Chick-fil-A is under fire from the gay rights community. The restaurant chain is being blasted for donating food to the Pennsylvania Family Group, a group that works that supports a traditional definition of marriage. The chain is famous for it’s chicken sandwiches as well as its practice of closing on Sundays. The chain has always been upfront and open about the Christian values of its founder and how it has impacted the business.
The Human Rights Campaign has latched onto the controversy as a way to bully the company into participating in its annual Corporate Equality Index. This is an annual survey put together by the gay rights activist organization that rates companies on their policies as they relate to LGBT issues. The report lists rates each participating company and provides a numerical score that can be used to compare companies against a each other with regard to non-discrimination policy, domestic partnership benefits, etc. This useful information for both employees and customers. However, the annual report is often used to bully and intimidate companies into expanding support of gay rights in the corporate community. The organization has a history of using strong arm tactics and threats to get executives to support their goals.
Regardless of your thoughts or opinion on gay rights or workplace equality, what is at issue here is something else. We have a privately held business that is being harassed and intimidated based upon their Christian identity. As a private entity, Chich-fil-A has the freedoms to operate the business according to their values. Reading the comments on the CNN article and other internet sites, we can see that many on the left see tolerance as a one way street. Mr. Cathy has affirmed his families belief in the Biblical definition of marriage and expressed their “love and respect for anyone who disagrees”. Should they be tried with the same love and respect?
As individuals we all the have the right to choose where we eat and spend our hard earned dollars. However, HRC should be using the situation to try to force participation the the annual Corporate Equality Index. Their participation serves no purpose other than providing a tool to attack the company. Given the stated values of the founders and the corporation, any reasonable person would expect that they would score lower than larger, public corporations who have given into the the pressure from HRC in the past.