More than gay marriage driving Chick-fil-A flap
ATLANTA (AP) - When President Barack Obama said same-sex couples should have the right to marry, it was national news for a few days before the presidential campaign and the country went back to business as usual.
Yet weeks after a fast-food executive doubled down on his opposition to gay marriage, debate rages on about equality, religious values and free speech. "Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day" on Wednesday, with supporters flooding the chain's franchises around the country, was countered with "kiss-ins" by same-sex couples at assorted locations Friday, long after Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy's initial comments to a religious publication touched off the clash.
That's an unusual amount of staying power for what initially looked like just another skirmish over a hot-button question.
Coursing throughout the conversations on social media, in letters to the editor and in long lines to buy chicken sandwiches is the sense among proud Southerners that the outcry over Cathy's comments smacks of regional stereotyping. When public officials in Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago tell a Southern icon such as Chick-fil-A that it's no longer welcome, and that Cathy should keep his opinions to himself, many in the Atlanta-based chain's home region hear more than a little northern condescension.
"Maybe the reaction is just because we're Southerners," said Rose Mason, who was lunching Friday at a Chick-fil-A in suburban Atlanta.
Mason, who described herself as Christian, said she grew up in New York City. Now, she said, "I deal with my sister telling me we're a little backward. People have this idea that we're just behind on everything. So they view anything we say through that (perception)."
Cathy, a devout Southern Baptist whose family has always been outspoken about its faith, sparked the controversy by telling the Baptist Press that he and his family-owned restaurant chain are "guilty as charged" for openly - and financially - supporting groups that advocate for "the biblical definition of a family unit." He later added that the United States is "inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, 'We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage."
For Marci Alt, organizer of a protest Friday at a Chick-fil-A in the relatively liberal Atlanta suburb of Decatur, it's Cathy's financial backing of conservative groups such as the Family Research Council that takes the conversation beyond merely what he said.
"Dan Cathy has the same First Amendment rights that I do. If he doesn't want to agree with same-sex marriage, I understand that," she said.
"But when he puts a pen to paper and writes a check to an organization that is about to squash my equal rights, I have a problem with that."
Cathy's comments were in keeping with the tradition established by his father, Truett Cathy, who started the chain in 1967 and never allowed franchises to open on Sundays.
Beyond Friday's organized displays of affection, there were other signs that the furor still had legs. Police were investigating graffiti on the side of a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Torrance, Calif., that read "Tastes like hate" and had a painting of a cow, in reference to the chain's ubiquitous ads featuring cows encouraging people to eat poultry.
In Tucson, Ariz., an executive at a medical manufacturing company lost his job after filming himself verbally attacking a Chick-fil-A employee and posting the video online.
For William Klaus, a 26-year-old X-ray technician with traditional views on marriage, the debate starts at ends with Cathy's liberty to voice his beliefs.
"He said what he said. Freedom of speech. Bottom line," Klaus said at a Chick-fil-A in Jackson, Miss.
However, that goes for Cathy's critics, too, said Klaus, adding that he stopped by the Jackson store simply to pick up some good food.
"For someone to blast him for his opinion, so be it - they have that right."
___
Holbrook Mohr in Jackson, Miss., Johnny Clark in Decatur, Ga., Tony Winton in Davie, Fla., and Melissa Nelson-Gabriel in Pensacola, Fla., contributed to this report.
Yet weeks after a fast-food executive doubled down on his opposition to gay marriage, debate rages on about equality, religious values and free speech. "Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day" on Wednesday, with supporters flooding the chain's franchises around the country, was countered with "kiss-ins" by same-sex couples at assorted locations Friday, long after Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy's initial comments to a religious publication touched off the clash.
That's an unusual amount of staying power for what initially looked like just another skirmish over a hot-button question.
Coursing throughout the conversations on social media, in letters to the editor and in long lines to buy chicken sandwiches is the sense among proud Southerners that the outcry over Cathy's comments smacks of regional stereotyping. When public officials in Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago tell a Southern icon such as Chick-fil-A that it's no longer welcome, and that Cathy should keep his opinions to himself, many in the Atlanta-based chain's home region hear more than a little northern condescension.
"Maybe the reaction is just because we're Southerners," said Rose Mason, who was lunching Friday at a Chick-fil-A in suburban Atlanta.
Mason, who described herself as Christian, said she grew up in New York City. Now, she said, "I deal with my sister telling me we're a little backward. People have this idea that we're just behind on everything. So they view anything we say through that (perception)."
Cathy, a devout Southern Baptist whose family has always been outspoken about its faith, sparked the controversy by telling the Baptist Press that he and his family-owned restaurant chain are "guilty as charged" for openly - and financially - supporting groups that advocate for "the biblical definition of a family unit." He later added that the United States is "inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, 'We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage."
For Marci Alt, organizer of a protest Friday at a Chick-fil-A in the relatively liberal Atlanta suburb of Decatur, it's Cathy's financial backing of conservative groups such as the Family Research Council that takes the conversation beyond merely what he said.
"Dan Cathy has the same First Amendment rights that I do. If he doesn't want to agree with same-sex marriage, I understand that," she said.
"But when he puts a pen to paper and writes a check to an organization that is about to squash my equal rights, I have a problem with that."
Cathy's comments were in keeping with the tradition established by his father, Truett Cathy, who started the chain in 1967 and never allowed franchises to open on Sundays.
Beyond Friday's organized displays of affection, there were other signs that the furor still had legs. Police were investigating graffiti on the side of a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Torrance, Calif., that read "Tastes like hate" and had a painting of a cow, in reference to the chain's ubiquitous ads featuring cows encouraging people to eat poultry.
In Tucson, Ariz., an executive at a medical manufacturing company lost his job after filming himself verbally attacking a Chick-fil-A employee and posting the video online.
For William Klaus, a 26-year-old X-ray technician with traditional views on marriage, the debate starts at ends with Cathy's liberty to voice his beliefs.
"He said what he said. Freedom of speech. Bottom line," Klaus said at a Chick-fil-A in Jackson, Miss.
However, that goes for Cathy's critics, too, said Klaus, adding that he stopped by the Jackson store simply to pick up some good food.
"For someone to blast him for his opinion, so be it - they have that right."
___
Holbrook Mohr in Jackson, Miss., Johnny Clark in Decatur, Ga., Tony Winton in Davie, Fla., and Melissa Nelson-Gabriel in Pensacola, Fla., contributed to this report.
That picture makes me want to vomit...
I have never in my life seen a Chik-Fil-A restuarant. While I support gay marriage rights, I don't expect that the owners of every single company I do business with will support my ideals. Forever 21 has scripture on the bottom of their shopping bags and I haven't seen anyone boycotting them. I love how Antione Dodson summed the whole Chik-Fil-A controversy up, and I think he should be their new spokesman.
How's about we don't eat at Chick-fil-A because their food just sucks. Â I think their stance on marriage equality sucks as well but really, what is so great about their food? Â Wasn't impressed when I was in Atlanta, let me telll you.
 @stamperzann There is one 5 minutes from where I currently live and totally agree. Mediocre average fast food based on stupid cows urging people to "eat more chikin" advertising scheme. Of course the natives around here can't get enough of it, which why so many fatasses walking around here.
 @stamperzann and no, I do not live in Georgia
whew. I get tired of reading when a person writes a 7 inch long comment with no white space. Whatever happened to sound bites?
Just because someone expresses their opinion you would think they are out to end the world or something. This person has just as much right to say he doesn't like gay marriage as I do. The sickest think I can think of is two guys slobbering over each other. Women doing the same is next on my list. I don't like it, but I do nothing about it. I neither criticize them or make fun of them. I do not write hate mail or post posters decrying it, but the bottom line is I do not like it. I enjoy the right to say that just as this gentleman should. I anyone should be looked down on are those that shout, scream, flag wave and threaten others for having their own opinion. If we had a Chicken-fil-A near me I would run right down and support him. If those flag wavers wave it at me I will be happy to shove it you-know-where for them. Â
No one with half a brain is trying to tell Chick-fil-A or those who support them that they don't have the 1st Amendment right to voice their opinion. It's not that they "can't" say that, it's that by saying it, they are proudly embracing a discriminatory viewpoint that says that they think they know best what is right and wrong for everyone else, and that despite the fact that two men or two women getting married doesn't hurt them, because they feel it is wrong based on their own personal beliefs, they want laws in place to stop it. A few decades ago people who weren't white didn't have the same civil rights as white people did, and many white people voiced an opinion on that subject that it was right and proper that non-whites not have the same civil rights, and even claim that they weren't really people and therefore it was okay to treat them as animals. And women, too, went through many years before they were given the same civil rights that men have. Just because people were free to voice their opinions on those subjects doesn't mean that laws weren't changed anyway to provide equal status to those who were being downtrodden. And now we've come round to it again, only this time it's about marriage instead of the right to be considered equal people, to use the same facilities, have the same jobs, and be able to vote. And it may take a few years, or decades, but I believe that in the end laws will be written and changed to allow two consenting adults to marry regardless of their physical sex, because like it or not, two men or two women getting married doesn't HURT or HARM anyone (except possibly themselves). You can't argue "traditional biblical definition of marriage" while ignoring the fact that the Bible used to allow slavery, too. Just because it was in the Bible doesn't mean it is right by common standards of morality, or should be defined as law because of its inclusion in the Bible. If that was the case, slavery wouldn't have been outlawed, and we'd be forcing rape victims to marry their rapists for life so long as the rapist paid the girl's father enough money, and executing rape victims who didn't cry out loudly enough to be heard. It's wrong to try and define the lives of others who aren't harming anyone else by your own perception of morality and what is right and wrong. This is supposed to be a free country. People are free to speak their minds and worship (or not worship) however they want, as long as they aren't hurting or harming others. Why should it be any different for marriage?
 @spacegoddess how was he saying he knows best? he just stated his opinion on the subject and there is nothing wrong with that. plus its gays that make things into a big deal you dont see straight people wearing shirts saying straight and loving it, but you will see gay's wearing shirts saying gay and loving it or whatever, why do they have to flaunt it and change the way they talk and everything because they are gay?
@spacegoddess  Whether people like it or not; at present, same sex marriage is not a Constitutional Right anymore than is marriage of any kind is a "Right". Someday that may change but in the meantime I'm really getting tired of listening to the whinners complain about someone violating their civil rights any time they don't get their way.
If you don't like the laws work to change them but remember, legislating morality has never worked very well for people on either side of any position.