Chick-fil-A, the chicken sandwich chain, is opening its first fast food restaurants in Bellevue, Tacoma and Lynnwood. I’m asking you to boycott them. Most people know that the company has donated over $5 million to groups that oppose same-sex marriage for gay Americans. What many people don’t know is that this is only one of several offenses. Here are three reasons everyone in Washington should boycott Chick-fil-A:
1) Chick-fil-A donated money to the Family Research Council, which has been listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The council lobbied Congress to convince them not to consider gay rights universal. Supporting policies that allow for gay people to be put to death is extreme whether you support marriage equality or not.
2) Chick-fil-A also donated to Exodus International, an organization that promoted pseudoscience conversion therapy also known as reparative therapy. This kind of therapy uses a range of techniques intended to change sexual orientation from gay to straight, but it simply doesn’t work. Mainstream health organizations are critical of the practice and no mainstream medical organization has endorsed it.
The American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association have both condemned conversion therapy. This therapy is most often practiced by non-medical staff that come from religious groups. These groups, such as the Chick-fil-A beneficiary Exodus International, create the perception that being gay is something wrong that can be changed.
This makes it difficult for parents to get accurate information from legitimate health organizations and enables stigmatization of gay youth. Research on the issue of family acceptance of gay youth conducted at San Francisco State University found that “highly-rejected” young gay people were eight times more likely to commit suicide.
3) Forbes magazine published an article that stated “Chick-fil-A, the corporate parent, has been sued at least 12 times since 1988 on charges of employment discrimination, according to records in U.S. District Courts.”
The founder of Chick-fil-A, S. Truett Cathy, has said, “If a man can’t manage his own life, he can’t manage a business,” and that he would fire an employee who “has been sinful.”
President and CEO Dan Cathy, the son of company founder S. Truett Cathy, shares these views. In an interview with the Baptist Press, Dan Cathy has said, “We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives.”
There are plenty of reasons that Chick-fil-A isn’t a restaurant chain worth visiting, but the biggest reason is that the money you spend there goes to groups that aggressively work against gay people, advocating for their criminalization, psychological abuse or death.
Besides not eating there you can also inform your friends and family about the practices of Chick-fil-A. Not everyone is aware of what their purchases are funding because the Chick-fil-A brand is so new to Washington.
If you’re interested in the boycott, please go to: www.facebook.com/BoycottChickFilAinWashington
Tyler Young, Federal Way
