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These posts are the creation of Doran L. Barton (AKA Fozziliny Moo). To learn more about Doran, check out his website at fozzilinymoo.org.

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Chick-Fil-A anti-gay? Really?

Posted: 4 August 2012 at 14:18:26

This last week, hundreds of thousands of people showed their support by patronizing Chick-Fil-A restaurants after the media created an explosion of controversy in response to a little-distributed interview with Chick-Fil-A's founder Dan Cathy. In the interview, Mr. Cathy reiterated an opinion he's expressed before: He supports traditional marriage (that is, "marriage" should be a man and a woman.

The media succeeded in making this a much bigger deal than it should have been. Mayors of Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco were quoted either saying or implying they would use their positions of power to either shut down existing Chick-Fil-A restaurants in their cities or prevent the chain from obtaining permits to open new locations in the future.

The ears of constiutional watchdogs throughout the country perked up.

One candidate for public office in Mississippi said Chicago mayor Rahm Emmanuel "needs to be introduced to the Second Amendment ASAP." He's entitled to his free speech, but this seems a little like shouting fire in a theater. It was a poor judgement to say those words.

That being said, there is a nugget of truth behind those inflammatory words. The types of actions the mayors of San Francisco, Boston, and Chicago have talked about doing are examples of tyrannical abuses of government power. These are small examples of why we have the Second Amendment to the Constitution which guarantees citizens the right to resist, with arms, against a tyrannical government.

I patronized Chick-Fil-A with my family to show my support of Mr. Cathy's right to free speech. He should be able to express his opinion about marriage without fear of retribution from government officials. Government officials should respect his opinion and should be committed to protecting his ability to say what he wants.

Had Mr. Cathy said he intended, either personally or through his business, to discriminate against gays as customers or employees, I'd be up in arms myself. But, he didn't say anything like that. Corporate policy at Chick-Fil-A is that everyone should be served and treated as a valued customer.

I'm sure there are many who work for Mr. Cathy or who own Chick-Fil-A franchises who disagree with his opinion on same sex marriage. In fact, there have been some news reports of franchise owners who disagree with Mr. Cathy. Despite the disagreement, they still want the public to eat chicken sandwiches and, chances are, they support Mr. Cathy's right to have and speak his opinion.

As this story has evolved, I've come across some stories that point out Chick-Fil-A donates millions to organizations that are anti-gay or "hateful." I checked it out and discovered these organizations are mostly Christian faith-based groups that are dedicated to promoting traditional marriage. They're not "anti-gay." They're pro-traditional marriage. That's not the same and the distinction is something those in the media should be ashamed of being guilty of not understanding.

An anti-gay organization would be a despicable group that promotes intolerance, active discrimination, and violation of human rights. I haven't looked into these organizations that Chick-Fil-A has donated to in detail, but I suspect they may support civil unions and/or equivalent visitation and legal rights for same-sex couples. That's not hateful at all.