How Chick-Fil-A screwed up and ignited a firestorm

Dan Cathy of Chick-Fil-A switches from chicken to crow.

Well no more lemonade and waffle fries from Chick-Fil-A for me because of the company's insulting of the gay community.

For those who haven't been keeping up, please get your head out of that cave, take those fingers out of your ears, and check out this lovely piece by Forbes magazine on how Chick-Fil-A flunked crisis management BIG TIME:

It’s no secret that fast-food chain Chick-Fil-A donates to anti-gay Christian charities — the chain has been getting flak from gay-rights groups for a while now on that. But this week, the company flunked crisis PR 101 and spawned a social-media firestorm with its inept handling of the issue. If there was a gay person — or supporter — left in the U.S.A. with a Facebook account who didn’t know about the boycott of Chick-Fil-A, there isn’t now.

The flames were re-ignited Tuesday when company president Dan Cathy told the Baptist Press he is “guilty as charged” of donating to anti-gay charities. Then the company tried to fix the problem with an announcement on Chick-Fil-A’s Facebook page that sent the whole controversy massively viral. Here’s the exact verbiage:

“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.

“Chick-fil-A is a family-owned and family-led company serving the communities in which it operates. From the day Truett Cathy started the company, he began applying biblically-based principles to managing his business. For example, we believe that closing on Sundays, operating debt-free and devoting a percentage of our profits back to our communities are what make us a stronger company and Chick-fil-A family.

“Our mission is simple: to serve great food, provide genuine hospitality and have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.”

Translation: “We’d like to close our eyes now, count to ten, and you should forget all about our fervently avowed political views — which we won’t be changing — and go back to eating our chicken a lot.”

Which didn’t work.

This non-response didn’t answer the questions on many people’s minds: Will the company stop donating to groups that are actively opposing gay-marriage laws, and controversial “gay-curing” groups such as Exodus International? Also, how are gay employees treated at the company given the corporate culture?

By essentially refusing to address the issues its founder raised, Chick-Fil-A just made a lot of people madder.

You can say that again.

Click here for the rest of the Forbes magazine article.

Let us fight for the right to love, not to destroy

I'm sorry but I can't post any news briefs today.

My heart and prayers go out to all of those caught up in that awful madness in Aurora, CO. I simply can't comprehend why someone would take it upon himself to do what this man did. Did he think that his cause was so righteous that it was perfectly okay to attack a bunch of innocent people?

I know I am not alone with my puzzlement or my prayers for those caught up in this tragedy. And I hope I am not alone in my soul-searching.

We all must learn something from this, particularly those of us who fight for lgbtq equality. There are times when we (myself included) personalize our fight against certain individuals due to their nasty comments and lies. While we are perfectly justified in pointing out hypocrisies, let's never personalize our fight so much that we lose perspective in what exactly are we fighting against and for.

Our struggle for equality is not against any person or religion. Our struggle for equality is against fear and ignorance. It's against entitlement and thoughts of supremacy which deceives people into thinking that they own the patent on the words "morality," "love," "values," and "family." We fight not to destroy nor to hate but for the right to love.

Because it is our right.

The following video is dedicated to us all, but especially the victims of the recent tragedy. Remember that we are ALL pulling for you:

THESE bigots have too much time on their hands

From Right Wing Watch comes something so ridiculous that there are no words:

The Public Advocate, the fervently anti-gay group led by Virginia politician Eugene Delgaudio, devised a protest song, complete with references to Jerry Sandusky and child abuse, to condemn Ernst &Young CEO James Turley’s attempt to overturn the Boy Scouts of America’s ban on gay members, a ban that was recently reaffirmed:

Transcript:

We've heard about dear Turley's plan,
And we're here to say,
It's sad that such a senseless man
Is with the B.S.A!

Morally, Morally,
That's the way we like.
Do not touch our girls and boys,
Just go take a hike.

We have seen just what can come
When anyone at all
Can get quite close to little ones
And frankly, we're appalled!

Morally, Morally,
What will it be like
If we let the unsavory
Get close to our dear tykes?

Morally, Morally,
That's the way we like.
Do not touch our girls and boys,
Just go take a hike.

You say that we should open doors
And welcome one and all.
With no attention to the boors
Who'll make our children bawl.

Morally, Morally,
Whatever shall be done
If we hire Sandusky,
and let him near our sons?

Morally, Morally,
That's the way we like.
Do not touch our girls and boys,
Just go take a hike.

Public Advocate is the same group which recently stole a gay couple's wedding photo to use in a homophobic ad.

Between you and me, I don't think P. Diddy will be pushing a remix of that song any time soon.

Chick-Fil-A exposes NOM's phony call for company neutrality

Maggie Gallagher of NOM

With the news of Chick-Fil-A's stance against marriage equality, some of us were waiting for the National Organization for Marriage to show its hypocrisy.

You may remember that a while back, NOM was demanding that companies in Minnesota adopt a neutral stance on the amendment the state will be voting on in regards to gay marriage. It sent the following letter to 50 Minnesota companies:

As a cultural matter that has little to do with your corporate mission to serve customers, earn profits, and provide good jobs for the people of Minnesota we would request that _____ adopt a neutral stance on the Minnesota marriage amendment. We do not request that you endorse our efforts to protect the age-old definition of what is a marriage, but only that you stay neutral and respect the conscience rights of your customers and employees who are on both sides of the issue.[...]

Wading into a culture war over an issue where _____ has no business interest is to invite public backlash, much like what Starbucks is experiencing in the DumpStarbucks.com campaign, with little upside. Polls have put support for the Minnesota marriage amendment at 56% – higher than polls in North Carolina had support for the marriage amendment there just prior to the 61-39% victory for marriage in that state.[...]

We are carefully watching what _____ will do on this important measure, with the expectation that you will not be engaged on one side or the other. Please let us know if this is not the case.

Naturally, NOM has taken a different tone with Chick-Fil-A's stance, calling the company's president, Dan Cathy, "a corporate hero for marriage" on its blog.

This two-faced hypocrisy reeks of something former NOM president Maggie Gallagher would think of. She does have a habit of speaking out of both sides of her mouth such as praising same-sex families on one side while condemning them on the other while at the same time attempting to fool people into thinking that she is not being two-faced.

People are not stupid, NOM.

'US Gay Black Men face highest risk of HIV/AIDS in the world' and other Thursday midday news briefs

U.S. Black Gay Men Face Highest Risk Of HIV/AIDS In The World - I can't BEGIN to tell you how it feels to wake up one morning and realize that you are in a high-risk group for HIV/AIDS. And there are so many people to THANK. First to the black community: thank you for your hypocrisy over sexual matters and your desire to keep us gay men hidden from the public spectrum in spite of the fact that we are your brothers, sons, nephews, choirmasters, and pastors. Thank you so much your desire to make us ashamed of who we are. Thank you gay community for smothering us with crap which has nothing to do with us. Thank you for focusing on nonsensical things in a bad attempt to homogenize the gay community into some bland, Borg-like community and ignoring the fact that not all of us are white and skinny or white and muscular or celebrities or attendees at some ridiculous upper crust cocktail party. Thank you for inadvertently rendering us as invisible as the black community does.  Thank you to the religious right who is sure to use this information to smear gay men. How can I forget about you? And last but not least, thank you other gay black men - those who will not speak up, the ones (particularly the celebrities who KNOW who they are) who are in the closet, and the rest who just don't give a damn.

NOM unveils its new Corporate Hypocrisy Project - Apparently NOM thinks only those who support gay equality should practice neutrality. The organization believes in different rules for those who support homophobia. 

 Barton, Green & Barber Agree: Not Voting for Romney is a Sin - Wait until the Black Church community hears this!  

Gay Harassment Case - This is sad. We need to pray for this couple. 

Romney targeted over flip flops and positions on gay rights

From Think Progress:

Modeled as satire on the anti-bullying “It Gets Better” project, American Bridge 21st Century and Courage Campaign Super PAC have launched the “Mitt Gets Worse” campaign. In testimonials, various activists explain how harmful Mitt Romney’s anti-LGBT positions are and how much worse he would make the U.S. for LGBT people if he were president.

The campaign features testimonies from Adam Bink of the Courage Campaign, Julie Goodridge, whose suit led to marriage equality in Massachusetts, Jennifer Chrisler of the Family Equality Council, and Kathleen Henry, who chaired the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth. However, if you ask me, the most powerful videos features Romney talking. That way, we can see his flip flops and negative positions on gay rights.

The follow video is Romney in 2007 attempting to explain his support of Don't Ask, Don't Tell in contrast to public comments he made supporting gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. It underlines the danger that the gay community will have should Romney be elected:

Mike Huckabee spreads confusion about homosexuality and pedophilia

The reason why the Boy Scouts made such a ridiculous decision regarding keeping gays out is because people like former Governor and now radio talk show host Mike Huckabee. Listen how he and a caller who was molested as a child makes it seem that gays want to be in the Boy Scouts to "go after" children.

I feel sorry for this caller but he is wrong. A gay man did not molest him. A pedophile (a person who TARGETS children) molested him. And it's sad that Huckabee aided and abetted this poor man's ignorance:



This isn't accidental on Huckabee's part. He has in the past:

• aligned himself with Southern Poverty Law Center – identified hate group Mass Resistance whose leader Brian Camenker once made a claim in 2006 that “gays were trying to get legislation passed to allow sex with animals” in Massachusetts,
• attacked lgbt families by comparing them to people raising puppies,
• bent over backwards to assure Ann Coulter that he wasn’t  “pro-gay” and “pro-sodomy.”

Just count this as another notch on his belt of homophobic ignorance.