let's all calm down re Chick-Fil-A
Posted on 2012-07-22 12:51:00
Tags: essay gay politics
Words: 175

Apparently people are surprised that Chick-Fil-A is against same-sex marriage. First of all, I don't know why this is such a surprise - it's pretty obvious the founder of Chick-Fil-A was Christian, and he certainly passed that down to the restaurants (closed on Sunday, etc.), and sadly these days that's enough to pretty much assume they're against same-sex marriage.

But I don't think you have a moral duty to boycott Chick-Fil-A (or, say, prevent them from opening in Boston). If you want to boycott Chick-Fil-A, or it makes you uncomfortable to eat there, then sure, go ahead. But it's not like Chick-Fil-A is the Westboro Baptist Church. And I guess I have an allergic reaction to overly politicizing everyday life. Society is polarized enough already - I don't want to live in a world where Republicans and Democrats can't even eat at the same restaurants based on their political affiliations!

A reasonable middle ground - eat at Chick-Fil-A, and donate money to the Human Rights Campaign to offset whatever small percentage of your money goes to anti-gay organizations.

3 comments

Comment from flamingophoenix:
2012-07-22T15:19:19+00:00
I think that's a great solution!

My general outlook is that I'm inclined away from CFA, but I don't intentionally boycott it.

Comment from alteredhistory:
2012-07-23T08:51:04+00:00
Unless something has changed in the last few years, Chick-Fil-A are worth boycotting. The last time I dug into this, they were a very strong supporter of the Chick Tracts, which is a very intolerant and proactively lobbying group of extraordinarily offensive material. http://www.chick.com/default.asp I spent a few minutes just now trying to validate this accusation of mine... I could not find any citations of a relationship between them on Google. The relationship is one that I was told about in college, and Chick Tracts was such an evil organization on campus that I'm more than happy to boycott them for that relationship.

Comment from alteredhistory:
2012-08-01T15:27:41+00:00
If Chick-Fil-A is going to make money by opposing gay marriage, I think that legitimizes boycotting them for the same:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/chick-fil-supporters-gather-appreciation-day/story?id=16904664

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