Chick-Fil-A Backs Down Then Backs Up

[bhsup]

Has Mayor Rahm Emanuel stood up and prevented Cardinal George from opening any new churches?

 

[hobbsyoyo]

@Patroklos - I wasn't talking about the boycot, I was actually talking about the Chicago alderman who refused to allow Chic fil a expand in his district until they dropped funding for some special interest groups. I think his refusal to let him expand and the boycot did make have some impact on making them change their tune. You admit as much when you wrote:

Perhaps the protests were right and Chick-fil-a agreed with them after a month of thinking about

The protestors and the Alderman may not have been the deciding factor in their roundabout, but you can't deny they didn't help.

 

[Patroklos]

I do deny it, if they protests were effective then Chick-Fil-A would have done it back then. What, do you think those protests were the first time customers, critics, and management inside the company encountered this issue? In fact, standing up to those protests/boycott did nothing but good for their company. Now they get the added bonus of proving they were not the bigoted monolithic evil company the protesters claimed they were, and can examine themselves and change when necessary all on their own.

Do you think a single store in some random Chicago suburb was the market force that made them change their tune?

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Well they didn't change of their own accord, I don't believe. Otherwise, it would have happened years ago. Plus, these kinds of decisions take a long time to work out internally for big corporations. Especially as their would have been internal/external resistance to it.

 

[Patroklos]

I could say ANY change should have happened years ago, so thus no change is of its own accord. Who says they were not thinking about this over years? Again, you honestly think this is the first time a customer/critic/company management encountered this issue.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I could say ANY change should have happened years ago, so thus no change is of its own accord. Who says they were not thinking about this over years? Again, you honestly think this is the first time a customer/critic/company management encountered this issue.

Neither of us can really know the true cause/effect without further evidence. I'm just going with the most likely explanation. I wouldn't even go so far as to give majority credit to the protesters or the Alderman. You, however, will gleefully go to the other extreme and give them no credit. That's silly and your disagreeing solely to be disagreeable.

 

[Formaldehyde]

The part I find hilarious is that they may lose some of their current customers by appearing to "cave in" to the evil LGBTers and "liberals".

Americans For TRUTH about Homosexuality: Encourage Chick-fil-A NOT to Cave in to ‘Gay’ Activists and Liberal Politicians by Dropping Marriage Support

By Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth

WASHINGTON, D.C. –I’m starting to wonder if anything good can come out of Chicago these days.

I’ve been in the nation’s capital all week attending a conservative seminar and yesterday the buzz started flying from homosexualist websites and Twitter feeds that Chick-fil-A had caved in and agreed not to give (through its WinShape Foundation) to groups that oppose homosexual “marriage.”

We hope this story is being overly “spun” and exaggerated by homosexual activists, but if it is (basically) true, we want you to encourage this Christian-run company not to harm its brand by allowing itself to be bullied into submission by the LGBT Lobby.

Prediction: look for homosexual activists to find ways to agitate within Chick-fil-A using the new “sexual orientation” statement. They never stop fighting; neither can we.

George Orwell is rolling over in his grave at the annoying penchant of modern liberals to advocate crushing liberty in the name of “civil rights” based on homosexuality. Genuine civil rights have nothing to do with destructive sexual and gender (mis)behaviors, and there is no more of a “right” for two people of the same sex to marry as there is a “right” for a guy to marry his sister.

Liberals love to pretend that they are the sole possessors of Truth as they use the levers of power (government or otherwise) to force their views on others. In the extreme, this is Communism, an ideology that has killed many, many millions of its own citizens worldwide – in the name of “The People.”

To understand the Homosexual Movement, think VALIDATION. Self-styled “gay” or “queer” activists oppose anyone (including God) and anything that rightly judges their lifestyle to be wrong.

To understand the Left, think POWER. People like Ald. Moreno tell themselves that they’re advancing “civil rights,” but what they are really doing is advancing Gay Power as a subset of their goal to advance Liberal Power. And he, like so many on the Left, sees no problem with forcing his ideas (his immorality) on everyone. Translation: many on the Left are attempting to “criminalize Christianity” in this nation wherever the Bible conflicts with their pet agendas like homosexual “marriage.”

We cannot let the homosexuality-celebrating Left steal away our freedom with their condescending and misleading euphemisms like “marriage equality.” America became great because America is free, and we must fight to keep it that way. Take action today by voicing your appreciation to Chick-fil-A and its WinShape Foundation – coupled with your kind appeal NOT to cave in to Intolerant political bullies on the Left.

 

[Patroklos]

As there spike in popularity recently has nothing to do with their support or lack of support of gay marriage, there is really no chance of that happening.

At no point has anyone ever established a link between Chick-Fil-A's buisness success and gay marriage positions. Christian sure, but then that doesn't equal anti-gay marriage in the slightest.

 

[warpus]

Yeah, they could, so it shoouldn't matter. If you want to boycott them, boycott them. That's your privlege in the free market.

I don't give a crap about the free market.

 

[JollyRoger]

I could say ANY change should have happened years ago, so thus no change is of its own accord. Who says they were not thinking about this over years? Again, you honestly think this is the first time a customer/critic/company management encountered this issue.

It was the most intense time for this particular company and the purported change was close in time to the heat as measured by the company's length of time in business.

 

[Leoreth]

Appealing to the law is an absurd argument.

Especially if that set of laws calls itself constitution, yes?

 

[MobBoss]

The entire problem with the stuff in the OP can be summed up right here:

.....according to Chicago Alderman Proco Joe Moreno

Ayup. Why anyone would believe what the hell a Chicago Alderman says is beyond me. Now, if it were a clear and concise comment from the company itself, that might be news worthy? But heresay? From a Chicago politician?

I'm amazed at what people will grasp onto in the news and consider it the gospel truth.

 

[Formaldehyde]

More evidence that Dan Cathy and CFA "caved in":

Atlanta Journal- Constitution: Dan Cathy took part in Chick-fil-A talks on gay rights

August was a busy month at Chick-fil-A headquarters in Atlanta, especially when it came to the topic of gay marriage.

On Wednesday, a Chicago alderman had dropped his objections to the first standalone Chick-fil-A restaurant in his city, after the fast-food franchise persuaded him that it had withdrawn from the political battle over same-sex marriage.

Several weeks of negotiations with Chick-fil-A executives had produced internal company guidelines that prohibit discrimination in hiring and customer service. Alderman Joe Moreno also said that, in August, executives of the family-held firm also opened the books of Chick-fil-A’s charitable foundation, to prove that it no longer gave money to groups opposing same-sex unions.

Less known is the fact that, at the same time, Chick-fil-A was also holding talks with Campus Pride, a gay rights organization based in Charlotte, N.C., that had targeted the several hundred Chick-fil-A outlets on college campuses with an “education” campaign.

College students eat a lot of chicken sandwiches.

Shane Windmeyer, executive director of Campus Pride, paid his most recent visit to Chick-fil-A headquarters in Atlanta last Monday, after which he announced the suspension of his group’s campaign. Windmeyer said he, too, was given a chance to preview Chick-fil-A’s new hiring and service policy. He, too, was offered evidence that the company’s WinShape Foundation no longer gives money to groups considered hostile to gay rights.

“Chick-fil-A has treated myself and my organization with dignity and respect. They really have been willing to sit down and dialogue. It hasn’t been an adversarial relationship,” Windmeyer said.

Those are words that Chick-fil-A is no doubt eager to have bronzed. But more important is the fact that Windmeyer said Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy was personally involved in the negotiations, in both face-to-face meetings and telephone conversations.

A spokesman for Moreno said Friday that the alderman spoke by phone with Cathy.

It was Cathy, of course, who caused a stir this summer with comments declaring his support for traditional marriage between a man and a woman. “Well, guilty as charged,” Cathy told Baptist Press in July.

Gay rights activists and their allies immediately began organizing a shunning of the firm. Religious conservatives rallied to its side. Business analysts posited that the hoopla wouldn’t damage the largely Southern firm in the short term – though it could limit expansion opportunities in more liberal regions of the nation.

But clearly Chick-fil-A took the gay marriage threat seriously and began immediate efforts to defuse the situation.

Skeptics remain. Gay rights groups point out that even as his company was making nice last week, Cathy personally Tweeted a photo that showed him participating in a motorcycle ride to benefit a group called the Marriage and Family Foundation – a group that lobbies against gay marriage, and which once received funding from the company’s WinShape Foundation.

One presumes that Chick-fil-A will attempt to draw a line between Cathy family giving and its corporate largesse. How that sells is a matter for the future.

“We chose to suspend our campaign, not to end our campaign,” Windmeyer said. “Sometimes you have to be willing to put down the stick in order to listen to somebody.”

Two more aspects are worth noting about Chick-fil-A’s wrestling match over gay marriage.

That episode in Chicago, for instance, was brought about by an alderman’s veto power over a rezoning required for what will be Chick-fil-A’s first standalone restaurant in the city.

The alderman had that power because Chick-fil-A, an Atlanta firm, sought to subdivide and purchase a lot in the city currently owned by Home Depot, another Atlanta company.

The irony: Yes, Chick-fil-A has been the target of a two-month boycott spurred by its opposition to same-sex unions. But Home Depot has endured a much longer, though low-grade boycott by the American Family Association, a conservative group upset by the DIY company’s support for gay rights, including its steadfast participation in Atlanta’s annual gay pride parade.

Then there’s the matter of timing. In August, at the same time Chick-fil-A was negotiating its way out of the gay marriage debate, Republicans in Tampa were attempting the same maneuver.

Opposition to gay marriage was written into the platform adopted by the Republican National Convention. But that position never received a mention during three days of televised speeches. Like Chick-fil-A, Republicans decided to bow out of the dispute – at least while a general audience was watching.

Jamie Ensley, president of the Georgia Log Cabin Republicans, said he took solace from the omission. “Keeping it out of prime-time TV was the right thing to do,” he said.

Like Chick-fil-A, Republicans will soon have to choose between short-term politics and long-term expansion plans, he said. “It may take a couple of national elections to convince everyone,” Ensley said.

Baby steps.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Liberals win

 

[GhostWriter16]

Especially if that set of laws calls itself constitution, yes?

I'd agree but if you don't like the constitution you have to amend it, rather than just ignoring it.

 

[LucyDuke]

Pfft, that's state worship.

 

[GhostWriter16]

Not considering usually the constiution is the thing that's supposed to be LIMITING the state.

 

[WindFish]

Not considering usually the constiution is the thing that's supposed to be LIMITING the state.

Its still state worship.

 

[Patroklos]

Still waiting for someone to provide any example of Chick-Fil-A ever discriminating in hiring or customer service. Tic tic.

 

[_random_]

Here. Not a horrific record for a company that size, but it's happened.