I Don’t Give a Chick-fil-A

A lot of people have been pissed off at Chick-fil-A lately. Some are outraged that the restaurant chain’s president, Dan Cathy, came out against gay marriage. Others are outraged because a guy can’t make a social stand without people taking it out on his poultry.

I wasn’t going to write about it because, well, I don’t really care. But the noise has gotten too loud to ignore.

Mood music:

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We Americans love to find things to be pissed about. If you support gay marriage, Chick-fil-A is now synonymous with bigotry. If you think marriage should only be between a man and woman, Dan Cathy is now a hero. If you’re like me and you don’t really care, you’re now pissed off at both sides for getting in your face with their politics.

I don’t care what Cathy believes for a couple of reasons:

• I’ve never eaten at Chick-fil-A and don’t really care to. Fast food is the monkey on my back, and I’m better off staying far away from it. Since I lack the enthusiasm others seem to have for the place, I find it difficult to care what the chain’s president thinks about the issues of the day. If I were a Chick-fil-A enthusiast, I’d care a lot more about the taste of the food than the politics of the owners.
• I’ve already taken my stand regarding homosexuality and have nothing more to say about it. I don’t care if you’re gay or straight. I care about how you treat your fellow man and woman, not who you choose to love.

But now people are really starting to get crazy over it, with name-calling and scapegoating. So here I am with a couple thoughts:

• If you choose to boycott Chick-fil-A, go for it. But don’t expect everyone to follow suit, and please don’t paint people as villains because they eat there. You’ve never met most of these people, and you have no idea what they feel in their hearts.
• If you don’t want to boycott, don’t. But don’t start bashing people for taking their stand. Just walk past the protesters, eat your sandwich and shut up.

One’s political and religious beliefs are complicated things. You can’t unlock what a person thinks and feels based on where they eat.

It’s also a safe bet that a lot of people standing in line for their chicken don’t follow news and politics that closely and have no idea the chain’s president said something about gay marriage.

Sometimes, a person is just hungry and needs something to eat, pure and simple. They’re not going to appreciate or understand your support of or protests against Chick-fil-A and, by extension, gay marriage.

They’re just going to be pissed because you’re holding up the line.