Business & Tech
Gay Chick-fil-A Employees Speak Out
'I call it hater appreciation day,' one said. The same-sex marriage controversy also affects those who work at the flashpoint company.
There are those who support Chick-fil-A's position on marriage. There are those who support just the opposite -- same-sex marriage.
And then there are the ones in the most difficult position of all in the controversy -- gay employees of Chick-fil-A.
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"I call it hater appreciation day," said Andrew, 24, a gay man who has been working at a Chick-fil-A in northern Alabama since January. "It's very, very depressing."
Andrew was quoted in a Huffington Post article during Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day on Wednesday, Aug. 1. The nationwide event was coordinated by Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate.
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The Huffington Post also quotes a gay employee at Chick-fil-A headquarters in Atlanta.
The gay employee, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing his job, said he is getting it from both sides. On the one hand, there is the customer who came in and said he supported Dan Cathy and then "continues to say something truly homophobic, e.g. 'I'm so glad you don't support the queers, I can eat in peace,'" the employee, who is 23 and has worked for Chick-fil-A since he was 16, wrote in an e-mail to the Post.
On the other hand, he continued, "I was yelled at for being a God-loving, conservative, homophobic Christian while walking some food out to a guest in a mall dining room."
Gabriel Aguiniga, a gay employee at a Chick-fil-A in Colorado, also said the hardest part hasn't been hearing Cathy's comments. Instead, "(it's) constantly having people come up to you and say, 'I support your company, because your company hates the gays,'" Aguiniga, 18, wrote in an e-mail to the Post. "It really takes a toll on me."
According to wikipedia.org, a watchdog group Equality Matters published a report with details of donations given by Chick-fil-A to organizations that are opposed to same-sex marriage, such as the Marriage & Family Foundation and the Family Research Council.
The Post also quotes a gay Chick-fil-A employee in Louisiana: "At the end of the day part of our profits still go towards Dan Cathy, and subsequently, all the organizations he supports," she said.
Compiled by Steve Burns.
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