Chick-Fil-A Has Deep Anti-Gay Affiliations

[Bluebear]

Good As You's dogged Jeremy Hooper has uncovered extensive ties between Chick-Fil-A's charitable arm, the WinShape Foundation, and virtually all of the major organizations fighting marriage equality, including NOM's Ruth Institute, which famously demanded that gays return the "Christian rainbow."

Okay so this is going to take a little explanation. But stick with it. It's a good find, especially in light of the recent Chick-Fil-A/Pennsylvania Family Institute sponsorship controversy and Chick-Fil-A's corporate silence on the matter.

So alright, let's begin with some background on the two players we'll be discussing:

* The Winshape Foundation is the charitable of Chick-Fil-A and its founder Truett Cathy. The foundation has several Christian focuses, all focused on strengthening certain values. Fair enough. In a perfect world we would all be able to come together and jointly work for some of their very valid goals.

* The Ruth Institute is a spinoff project of the National Organization For Marriage. The group is all about opposing gay marriage, with a particular focus on young people. You might know Ruth's visible head, Jennifer Roback Morse, who we've featured on here a number of times. She's also the one who caught national headlines recently when she talked about wearing a rainbow scarf (that wasn't really rainbow) to the Prop 8 trial as a way of reclaiming the rainbow from the gay rights movement.

Okay, so Ruth has been pushing something called The Reel Love Video Challenge. We showed you a promo for the contest back in December. Basically, the idea is for young people to make :30 second videos telling what lifelong love means to them. And again, just like with the Winshape Foundation's work, the whole contest would be totally benign and even positive, if not for Ruth/NOM's agenda towards LGBT people.

Right, so today we were mindlessly knocking around the Reel Love video site, primarily as a distraction. However, through our bored surfing we happened to catch note of a few new references to something unfamiliar to our "culture war" eyes. Something called LoveIsHere.com:

MORE:

http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2011/01/chick-fil-as-winshape-foundation-now-partnering-with-noms-ruth-institute.html

http://www.joemygod.blogspot.com/

[EFerrari]

1. Yes, they do. I spent a little time yesterday following links

and Chick a fil is up to their eyeballs into Focus on the Family hate group. Last year, those two co-sponsored family hate 9/11 events.

K&R

[patrice]

2. Local Cupcake kiddies held a parking-lot religious mini-mini-woodstock when we got our first

Chick fil A.

I think there were about 50 people there, camped overnight; every media outlet in our midwest metro covered them.

:puke:

[givemebackmycountry]

4. I got a thousand bucks that says that was in OLATHE.

Teh stupid, it hurts.

[patrice]

7. You'd be to the + if I had been dumb enough to bet. Cupcake land is so predictable. nt

[EFerrari]

9. For the uninitiated, what the heck is Cupcake land?

:)

[patrice]

10. From Thomas Frank's book "What's the Matter with Kansas?"

Cupcake Land = Johnson County = the major Kansas City, Ks/Mo bedroom community and, even though we are on the more Democratic side of the state, the home of ChurchCo Unlimited.

[EFerrari]

11. Thanks. That's where my dad's kids grew up.

I could never live there, they'd burn me for a witch.

lol

[patrice]

12. Believe it or not, there's a few Pagans around. I know them, so we'd put up a fight for you.

We're also right next door to Lawrence, Ks, which has some of the most legitimate and deepest counter-culture roots in the Midwest.

:hi:

[givemebackmycountry]

22. I'm not being fair Patrice....

I was living in the River Market and working in OP at the time.
One of the guys that worked for me came into work late that day and said...
"There's a fucking traffic jam that held me up! A bunch of assholes lined up for a chicken sandwich!"
How the hell do you react to that one?
I remember that only because I was there to see it.

I've been around here a long time, and you and I have talked before.
You are OK by me.
Keep the cash and I'll buy you a spicee chicken come Sunday.
Oh, that's right.
Their closed!

LOL.

:hi:

[patrice]

3. Wondering how un-adulterated their chicken is. nt

[Mimosa]

5. But Chik Fil A's chicken bscuits are unbeatable!

The iced tea is fantastic too.

Blubear, it makes little sense for me to boycott Chik Fil A. I cook at home. :7

They are the cleanest of all the fast food joints.

[walldude]

6. Oh yeah.. knew this awhile ago.

Figured it out when I found out they are closed on Sundays. For religious reasons.

[Mimosa]

17. Walldude, I knew that years ago

I grew up on land ( a deteriorating plantation) near Hapeville GA where the Dwarf House became the mother diner to Truit Cathy's Chick Fil-A mini empire.

I know more about that family and business than most people. My great grandparents had owned the property Truitt Cathy bought. I've read Truitt Cathy's books.

He's a decent man who established a foundation to educate kids in need, especially black children. Chik Fil A's corporation is more good than bad. That family does NOT live large on the profits.

ALL of my friends are LGBT or TGLBT or whatever.

I know enough about Chik Fil A (I own NO STOCK of it or any other kind, sad to say) to be sure that company is NOT RUN BY HATERS.

I know 12 links will follow.

What I like about Chik Fil A is first: the food is clean and healthy.

Secondly, the Christian model of their business triumps over the vulture capitalist model. All people NEED 'a day off.' With no 'days off' all employees are slaves.

[Occulus]

23. I... but... fiveminuteprayer... onlyonesong.....

:nuke:

Sorry. Your post made my head explode.

[Dappleganger]

25. I don't have a problem with that day off.

IMO it's too bad we didn't all have that, but still get paid a living wage so we didn't have to squeeze every payable hour out of our miserable lives.

My problem w/the chain is they are wound up too tightly w/Focus on the Family/James Dobson and have been for YEARS. Guilt by association is good enough for me.

[Mimosa]

26. Guilt by association was what Sen. Joe Mccarthy did in the early 1950s

I just won't go there. ;)

[Dappleganger]

29. So I guess you're not familiar with FOF

You should read up on them.

[EFerrari]

8. 2005: OMFG A "FOCUS ON THE FAMILY "CD in my nephew's CHICK FIL A KIDS MEAL

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5135408

[LLStarks]

13. The best way to change a company is to make its positions known and not give them your business.

Blind boycotting does nothing.

[Bluebear]

18. Yes, that's the reason for making this known here.

[lib_wit_it]

14. I suspected as much, but on the rare occasion I eat fast food, CF was my fave, but with this

confirmation, I'm swearing them off.

[Shagbark Hickory]

15. That's enough to make me want to boycott, only problem is

virtually every large corporation contributes money to organizations or conservative politicians who are discriminatory.
So there's nowhere to eat?
Eat at home? Try again. Unless you grew or hunted your meal, a portion of what you paid ends up at somewhere that hates homosexuals.

I find it very interesting that after eating in many of these restaurants, I never come across any diversity in management or employees for that matter. I suspect their anti-lgbt charity is just the tip of the iceberg.

[Bluebear]

19. Sorry, but no fast food joint comes CLOSE to these characters!

[Mimosa]

27. Like TARGET. Even Home Depot...

I don't shop at Target or Walmart because they have nothing I want and both treat employees badly. Chik Fil A is good to thier employees and the food is good.

So, everybody has the choice of where we will spend our money (what money? says I!).

[Mimosa]

28. Manager of nearby Chik Fil A is... um,... pink as a tutu.

Don't know how he got in. AND he's black, too. After katrina, Chick Fil A -via the local black gay manager- gave Katrina evacuees like me cards for free meals.

I'm not forgetting that, when I most needed some mercy.

[undeterred]

16. They're anti-chicken too.

[mitchtv]

20. never saw one

is it like Popeye's? KFC?

[Hugabear]

21. And this is a surprise?

They're a Christian-owned business, whose owner is supposed to be some real fundie nutjob. That's why I don't eat there.

[EFerrari]

24. They're not national so yeah, a surprise for those of us who never heard of them. n/t

[timtom]

30. I will confess to having eaten there -- once.

Just to affirm my disdain for chains of that sort.

This extra revelation is merely extra "sauce" to add to my disdain.

TimTom doesn't do corporate eateries. And, I've always been particularly concerned with vocally "christian" establishments of any kind. Commercial establishments, that is. Commercial retail establishments.