We always thought of The Office‘s Ed Helms as a funny guy. But by declaring he’s boycotting Chick-fil-A—the fast-food chain whose owner recently reiterated his anti-gay views—he’s shown he’s got leading man potential.
“Chick-fil-A doesn’t like gay people? So lame. Hate to think what they do to the gay chickens! Lost a loyal fan,” Helms tweeted yesterday.
Earlier this week Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy told the Baptist Press his company was “guilty as charged” when it comes to accusations that it opposes marriage equality. “We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit,” Cathy said. “We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.”
Ugh, we just lost our appetite.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Big Ben
Pretty useless story with the economy the way it is. Panties in a bunch!
Throbert McGee
I dunno — I tend to see the “Honk If You Hate Chick-Fil-A” boycott as the gay-rights equivalent of Craig Shergold.
Shergold being the British kid who was diagnosed with an “inoperable brain tumor” and publicly wished to receive a million get-well cards before he died. Billionaire cable mogul John Kluge paid to have Shergold treated at the University of Virginia medical center; the operation was successful and Shergold is now alive, well, and in his early 30s. But he continued to receive get-well cards for years and years after being declared cancer-free and out of danger — I think they basically stopped counting at around 250 million cards! And the reason he got so many cards is that the story circulated endlessly on the Innerwebs, and people kept passing it on WITHOUT DOING BASIC FACT-CHECKING because it was a feel-good exercise.
And IMHO, the real-life damage done to gay rights by Chick-Fil-A has been grotesquely exaggerated by people who forward anti-Chick-Fil-A emails to their 20 closest friends because it *makes them feel good* to do so. (I might also make a comparison with the gay boycott of Coors — some members of the Coors family were, indeed, virulently anti-gay, but Coors as a corporation had a reasonably good track record as far as LGBT employees were concerned.)
Not saying that people shouldn’t boycott Chick-Fil-A; just saying that it’s not a particularly big deal.
Geoff
@Throbert McGee:
Mr. McGee, I suppose your story might be true despite the fact that you that you seem to rely on its veracity from the
“Innerwebs” – Before we had the innerwebs the gay community caused the Florida Orange Growers to
put Anita Bryant out of business.
It’s time for the entire gay community to rally once again and boycott Chic fil A.
Mr Cathy got one thing right. He is guilty.
Haightmale
It leaves more than a bad taste in my mouth.
http://www.jiveinthe415.com/2012/07/boycott-chick-fil-for-overt-bigotry-and.html
AaronT
@Throbert McGee: Fact-checking would show you that the WinShape Foundation, Chik-Fil-A’s charitable arm, has given nearly $5 million to anti-gay groups. And you don’t even need to fact-check to see that the CEO is on the record being quoted as against gay marriage. What exactly more is needed to check on?
Mike Breeden
HI can’t stand shitty acting nor their dumbassed drunken comments. The guy was asked his opinion, and he gave it. I guess freedom of speech is only ok if one likes the response.
Based on Ed Whoever, gay people should not have the right of free speech. I would guess Ed would have a bad taste with seamen anal fluids dripping from his.
Mike Breeden
Ummmm 30 states have spoken, the will of the people is what rules.
Mike Breeden
Please do, as you people fail to realize one important FACT. You people are complete Hippocrates, you claim your rights are violated, and then you attack people’s right of free speech. Also, 30 states out of 30 states, have voted, NO! THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE
pierre
@Mike Breeden: Mr. Breeder, crawl back under your rock. Got nothing better to do than troll gay websites? Me thinks thou doth protest too much….
Ewan
Mike, you seem to be confusing freedom of speech with freedom from criticism, you abject cretin. Also, get chrome, it has spell check. That way you’ll look marginally less retarded.
jwrappaport
@Mike Breeden: No, majoritarianism is not a virtue any more now than it was during Jim Crow. The idea that “the will of the people is what rules” is frankly un-American and rejects the philosophical essence of our country: the protection of even the smallest and weakest individual against the tyranny of the majority and the state. A lofty goal that is often frustrated or blithely ignored, but nonetheless permeates our country’s politics, jurisprudence, literature, and history. Read the Federalist Papers sometime. Listen to the Pledge of Allegiance. This is not a democracy ruled by the whims of the mob – we are a republic that was crafted precisely to guard against the whims of the mob and check majoritarianism at every turn. Denying gays and lesbians equal rights at the ballot box isn’t due process or something to hold up as some beacon of liberty and freedom for the people: it is a raw exercise of tyranny by the majority and nothing more.
However, your freedom of speech argument, though unlettered and cumbersome, is spot on (insofar as it relates to Boston’s threat to ban Chick-Fil-A). Imagine the hue and cry if Beulah, MS wanted to prevent The Advocate from being printed in local print shops. Or if the same town wanted to ban any store that had sold a Lady Gaga album. Freedom of speech cuts both ways, and to quote a “man for all seasons” (you might say), we should give Chick-Fil-A the protection of the laws for our own safety’s sake.
B
No. 8 · Mike Breeden wrote, “Please do, as you people fail to realize one important FACT. You people are complete Hippocrates, you claim your rights are violated, and then you attack people’s right of free speech. Also, 30 states out of 30 states, have voted….”
First, the “right to free speech” does not give one immunity from being called a fool after saying something really, really dumb. Second, while 30 states may have voted against same-sex marriage, in a few years, those voters will realize that they made a mistake and the laws banning same-sex marriages will be repealed. 50 years from now, the people who opposed same-sex marriages will be viewed with as much disdain as those who opposed interracial marriages 50 years ago are viewed today.
Read http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/09/gay-marriage-polls-trend_n_1504577.html for an overview and a graph of how opinion is changing with time. People opposing same-sex marriage will find themselves on the “wrong side of history”.
KARUADAM
Ad, I got just the right stuff for your Mouth M`m M`m.
KARUADAM
@Haightmale: If you get what I got for your mouth! it will be testier come try.