Douchebag Businessman Award: Chick-fil-A (Updated)

Updated Below on July 23, 2012

Call me behind the times, but apparently, I missed this one. An investigation into the charitable donations from Chick-Fil-A show that they company donated approximately $2 million to groups with an anti-gay agenda in 2010.

Fortunately, my family doesn’t eat at Chick-Fil-A because my wife can’t stand the smell of their food. She worked for another company that was right next to a Chick-Fil-A and was forced to smell the grease and chicken for eight hours a day. There have been countless times that I have suggested we eat there simply to watch her gag. Fortunately, I can only remember actually eating there once in the last four or five years. Now I regret every penny of that meal.


I live in the heartland of America. I am surrounded by ignorance, discrimination, and hate at every turn. I work very hard to teach my child how to hear the hate and discrimination and turn it into a lesson on tolerance. She understands that some people just have hate in their hearts and are afraid of anything that they don’t understand. I take her to church and we have read a children’s story bible from cover to cover. She understands now that God taught us how to love, not hate. It amazes me that a child with such a basic and pure understanding of God and the Bible can grasp that concept when so many people who claim to be Christians cannot.


I’m not going to re-write my articles about gay marriage and homophobia. If you haven’t read them already, give them a read.


I can tell you that my family will not support Chick-Fil-A’s homophobic agenda in the future. I hope anyone who learns about this follows the example and refuses to patronize an organization that is founded on hate.


A blogger that I follow has occasionally done a “Douchebag of the Day” on his blog. I loved the idea, but I didn’t want to completely steal his idea, just the basic concept. Since a lot of my disdain is reserved for companies and business executives, here is my version.


Congratulations Truett Cathy…you have the honor of becoming our first recipient of the Douchebag Businessman Award.

Truett Cathy - Founder of Chick-fil-A

Update July 23, 2012:

Finally realizing that their anti-gay agenda was totally exposed, Dan Cathy, President of Chick-fil-A, came out and openly admitted that the company has an anti-gay agenda.  When asked about the company's agenda against gay-marriage he stated,

"'Well, guilty as charged,' adding:


'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.'"

In a wonderful show of support for the LGBT community, Chick-fil-A has been experiencing backlash.  They have had calls for boycotts by average people as well as celebrities.  The mayor of Boston has vowed to make Chick-fil-A's expansion in the city very difficult until they change their practices.  Facebook pages have started in opposition to the company (see below for links).  Finally, in another major blow, the Jim Henson Company, renowned for the Muppets, has cut ties with Chick-fil-A.  The statement read:

The Jim Henson Company has celebrated and embraced diversity and inclusiveness for over fifty years and we have notified Chick-Fil-A that we do not wish to partner with them on any future endeavors. Lisa Henson, our CEO is personally a strong supporter of gay marriage and has directed us to donate the payment we received from Chick-Fil-A to GLAAD. (http://www.glaad.org/)

In a pathetic attempt to calm the storm that the Cathy's have created, the company issued the following statement on its Facebook page:

The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect – regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. We will continue this tradition in the over 1,600 Restaurants run by independent Owner/Operators. Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.

I think they wrote that incorrectly...I'm pretty sure what they meant to say was that the culture and tradition in their restaurants was to treat every person with honor dignity and respect - at least until they have your money.  At which time they will take a percentage of your money and donate it to organizations that will fight to make you a second-class citizen.  But, we still want your money so please don't let that stop you from purchasing our food.

What a fantastic outpouring of support for the LGBT community.  This kind of support gives me hope that I'm not alone in my thinking that we should never discriminate against a group of people who are simply trying to live their lives, love their families, and enjoy the freedom that we all cherish. 

I encourage you to show support for the websites who are speaking out against this ridiculous company.  Please remember that, although I love debate and argument on my articles, these pages are not necessarily out there asking for debate.  Please visit them, like their pages, and support them.  If you can't support them please carry on with your life and leave them alone. 

Chick Filled Hate

One Million Against Chick-fil-A




I noticed that many of the links in the original post were broken.  I believe that I have fixed them all.  Please let me know if you find any still broken.  Thanks!