Chick-Fil-A

I love Chick-Fil-A. I love their food, their iced tea, how friendly the employees are to kids, the positive they bring to a community and how the treat their employees.

I support marriage. Not just traditional marriage. I support two consenting adults deciding they want to be married and doing so. I support staying married. I support strong families. I do not think the government should be in the business of handling marriage. Be it a man and a woman, two women or two men, I believe the government should issue civil unions and marriages should be left between the couple and their church or their God. End of story.

But, the government insists on not only handling marriages but also insists that they know what is best for everyone in the country and actually have the audacity to decide who can and who cannot be married. How is it any if their business who you decide to share eternity with?

Freedom of speech is one of the amendments that makes the US great. And everyone supports that freedom, until they hear something you don't want to hear.

Recently a fire storm of news reports came out accusing CFA of being "anti-gay" because of how the CEO chose to spend some of their funds. While it is my personal belief that it is bad for businesses to get involved with politics, they have that right. And, there are consequences to that right.

As a consumer, you have the right to spend your money where you chose and if you feel that a company is spending it's profits in a way you disagree with, you should consider not patronizing that establishment. But, you should do it based on facts. The fact is, CFA isn't anti-gay. They proudly employee and serve all people, regardless of their race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, marital status and so on.

Personally, I find the Boy Scouts and their recent actions far more offensive. Locally, a man was terminated from camp, without a single previous infraction against him, who was loved by those that attended, after he came out of the closet. He had been a lifelong boy scout. Several other employees made the choice to walk out with him. Good for them I say.

When it comes down to it, as individuals, we have the right to boycott wherever we want to for whatever reason we find important to us. Local government does not have the right to interfere with businesses because of the practices they support with their own profits. I'm sure that if a town had a mayor that was very "anti-gay marriage" and forbid Starbucks from doing business in the local limits because of how they spend their dollars we'd all be in an uproar about it!

I also believe it is really important to look at a company as a whole. CFA has regularly been the first to respond to tragedies by feed first responders, those who have had natural disasters wipe out their entire towns and so on. They don't respond with just money, they physically show up with hot food, prayers, good thoughts and warm wishes. I wish more companies did that.