Despite his age, prospects and the country’s lingering economic uncertainties, 60-year-old Chick-fil-A staffer Steve Cammett has given the company the bird after nine years.
“It’s become a safe place for people to hate and expect to be patted on the back for it,” says the former employee. “I don’t want to work in that kind of environment.”
For Cammett, who is heterosexual it’s personal. In an emotional interview with CBS 46 in Atlanta, he discusses his sister, a lesbian who died in 1992, and reflects on how Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy’s comments foster an environment of intolerance and hate.
He relates one story in which a customer put his arm around a coworker recently and said, We are sure glad your company is taking a stand against those perverts. “That person was gay [but the customer] didn’t know it,” says Cammett. “And I just thought, ‘Wow. What has happened here?’”
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If any Queerty readers in Atlanta are looking to hire an upstanding man of principle, we think Cammett would make a good addition to your team. (This appears to be his Facebook profile.) Plus, he knows his way around a deep fryer, which is always a plus.
Cam
Countdown to some brand new account on here pretending to be gay and attacking this guy and defending Chik Fil Et.
Some little NOM intern will come on here pretending to be one of us and post something stupid.
tidalpool
I can see where customers could and most likely will act as though each Chik-fil-A employee is either str8, anti-gay marraige, or just a plain old bigot. Mankind has for ever been able to place their own beliefs and likes and dislikes on others.
My question is specific. Does Chik-fil-A have some operational proceedure that encourages hate? Does it encourage its employees to say, do or act in some way Steve Cammett felts was anithetical to decent behavior. As the story reads, it was a customer who was reprehensible. I read nothing that backed up Mr.Cammett’s view that Chik-fil-A had become a ‘safe place to hate.’ He seems to have made a name by checking out when he could have spoken up against that customer. Oh well, another flash point for people who do not think, or ask the questions that need to be asked.
LaTeesha
@tidalpool: I would say it does if management doesn’t speak up to the employee and to the customer. I owned several Subway locations and I would have asked such a customer to leave.
Ogre Magi
I am sooooooo sick of christians and all their crap
JimmyzLA
Harassment by third parties is actionable under federal law and if management tolerates it then they are liable. So yes it is a safe place to hate – for now. Eventually their love of the Almighty Dollar will triumph over their love of the Almighty. They are lucky they don’t have shareholders or it would have happened already.
KARUADAM
!.@Ogre Magi: Hahahaha Man welcome to the Club!. Christianity is a mental illness! there for Christian are mentally ill
2eo
@Cam: In good news, three of these right wing mentalists didn’t go through their correct proxy before logging onto their mIRC where they co-ordinate. They’ve been found and their machines terminated.
Dumdum
I must have taken a wrong turn at the Andromeda Galaxy. The Intergalactic travel guide said this planet was a garden paradise with friendly natives.
Gigi Gee
@tidalpool: “Does Chik-fil-A have some operational proceedure that encourages hate?” Yes. It comes from Dan Cathy himself. What you might call a “trickle down” situation. The owner and CEO of Chick-fil-A donates millions of dollars to anti-gay hate groups. This undoubtedly gives some of his employees, not all, the feeling that their bigotry of The Gays will be tolerated. It is. I’ve heard several former employees of this restaurant corroborate Mr. Cammett’s story. In reference to your criticism of Cammett not speaking up when he heard a customer make a derogatory comment about gay people I would say this: if you work in an environment that is homophobic, oftentimes one doesn’t feel safe to challenge such things. I was in a similar situation many years ago at a job and I stayed silent, knowing that I would be fired if I said anything. It was the worst feeling in the world but luckily that’s in the past.