Chick-Fil-A

So, there has been a huge uproar about Chick-Fil-A recently that struck a nerve with me, primarily because I’ve heard several intelligent people say things that I completely disagree with. And instead of responding to those people on facebook and starting an argument, I’m going to anonymously write about it here. I’m passive in that way.

For those keeping score, Chick-Fil-A is a Christian organization and has been known to give money to organizations that are against gay marriage. The president of the company has recently also explicitly spoken out against gay marriage, igniting a surprising amount of outrage.

Now, firstly, I will say that I am for gay-marriage though honestly my ideal solution is one in which legal “civil unions” and religious “marriages” are treated as completely separate entities, because I think that’s where a lot of the fighting stems from. I actually generally understand both sides of the argument – religious people are outraged by the notion of gays being allowed to “marry” because they see marriage as a religious institution whereas liberals are outraged at gays not being allowed to marry because they see it as a legal right. Both sides are right, really, the problem is the mixing of religious and legal standards to begin with. But, anyway, I’m digressing.

Recently mayors in both Boston and Chicago threatened to block Chick-Fil-A from entering their city due to the company’s stance on gay-marriage. This to me is the most outraging part of this story. Granted it’s likely that both mayors are just doing this for public relations reasons, but still it’s depressing to me that people hear the equivalent of “We’re not going to allow them to open a business here because of their political views” and believe that this is a good/inspirational thing.

Basically, I fully believe that a person should have the right to have any political opinion and still run a business in any city that they so choose, even if a large part of the population doesn’t agree with their political opinion. Much in the same way I believe that gay people should have the right to have a legal union with another person, even if a large part of the population don’t agree with their personal choice. Anyone else see the irony here?

I don’t know, I know this is another boring entry, but this is a trend I’ve noticed a lot as I’ve gone through life. That people are easily able to comprehend the inherent unfairness of a situation when it goes against their political ideology, but are completely ignorant to it when the positions are reversed. Conservatives are outraged by the new initiative to force people to buy health insurance, but have no problem forcing kids to pray in schools. Liberals are appalled by the invasion of personal freedom allowed by the Patriot Act, but happily support legislation to ban smoking in bars. Etc.

Granted, I’m speaking in generalities here – I realize that there are plenty of people who actually give reasonable consideration to situations before cheering on their social cause. They just don’t generally seem to be the type of people who post about the issues on facebook.

Meanwhile, I will just continue to boycott Chick-Fil-A for the same reason that I always have. Their food sucks.