I don’t buy gas from Exxon, I don’t shop at HobbyLobby & I don’t eat a Chik Fil A. But that’s just me.
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If not anti-gay, then at least apathetic toward or ignorant of anti-gay rhetoric (and political and charitable donations). I wouldn’t presume to tell someone where or what to eat, unless I was paying for it. But just because you don’t encounter people - in America! - who “vote” with their food money doesn’t mean we don’t exist. We most certainly do.
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My beliefs and what I believe America thinks are two different things.
I’m much closer to your viewpoint and have followed their travails in San Antonio and other locales.
That said, I still don’t believe the majority of the customers are making a political statement; they just want the sandwiches.
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I don’t believe the majority of Chick-Fil-A customers are anti-gay. But I also don’t believe “America” is nearly as politically disengaged as you think it is. For better or for worse. (Mostly worse, lately, it seems.)
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I’m in a blue bubble in the middle of a fairly redneckish valley. I get the pulse from them everyday.
We drove a McDonald’s out of town.
It became a bank 
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What was the thing against McDonald’s?
We’re that left wing in Ashlandia and they seemed to represent everything evil that folks moved here to get away from.
The drive thru window was the most valuable asset as the # of those was hard capped several years before.
https://ashlandtidings.com/archive/goodbye-mickey-d-s
Law of unintended consequences.
This is a wildly inflammatory statement.
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Not inflammatory from my eyes
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In my area, we get very exercised when a chain (any chain) moves in, especially if it replaces an independently-owned establishment. Trader Joe’s got a pass, 'cause it opened in a newly constructed building. Also, it’s Trader Joe’s. But the 7-11 caused great consternation, and now it’s gone, and a Lebanese restaurant is moving in. Yay! It’s not a bank. Or a Subway. Or, goddess forbid, another drug store.
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But it’s…true.
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I’ll just leave this here. Sylvester Stewart is is pointing at all of us!
“I am no better, and neither are you.”
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Anti-American bias because I said that we don’t have the same soul food culture here? We have African and Caribbean food but the world pathways would not have included the US, which is where soul food as I understand it to be originated through the intersections of those paths and circumstances
(Although that said, West Indian foods have their own histories and pathways— and if you thought I being anti-American by acknowledging the legacy of slavery on food, the U.K. is also part of that history.)
I have no idea what bias you perceived.
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I doubt they are too. And I have had many friends in the past experience eloquent on the tastiness of their sandwiches (and I am sad I have never tasted one since the only time I had a chance— before where I knew my money would go— it was a Sunday and it was closed). And these were queer friends as well.
However, once we all knew what our purchases were funding, the pleasure was compromised. For some it isn’t. Some people are also fine supporting things that are ultimately damaging to them. People are complicated.
As for me, I don’t care how nice people are when they are seeking to curtail my or others’ access to basic rights or ability to live their lives in safety. It’s not a nice flavour for me. Yet I also know there are others out there who don’t think about these things, and who possibly think that if there is no intention when participating that there is no him done.
I am utterly chuffed that the people of Reading chose protecting marginalised/threatened communities over potential fast food deliciousness.
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Man. This thread went off the rails with a bang!
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No. That is an entirely accurate description of the basis for the protests in Reading.
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These are the rails. This thread started as a discussion about the reasons behind the closing of a Chick-Fil-A. It remains a discussion about the reasons behind the closing of a Chick-Fil-A.
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I’ve learned a new word.
Chuffed.
Cool!
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As a philosophical thought and not political I struggle with corporate entities taking stands. Focus on your d@m^ mission and keep your views to yourselves. From Google to Dominoes there is way too much influence from corporate dollars.
I have no dog in this fight. I eat fast food about twice a year and have never eaten at Chick-fil-A. I’ve never eaten Spam either if that matters. Let your product speak for itself and keep the posturing out of your own wallet.
YMMV.
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To give bbqboy another new word, I’m also much mithered by corporate influence. We’ve probably left the fight too late to win, but we can still resist as best we can. In this case, if you want to eat chicken, then support your local independent chicken place.
By the by, my village used to have three independent coffee places. Then Costa (the UK’s by far largest chain) arrived. Within a couple of months, we now have two independents and, unfortunately, the one that went to the wall was the one I used.
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