Chik-fil-A (Update)

I am really sick of this. It's another non-event blown completely out of proportion -- a media circus in which both the right and the left get to smile pretty for the camera. And the media, since it has nothing better to do, is lapping it up.

Let me summarize:

CFA CEO Dan Cathy stated quite bluntly his anti-gay beliefs. OK, fine -- he's allowed to say what he wants. He's allowed to believe what he wants. (And let me point out something here: religious belief is a choice.)

The left is up in arms. Well, that's only to be expected. If the left were more effective, someone might actually pay attention -- besides the aforementioned media.

The right is screaming "Free speech!" and "Freedom of religion!" Well, sure -- Dan Cathy's allowed to say what he wants. He's not insulated from the consequences. As for his beliefs, as disgusting as they are, he's allowed those, too -- and no one on the left has said he's not. The right is once again madly whipping together a nice dish of red herring. (I wonder if that comes with waffle fries.) Update: Here's a good commentary from David Neiwert on the whole "free speech" nonsense.

(It's worth noting that those civic leaders who have made threats against CFA opening outlets in their cities have backed off of those threats pretty rapidly. They know they're out of line, but it does make some nice headlines, now, doesn't it?)

The argument has been made that Chik-fil-A outlets are franchises, independently operated. (Note, though, that they are not independently owned.) However, there's some question as to how "independent" they are: it seems that potential franchisees are rather heavily vetted to make sure they conform to the corporate "family" values -- ideally, they are bigoted in the same ways that Dan Cathy is. Ditto for employees. (Like the woman in Georgia who was fired so she would be a stay-at-home mom. Wonder if that fool boss of hers ever asked himself what her family was going to live on -- although that may come too close to dealing with objective reality for him to manage.) And, as for the lame attempt at damage control -- "we are committed to giving the best service to all of our customers without discrimination" -- there's no evidence to support it. Quite the opposite.

And there's also the fact that the Chik-fil-A "charitable" arm, the Win-Shape Foundation, has donated over $5 million to anti-gay causes, including recognized hate groups.

So there are "kiss-in" scheduled for today at Chik-fil-A outlets. Gods! You want an effective protest? Hand out leaflets detailing the groups that Chik-fil-A funds, detailing the lawsuits against them for violation of discrimination laws, detailing their employment practices, and the like. Perhaps I have too much faith in humanity, but it seems to me that most people, unlike fundamentalists, will take facts into account.

Anything else is just posturing.