Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Government officials threatening to ban Chick-fil-A aren't liberals...they're idiots

When it comes to gay rights and Chick-fill-A, there are a couple of things that are really important. Does the national chain of chicken restaurants serve gay customers and treat them equally as it does heterosexual customers? Does it discriminate against gay men or women seeking to work there. If so, Chick-fil-A would be not just acting immorally but violating the law (in most places, anyway) and there should be serious repercussions.

To my knowledge, Chick-fil-A is not accused of those things. It's in the news because its fundamentalist Christian president Dan Cathy said this:

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

"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.
 
"We intend to stay the course. We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles."

So...the president of Chick-fil-A doesn't support gay marriage? Neither does Hillary Clinton, at least not publicly. And until a few months ago, neither did President Obama. I strongly disagree with Cathy's views on same-sex marriage, but I support his right to speak freely, just as I support anyone exercising their own right of free speech by a) criticizing Cathy and b) not eating at Chick-fil-A (Hint: The "Southern-style" chicken sandwich at McDonald's is EXACTLY THE SAME THING...just sayin').

But there are some idiots -- actually, government officials (often synonymous) -- who can't leave things at that. They include the Democratic mayors of three major U.S. cities -- Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco -- and a Chicago alderman, who've threatened to take various kinds of government actions against Chick-fil-A -- such as denying permits -- because of its owners' viewpoints. That's a textbook violation of the First Amendment. As the ACLU and some of the better progressive writers around have noted, such threats are not liberalism. They are a gross disservice to the real and important fight for gay riights. And they smack of totalitarianism. Theys need to stop -- immediately