Dear Chick-fil-A: Please tell me you didn’t cave to bigoted Chicago alderman

I sincerely hope this is not true:

ATLANTA After touching off national debate this summer over gay marriage and freedom of speech, Chick-fil-A is getting out of politics.

At least according to gay rights advocates in Chicago, who announced that they had secured an agreement by the Atlanta chicken chain to stop donating to political or social groups that oppose gay marriage rights.

Chick-fil-A, however, neither confirmed nor denied the claim. Instead it referred to a statement promising equal treatment and political neutrality that it had issued in July, shortly after controversy erupted over comments by top executive Dan Cathy in which he sided with traditional marriage proponents.

Still, the Chicago announcement, issued by city Alderman Proco “Joe” Moreno and the Civil Rights Agenda group, fueled Internet headlines trumpeting Chick-fil-A’s change of position.

That sparked split reactions among customers.

“Victory never tasted so sweet,” said one of many commenters at the company’s Facebook page. “Anyone for Chick-fil-A?”

“If this story is true,” wrote another, “Chick-fil-A better be ready to lose a lot of customers in the future.” Some said company executives should clarify whether anything has actually changed.

Moreno had blocked the opening of a new Chicago location because of the controversy, which stemmed not only from Cathy’s comments but also from Chick-fil-A’s purported support of groups considered anti-gay.

In the announcement, dated Tuesday, Moreno said that after months of behind-the-scenes negotiations, his office and Civil Rights Agenda struck a deal with Chick-fil-A to treat the gay, lesbian and transgendered community with equality.

If this is accurate, I’ll still eat at Chick-fil-A but I’ll regret encouraging people to go there and support them back in August for the national support day first called for by Mike Huckabee. People lined up en masse at Chick-fil-A locations around the country that day to show support for religious freedom and traditional marriage and to have Chick-fil-A essentially blackmailed into backing off supporting organizations in line with their viewpoint on marriage and the traditional family structure would be a big disappointment. Not to mention the message the cave would send to other politicos around America in suggesting that it’s ok to use government power and threats to silence differing viewpoints.

I’ll also throw this out there, which I’m sure will make some people angry: If you want to understand PART of the reason why some won’t jump on the “gay rights” bandwagon- it is precisely for BS like this. I know a number of people who would support gay marriage and other issues related to “gay rights” if the liberal Gay Gestapo stopped treating private citizens and businesses that didn’t line up with their worldview as “despicable, hate-filled Americans” for simple disagreement. While it’s true that some people oppose gay marriage because they “hate gays”, the bigger picture is that sometimes people just simply DISAGREE with someone else’s viewpoint on something for legitimate, debatable reasons. Disagreement does not always = “the other side is full of hate.” In fact this is the case most of the time. Too bad militant gay leftists don’t understand this.

I’m a big believer in the power of the consumer. If you disagree with a business, don’t eat there, don’t shop there, etc. Tell your friends to do the same. I might disagree with your rationale for doing so, but I support your right to do it. What I DON’T support are campaigns engaged in by radicals to force private citizens and businesses into backing off their religious beliefs. I especially don’t like it when the power of the government is used in essentially the same manner. This is dangerous and, quite frankly, un-American – and I view anyone who supports such blatant abuses of government power as equally un-American .

Hope we hear more from Chick-fil-A soon regarding this matter.

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