Boycott Chick-fil-A: "Guilty as charged"

As a vegetarian, I have no trouble avoiding Chick-fil-A. Around here, they get a lot of respect as a company that hires "nice Christian youths" to work in their restaurants. These kids are well-known for their uber-politeness and lack of tattoos. Chick-fil-A is also one of the only companies that actually refuses money and closes on the Sabbath. In addition, they help with school fund-raising and appear to be civic-minded.

These factors cause the local religious folks to respect them and consider them "serious" Christians, well worth patronizing.

I have just read Monica's blog, about Dan Cathy, Chick-fil-A president (photo at left), and his proud anti-gay crap. What particularly gripes me is the specific wording of his crap.

From the Baptist Press (and where did you expect it to come from?):

CARY, N.C. (BP) -- Dan Cathy oversees one of the country's most successful businesses. As president and chief operating officer of Chick-fil-A, Cathy leads a business with 1,608 restaurants that had sales of more than $4 billion dollars last year. They sell chicken and train employees to focus on values rooted in the Bible.

His father, S. Truett Cathy started the business in 1946, when he and his brother, Ben, opened an Atlanta diner known as The Dwarf Grill (later renamed The Dwarf House). In 1967, his father opened the first Chick-fil-A restaurant in Atlanta. Today, Chick-fil-A is the second largest quick-service chicken restaurant chain in the United States based on annual system-wide sales.

Dan Cathy's success has not erased the biblical values he learned as a child in a Baptist church. He is a warm, common man who is deeply committed to being a faithful Christian witness. And he is fully involved in New Hope Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Ga. He drives Chick-fil-A's efforts to provide genuine hospitality, ensuring that customers have an exceptional dining experience in a Chick-fil-A restaurant. Based on Matthew 5:41, Cathy is on a mission to provide customers with "second-mile" service -- exceeding even the highest expectations of a typical fast-food restaurant.

...

Some have opposed the company's support of the traditional family. "Well, guilty as charged," said Cathy when asked about the company's position.

"We are very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.

"We operate as a family business ... our restaurants are typically led by families; some are single. We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen families. We are very much committed to that," Cathy emphasized.

These comments have sparked a national controversy, of course, which has now spilled over into the Huffington Post and elsewhere.

Here is what pisses me off: Do they think gay people sprang from the forehead of Zeus or what?

GLBT people came from, you know, FAMILIES, like everyone else. The major implications of his bigoted remarks: gays are not part of their families-of-origin (I guess it's understood that their nice Christian parents all decided to throw them out?)... as well as denying the existence of families of GLBT people who are now grown and themselves parents. POOF, erased, in one fell swoop.

To Dan Cathy, these families simply DO NOT EXIST. In fact, GLBT people in traditional families, apparently do not exist either. Where does Cathy think they all came from, in that case?

The ignorance, it burns.

Boycott Chick-fil-A! I know, easy for me to say... however, I do like those fries as much as the next person. But I think I can do without. Fries are easy to come by. I hope the rest of you will consider the fact that a chicken sandwich is easy to obtain in a thousand other venues.

Go there instead.