Chick-fil-A Wings Clipped At Two Airports
What is it about Chick-fil-A that infuriates activists?
A) Is it that the company scoops up all the courteous kids to work in its restaurants, leaving only rude ones for McDonald’s and Wendy’s?
B) Is it that the fast-food chain closes on Sunday and unimaginative types can’t figure out any other place to order chicken (hint: KFC)?
C) Or is it that the CEO is a conservative Christian who doesn’t support gay marriage - you know, like the Pope - and his charitable foundation gives generously to conservative groups and provides up to $10,000 in scholarships for kids who work for the chain during college?
The answer, of course, is C.
I wrote about this company a few months ago, when The New Yorker published a snotty piece about the chain opening an outlet in New York City, declaring that “the brand’s arrival here feels like an infiltration, in no small part because of its pervasive Christian traditionalism.”
Can you imagine The New Yorker writing a similar piece about the opening of a Middle Eastern restaurant that honored its employees’ Islamic faith? Me neither.
In the past two weeks, political meddlers in two cities - San Antonio and Buffalo - have banned the chicken chain from their airports, huffing that the company is anti-LGBTQ.
You can count on one thing: The outrage mob will be energized. Look for other cities to follow suit.
Speaking of suits. These hasty - probably unconstitutional - decisions will end up in court and the airports will lose. The airports are publicly owned, remember. And government is prohibited from interfering in the free exercise of religion.
“The Constitution's protection of religious liberty is somehow even better than Chick-fil-A's chicken," Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton warned in a letter to the San Antonio mayor and city council. "Unfortunately, I have serious concerns that both are under assault at the San Antonio airport."
Fact is, the Atlanta-based company has absolutely no history of discrimination in either hiring or serving customers. In fact, after the mass shootings in the gay Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016, the nearest Chick-fil-A actually opened on a Sunday to help feed rescue workers, grieving family members and those donating blood.
Almost as if the company took that “love thy neighbor” commandment seriously.
Chick-fil-A has been a popular target of activists since 2012, when CEO Dan Cathy admitted he believed that marriage should be between a man and a woman. (At that time, Hillary Clinton said she felt the same way. Hillary famously changed her mind about gay marriage the next year.)
The company, one of the most profitable in the U.S. is fighting back.
“Recent coverage about Chick-fil-A continues to drive an inaccurate narrative about our brand. We do not have a political or social agenda or discriminate against any group. More than 145,000 people from different backgrounds and beliefs represent the Chick-fil-A brand,” a spokesperson said. “We embrace all people, regardless of religion, race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity.”
I’m delighted Chick-fil-A has refused to knuckle under to far-left bullies who want to bankrupt and destroy anyone who doesn’t conform to their orthodoxy. Most folks are too busy to put the CEO of every company they patronize under a microscope to make sure his or her beliefs are perfectly aligned with their own.
That sort of extreme corporate vetting is exhausting. Besides, it stifles free speech and diversity.
Look, if you don’t want to dine at Chick-fil-A, fine, I hear you can lead a happy life without ever eating their waffle fries. But don’t tell the rest of us where to buy our nuggets.
