and stalls throughout the country. It was having some success, especially within the gay community and those that support human rights and equality, but it wasn’t on the scale things have escalated to now.
Mainstream media caught on to the furore though and things took a different turn, more people became aware of the situation, of what the company stood for and where it spent its money. Cathy refused to apologise, sticking by his words and others in a similar vain. The company didn’t try and distance itself from the bad publicity coming its way or the comments themselves. Some famous faces spoke out in favour of the gay hating Christian company, former pop star Aaron Carter told twitter followers he was enjoying his Chick-fil-a food, Rick Santorum recently live tweeted during a Chick-fil-A visit and the former darling of the Tea / Republican Party Sarah Palin was photographed last weekend with a bag of chikin and also publicly expressed her support for chain.
Chicago's mayor Rahm Emanuel, Boston's mayor Thomas Menino and a handful of other mayors are threatening to ban Chick-fil-A from their cities because of anti-gay marriage remarks proffered by Cathy. Many other institutions like universities are questioning themselves over having Chick-fil-A outlets on their campuses or property. The Jim Henson Company used to provide their toys have severed ties with the chicken purveyors over the issue.
Then Mike Huckerbee started spouting off and the day of support or appreciation was born, he said he “has been incensed at the vitriolic assaults on the Chick Fil-A company because the CEO, Dan Cathy, made comments recently in which he affirmed his view that the Biblical view of marriage should be upheld."
However its not just the anti-marriage equality stand that is the key issue here that is upsetting a lot of people. It’s the whole anti-gay philosophy of the company, for example, did you know for example that Chick-fil-A has donated at least $5 million to organizations and recognised hate groups that call gay people as paedophiles, that want to make "gay behavior" illegal and think gay people should be "exported" out of America?
Chick-fil-A supports organisations that claimed they can change gay people into straight people through things like "pray away the gay" and conversion therapies and intense counselling. Despite the fact that almost every recognised psychological in the world denounce such therapies as impossible, dangerous, damaging and potentially fatal.
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The Christian and right wing media often say Chick-fil-A has never discriminated, yet that’s not quite true. Chick-fil-A has been sued over a dozen times for employment discrimination. Forbes magazine stated in 2007 that Chick-fil-A was more like a "cult" . Saying its founder, Truett Cathy only wanted to hire married people and would probably fire someone who "has been sinful or done something harmful to their family members."
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The Christian and right wing media often say Chick-fil-A has never discriminated, yet that’s not quite true. Chick-fil-A has been sued over a dozen times for employment discrimination. Forbes magazine stated in 2007 that Chick-fil-A was more like a "cult" . Saying its founder, Truett Cathy only wanted to hire married people and would probably fire someone who "has been sinful or done something harmful to their family members."
Even if you don’t support marriage equality can all that be fair?
Many current staff members, who are forbidden to talk to the press, claim that have seen or heard homophobic language, behaviour or discrimination. Some are calling the Wednesday protest ‘Hater Appreciation Day” as some customers are telling them that they are supporting the company only because the company hates gays!
The row is not over, not by a long way, this Friday a counter demonstration is planned byGLAAD, which will see same sex couples turning up at the artery clogging fast food chain for a mass public show of affection - hugging and kissing in other words. One can only wonder at how this will go down with the management or where the row will lead next.
One thing is for sure, it’s not about the intensively farmed chicken anymore! Just ask John Goodman!
This article by Jason Shaw, first published as It's Not About The Chicken - The Chick-fil-A Controversy! on Technorati.
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