As the nationwide brouhaha carries on between liberal city officials and conservative former presidential candidates over , many people in the Bay Area are making statements of their own about the fast food company's opposition to same-sex marriage.
The debate began in July when Dan Cathy, president of Georgia-based Chick-fil-A restaurants, said in two separate media interviews that the company backed the "biblical definition of a family."
The outcry on both sides of the issue prompted tit-for-tat events: earlier this week, thousands of customers showed up in support of the restaurant during an "Appreciation Day," while gay rights activists in the Bay Area planned same-sex "Kiss Ins" at Chick-fil-A restaurants on Friday.
In the Bay Area, there is one Chick-fil-A located in Fairfield, and several are slated for openings in the near future--Walnut Creek, Mountain View and San Jose.
According to Bay City News, the San Jose Chick-fil-A location is opening on Aug. 16, and same-sex marriage supporters were organizing a protest at the restaurant at 53 Headquarters Drive on Friday afternoon. The organizer's Facebook page directs participants to "wear purple, bring signs or flags to express your support of marriage equality, and come ready to march."
A New York Times column earlier this week reported that San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee used Twitter to tell Chick-fil-A to back off. “Very disappointed #ChickFilA doesn’t share San Francisco’s values,” wrote Lee. But in a follow-up tweet, Lee acknowledged that the restaurant wasn't exactly located around the block: “Closest #ChickFilA to San Francisco is 40 miles away & I strongly recommend that they not try to come any closer.”
In a statement on Chick-fil-A's website, the company addresses the upcoming protests and backlash to its stance on same-sex marriage:
"The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our Restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect –regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. We will continue this tradition in the over 1,600 Restaurants run by independent Owner/Operators. Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena."
Would you patronize a business that didn't share your values? Take our poll and give us your thoughts in the comment section below.
"As usual, the liberal leaning crowd is fired up and shouting longer and louder than the conservative crowd. Why? Because they have been indoctrinated with the lessons since elementary school and are the compassionate and loving peoples. Conversely the conservatives are the hate-mongering bullies. Hogwash. I'd give up, except that is exactly what your side would want." -------------------------------------------------------- So, in other words, you've noticed that you belong to a dying breed, and that makes you uncomfortable. Sorry you homophobic religious nuts are outnumbered by reasonable people here in the Bay Area. Maybe if you bring this conversation to the attention of the idiots on freerepublic.com, they might be willing to post some hate messages here and even things out for you?
Also, I never said Christians were outnumbered. I said homophobic religious nuts were outnumbered, and I stand by that statement 100%. You are a dying breed, and good riddance!
That word does not mean what you think it means. For extra credit, you should also look up the word "bigot."
Yes, I would patronage any business even if they had a glaring sign outside indicating their religion, their beliefs, etc. You know why? I could care less. This "National Debate" about everything under the sun is only making people angrier, and pitting people against each other. We live in the most wounderful country on the planet with plenty for everyone, but we always seem to find so many things to get angry about. So many people around the world could only hope to have what we have, and yet, as I read above, we will always find something to complain about. Let me ask a question. What if you only had 2 months to live on this earth, would you care about the above question?
Let me ask you a question, Kali. What if the owner of Chick-Fil-A had spoken out against the abolition of slavery, and cited his Christian beliefs as the reason? The Bible does advocate and condone slavery, you know. And I'll answer your question for you, Kali. You would have been outraged if the owner of Chick-Fil-A has made such a statement, and you would have stopped patronizing them immediately. The only difference here is that it's still socially acceptable in some circles to be bigoted against gays.
I'm not condemning Jo Tog's behavior, mind you. Now that I understand he or she is just a troll having fun at our expense, as opposed to somebody who actually believes those crazy things, my opinion of Jo Tog has gone up.
6:18 pm on Saturday, April 20, 2013 But, Democratic Mayors are like that. They care more about brainwashing the citizen to all think alike , and care nothing about job creation. Typical Democrat politics at play. Keep the people starving. -------------------------------------------------- Um.... Jo? Why are you still posting comments on an article from August of last year? Are you on speed, dude?