Business & Tech

SPEAK OUT: Chick-Fil-A Sees Backlash to Anti-Gay Marriage Stance

The company has received major backlash after its president made anti-gay marriage remarks in several interviews.

Everyone’s favorite childhood puppets are taking a stand for gay marriage. 

The Jim Henson Company – creator of the Muppets -- announced recently that it would no longer do business with Chick-Fil-A following recent anti-gay marriage comments made by the popular chicken company’s president, Dan Cathy. 

“The Jim Henson Company has celebrated and embraced diversity and inclusiveness for over fifty years and we have notified Chick-Fil-A that we do not wish to partner with them on any future endeavors,” the organization, whose namesake grew up in University Park and attended University of Maryland, wrote on its Facebook page.

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“Lisa Henson, our CEO is personally a strong supporter of gay marriage and has directed us to donate the payment we received from Chick-Fil-A to GLAAD,” the post concludes. 

Their announcement came after Cathy made some very public remarks – both in print and on the radio – affirming his stance on the subject.

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"We are very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit,” Cathy said in an interview with the Baptist Press last week. “We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.”

In addition, The Washington Post reported that in a recent interview on the Ken Coleman radio show, Cathy said that “we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage.”

Those comments, among others, have prompted a wave of backlash from various organizations and people – including the mayor of Boston, Thomas Menino, who told the Boston Herald he would keep Chick-Fil-A out of the city.

“If they need licenses in the city, it will be very difficult — unless they open up their policies,”  Menino said.

Chick-Fil-A has 45 locations throughout Maryland, including stores in Westminster, Columbia, Laurel and Largo.

Now, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has announced his support for the restaurant franchise. On Sunday, he created an event on Facebook encouraging people to show their support and appreciation for Chick-Fil-A.

"The goal is simple: Let's affirm a business that operates on Christian principles and whose executives are willing to take a stand for the Godly values we espouse by simply showing up and eating at Chick-Fil-A on Wednesday, August 1," he wrote on the event page, which currently has over 95,000 attending. 

Will you show up next Wednesday to support Huckabee's campaign? Do you think Dan Cathy should have to rethink his policies? Tell us in our poll and in the comments.


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