Firstly, I have to apologize (as this is a personal blog) that I have not been updating here very often, but I’ve been hard at work on my other blog, Super-Fantastic Plastic.
Well, because the other site is semi-focused on celebrities and celebrity gossip, I often frequent gossip sites like Perez Hilton and Pink Is The New Blog. Then, as I was surfing PITNB, I wanted to comment to wish Trent a happy birthday and I noticed that he had his party at Chick-Fil-A. In addition to wishing him a happy birthday, I also left him a note to let him know that there is a long-standing boycott against the fast food chain for their donations to fundamentalist, anti-gay, anti-religious diversity charities. Thankfully, many other comments and Trent-well-wishers joined me in letting him know of Chick-Fil-A’s hypocrisy.
I also encourage anyone that reads this to boycott Chick-Fil-A, as I have done for over four years. Among its many horrible and offensive practices: Chick-Fil-A demands that employees participate in a daily prayer circle, demands that all franchises (which, of course, they do not own) close on Sundays, they post quotes from the Christian bible around the stores (including one stating “Thou Shall Not Steal” on their cash registers, many make it know that their policy is not to hire atheists or homosexuals (this has let to at least twelve lawsuits since 1988, all settled out of court so that the chain can keep their bigoted policies under wraps), in 2005 they gave a Focus On The Family DVD as a “prize” in children’s meals and their founder contributes millions to this and other horribly offensive charities.
I cannot encourage you enough NOT to patronize their establishments.
On another note: while I was researching the litany of crimes that Chick-Fil-A perpetrates on a daily basis, I ran across a complaint from 2005 about a quote on Starbucks coffee cups from Armistead Maupin and one woman’s response.
The response is as follows:
“Thursday night, October 27th after a long day of work/school and football practice, my two boys were cold and tired. I went home to cook dinner and sent my husband to Starbucks to get the boys a hot chocolate as a reward.
My 8 year old son loves to read, so to entertain himself on the way home, he begin reading the Starbucks cup he was drinking from.
He runs into the house hollering “Mom, mom, come read my cup…It talks about being gay and uses a curse word.”
To my deep displeasure I read his cup.
Starbucks is now putting controversial quotes on their cups to stir up thought provoking conversation. The one that was handed to my son read as follows:#43 “My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long. I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don’t make that mistake yourself. Life’s too damn short.” –Armistead Maupin
Now as you can imagine my day and my husband’s day just got a lot longer. We had to have a conversation with our sons that was forced upon us. And, we had the pleasure of knowing we had just paid Starbucks about $3.00 a cup for the privilege of bringing this into our home. I am so offended and upset I’m having a hard time finding the words use in this email.
I love coffee and in the past I’ve been a big advocate of Starbucks, it was my favorite meeting place to catch up with friends or family. My favorite gift card was from Starbucks. I often brought Starbucks to the moms at football practice. But now I cannot. They went too far.
Please, please, please take a stand with me and help me tell Starbucks that this is not just totally inappropriate, but unacceptable.
Please choose another coffee vender and take the extra effort of stopping in, calling or emailing them so that they know why. http://www.starbucks.com/wayiseeitIt’s bad enough that I might have paid for this quote to be put on my cup, but it’s totally another when it’s handed over to our children.”
Oh, gee lady, you had to have a realistic conversation with your children? I’m so fucking sorry you actually had to do some parenting! Fill in the blanks – F_CK YO_!_!
2 responses so far ↓
Ashley // March 10, 2009 at 12:48 am
you’re misinformed on a couple of things…
I’ll start with the most accurate accusation. Yes, there is a history of law suits concerning discrimination (from over 10 years ago). The company realized it’s error and corrected it practices.
Since I’ve been with the company (2006)- I’ve been blessed to work with people with all sorts of beliefs and backgrounds. This morning, I was looking at a team members pics where: he, in a beautiful white dress, married his long-term boyfriend. Last week, I was getting church recommendations from a different team member. There’s variety… the only consistency is: everyone I have worked with is kind and seems happy to be with the company.
Moving on, to Sunday. Yes, there’s the Christian basis for being closed on Sunday. Since, the beginning this practice has enabled us to provide an enticing employment offer. Regardless of how you spend it, a guaranteed day off is great! This is legal because Chick-fil-A DOES own all of the restaurants. The operator pays a very small amount for the rights to run a store; but, the company always owns the brand/facilities.
Both on a corporate and store level, I have worked with straight, gay, christian, mormon, atheist, agnostic… pick a label…the company doesn’t care. They only ask for honest, motivated, and respectful- so chill.
Also, if you have had any personal experience with someone from Chick-fil-A being malicious or judgmental, I am truly sorry. Please don’t let one individual’s ignorance reflect poorly on a company, full of people who want to positively impact everyone with whom our company connects.
Blooboy // September 26, 2009 at 3:49 am
Learn your history – the ‘closed-on-Sunday’ started out because the founder didn’t want to work on Sunday. When it was noticed that people commented how it was “religious” they went with it as pseudo-marketing and then later made it a policy but still don’t claim it started on religious tenants. Sorry.