Chick-Fil-A is probably up to the same old crap?

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 9:02am

I can't seem to find a search anymore, so I will just start a new thread.

http://www.queerty.com/chick-fil-a-stops-anti-gay-donations-adopts-anti-discrimination-policy-20120919/

What say you?

I actually think it's pretty ballsy to change the policy considering the hundreds of thousands that showed up to ignorantly support what they thought was "free speech."

Updated On: 9/21/12 at 09:02 AM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 9:24am

Honestly, I think this falls into the "Too Little Too Late" category.

[romantico]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 9:45am

I predict NOM, Family Research Council, and Mike Huckabee to be livid and call for all Christians to now boycott Chick-Fil-A for giving in to the enemy. Just wait. They are so predictable!

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 9:58am

I am not going to go running back, but I think in the face of the support they were shown, it was pretty cool.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 10:07am

I heard this this morning, but I'd love to know more specifics about how the turnaround was decided.

Funny, I was on a road trip this weekend visiting friends and three of us drove Friday night well past dinner time and had planned to stop when we got to our destination. We were HUNGRY, but passed 3 Chikfilas before I would let us stop at a McDs. I have never had to do that, as we try to avoid fast food, and I wouldnt know where one of these are near us, except in Monmouth Mall when we'd always go for Auntie Ann's.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 10:14am

I understand the "too little too late" response, but if we don't accept change when it comes, then there's not really any point to protesting or boycotting.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 10:25am

Short of inventing a time machine, this is pretty much the best possible outcome.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 10:28am

Especially given that there was such a huge public counterprotest.

Frankly, I'm astonished.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 10:30am

Agreed. It's kind of tossing it back in the face of those who so staunchly stood by them and defended them, others be damned. I'm impressed.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 10:37am

Count me astonished too.

(And a little suspicious...)

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 10:38am

It will be VERY interesting to see how this tid-bit is received on the right. If the buy-coytt wasn't really about the gays, the right should still staunchly support CFA's freedom of speech, right? Right?

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 10:44am

A little suspicious is certainly a reasonable response.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 10:56am

Seems to be looking more and more legit.

http://jointcra.org/

[artscallion]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 11:34am

So in the time honored tradition of carrot/stick, I imagine we are called to eat there now.

Updated On: 9/19/12 at 11:34 AM

[Kad]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 11:55am

I don't think so. They've gone from negative to neutral.

If they start donating money to pro-gay groups, maybe? But I doubt they will.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 12:00pm

This seems more like a board of directors taking action to reverse a decision by a CEO.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 12:09pm

I am not telling anyone to chow down. lol I still think it's completely okay for them to have bigoted opinions. It's also okay for me to choose not to eat there. The attention, however, brought the injustice to their attention and they ceased doing what upset me. They can still be assholes. They aren't donating to groups that think I deserve to be in prison at best and dead at worst. I appreciate that they understand that it goes against what they claim their operating values are and that they don't want to be perceived as such. It's something. And again, going against their core support takes balls.

[tazber]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 2:22pm

I don't buy it.

We're not talking about an opinion being changed, but a core ideology that gay people are abominations. Maybe they're doing this to counter some of the negative publicity, but I simply don't believe that they are going to stop supporting homophobic causes.

I would need to see their tax return with a breakdown of all charitable donations listed before I would even consider that they might actually cease funding hatred.

[Addison D.]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 2:36pm

"I would need to see their tax return with a breakdown of all charitable donations listed before I would even consider that they might actually cease funding hatred".

I support your zeal, but I think that you are holding them to an inappropriate and/or unrealistic standard.

They have made a very public show of responding--in action, not just words--to criticism of their support of groups working against marriage equality. In situations like this, I think an argument can be made that a public reversal of position is the best possible scenario--it's a great "teaching moment" for both sides of the debate.

If we start getting into forensic accounting of how every corporation's dollars are spent, I think we end up on very shaky ground. Do we boycott a company if some of their employees spend their own money (which started out as company dollars in the form of payroll) on political causes which offend us?

[tazber]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 2:50pm

I was really just being hyperbolic. I clearly don't ever expect to see their tax return, but I also just can't accept what they're proposing.

And if they are so quick to abandon their core beliefs (as abhorrent as they are), then why should they be trusted at all?

I'll be honest though, I don't think there is anything they could do or say that would sway me. They are just too committed to their religious ideology.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 2:54pm

Not buying it here, either. Agreed with taz. When they promote their inclusiveness as aggressively as they promoted their bigotry, and make some substantial contributions to rights causes, I'll think they might be taking this seriously. As it stands, it is just another PR dodge.

Updated On: 9/19/12 at 02:54 PM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 2:57pm

I'm hoping this reversal leads to similar retractions from public homophobes in deeds, not words. For example that Toronto Blue Jays player needs to release a video of his behind getting roundly rodgered by some studly lad- just to show he's changed his ways.

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 3:03pm

Coincidentally, Forbes is out with its annual list of the 400 richest Americans, and the usual suspects are at the top: Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison and brothers Charles and David Koch. Percentage-wise, the biggest gainers were Chick-fil-a founder S. Truett Cathy, whose wealth grew 281.1 percent, from $1.1 billion to $4.2 billion.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 3:04pm

The Chick-fil-A corporation doesn't believe anything; it's a corporation. It's owners certainly do, but that should be a separate matter--and it wasn't before.

Gay people and their supporters spoke out by withholding their dollars (and spreading the word) and the company's leaders apparently decided to make different use of those dollars. I think that's pretty much what we were asking. Being neutral, as Kad put it, actually seems fair to me. Mr. Cathy is entitled to his so-called religious beliefs, misguided though I think they are. But I'm glad to hear he's not going to be directly using the dollars I might put into his tills to fight against my rights.

That being said, if anyone feels they could never again support his company, I think that's a perfectly fair decision. But it seems to me the company is responding the way we wanted them to.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 9/19/12 at 3:22pm

"That being said, if anyone feels they could never again support his company, I think that's a perfectly fair decision. But it seems to me the company is responding the way we wanted them to."

Nicely put. But that's all they are doing -- responding. Nice that they're putting some pretty words and policies out there. We'll see if they actually act on those pretty words and policies. Such bigotry as this company was practicing does not just get changed with a wave of the PR wand.