I am astonished to find that there is not yet a thread in this forum on the brouhaha over Chick-fil-A. A useful place to start in considering opinions on the issue is this piece in Forbes by Derek Broes (August 1, 2012). Broes presents the issue thus:
No; not right. Bloes attempts to burke the real cause of outcry against Dan Cathy and Chick-fil-A, namely the millions of dollars of the company's profits that go into the effort to shape public policy and law to conform to his conservative-Christian views. Here is an excerpt from a piece that appeared in Media Matters more than a year ago:
In case you missed it, about a week ago Dan Cathy, the president of the very popular fast food chain, said, We are very much supportive of the family the biblical definition of the family unit. That comment started a firestorm.
The LBGT community began to try to convince people to boycott Chick-fil-A regardless of the fact that the popular chain doesnt discriminate against gays as employees or patrons. That doesnt seem to matter in this case. It appears as though they just want to punish someone for his protected free speech.
So shame on those intolerant LGBT types and their sympathizers for seeking to punish, by economic means, the president of a restaurant chain for merely declaring his personal opposition to gay marriage--right?The LBGT community began to try to convince people to boycott Chick-fil-A regardless of the fact that the popular chain doesnt discriminate against gays as employees or patrons. That doesnt seem to matter in this case. It appears as though they just want to punish someone for his protected free speech.
No; not right. Bloes attempts to burke the real cause of outcry against Dan Cathy and Chick-fil-A, namely the millions of dollars of the company's profits that go into the effort to shape public policy and law to conform to his conservative-Christian views. Here is an excerpt from a piece that appeared in Media Matters more than a year ago:
Although Cathy has unequivocally denied being anti-LGBT and claimed that he and the company have "no agenda against anyone" and "will not champion any political agendas on marriage and family," Equality Matters research proves just the opposite. In fact, the company has strong, deep ties to anti-gay organizations like Focus on the Family and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and its charitable division has provided more than $1.1 million to organizations that deliver anti-LGBT messages and promote egregious practices like reparative therapy that seek to "free" people of being gay.
A blog post by Wayne Self presents, it seems to me, a particular incisive summation of the issues. Here is an excerpt (though I recommend reading the whole piece, which is not very long):
- In 29 states in America today, my partner of 18 years, Cody, or I could be fired for being gay. Period. No questions asked. One of those states is Louisiana, our home state. We live in self-imposed exile from beloved homeland, family, and friends, in part, because of this legal restriction on our ability to live our lives together.
- In 75 countries in the world, being gay is illegal. In many, the penalty is life in prison. These are countries we cant openly visit. In 9 countries, being gay is punishable by death. In many others, violence against gays is tacitly accepted by the authorities. These are countries where we would be killed. Killed.
- Two organizations that work very hard to maintain this status quo and roll back any protections that we may have are the Family Research Council and the Marriage & Family Foundation. For example, the Family Research council leadership has officially stated that same-gender-loving behavior should be criminalized in this country. They draw their pay, in part, from the donations of companies like Chick-Fil-A. Both groups have also done missionary work abroad that served to strengthen and promote criminalization of same-sex relations.
- Chick-Fil-A has given roughly $5M to these organizations to support their work.
- Chick-Fil-As money comes from the profits they make when you purchase their products.
An even simpler statement of this argument, in graphic form, can be found in this piece at the Miami Herald.- In 75 countries in the world, being gay is illegal. In many, the penalty is life in prison. These are countries we cant openly visit. In 9 countries, being gay is punishable by death. In many others, violence against gays is tacitly accepted by the authorities. These are countries where we would be killed. Killed.
- Two organizations that work very hard to maintain this status quo and roll back any protections that we may have are the Family Research Council and the Marriage & Family Foundation. For example, the Family Research council leadership has officially stated that same-gender-loving behavior should be criminalized in this country. They draw their pay, in part, from the donations of companies like Chick-Fil-A. Both groups have also done missionary work abroad that served to strengthen and promote criminalization of same-sex relations.
- Chick-Fil-A has given roughly $5M to these organizations to support their work.
- Chick-Fil-As money comes from the profits they make when you purchase their products.