Posting pictures of you grinning as you order your Chick-fil-a meal tells me pretty much all I need to know about you. Just as boycotting Chick-fil-a says something about I believe (I choose not to patronize a business that is so open and so dedicated to trampling gay marriage rights), you gleefully showing off your red-and-white chicken sack says something about you.
Of course, I've been a vegetarian for well over a decade, so I've been boycotting Chick-fil-a for years. And in the end, I doubt an organized boycott will accomplish much. It's too easy for the anti-gay crowd to just go to Chick-fil-a more and negate any financial threat to Chick-fil-a's bottom line.
But really, that's not what this is about. This is bigger than punishing Chick-fil-a for the company's vocal support of hate groups. This is about punishing America for the vocal support of hate groups. Chick-fil-a has become an easy shortcut to communicating your beliefs on gay marriage, but slamming Chick-fil-a means more than "I hope this bigoted company goes out of business." It means that we've noticed what your company supports, we know a lot of people in America feel the same way, and we really wish you'd all stop using inconsistent and outdated Bible quotes to back up your own personal hang-up that two guys kissing is icky.
Because, honestly, if we investigated every CEO and Board Director and donation by every company out there, we'd find ourselves unable to do business with 80% of American companies. No matter where you stand on any issue. The difference with the Cathy family is that they chose to go to the mats on it. They've issued statements laced with religious appeals; they've espoused their belief that "God's judgement" is forthcoming for our arrogant ways. Which is another way of pulling a Jerry Falwell/Pat Robertson and blaming natural disasters on homosexuals. They made it public, because they're proud of it.
We're disgusted by it. And if any other companies do decide to double down on this kind of thing, we'll be public with our disapproval.
One thing I don't get is the reasoning on display when clowns like Mike Huckabee say Chick-fil-a "is being smeared by vicious hate speech and intolerant bigotry from the left." That's quite a switch. Hey stupid, you guys are the ones who elected to hate and oppress an entire class of people without rational cause. You don't get to call marriage equality defenders "intolerant." Intolerant of what, bigots? Your Biblical inconsistencies?
Eating at Chick-fil-a has become a dividing line. And that's dumb, but maybe the simplification of "chicken sandwich vs gay rights" is what some people need to forge a viewpoint of actual tolerance. The Cathys brought this on themselves, and in the end, they'll go down in history as the small-minded religious bigots that they are.
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