Playwright and composer Wayne Self nails the Chick-fil-A controversy in a must-read essay at his blog:
Two organizations that work very hard to maintain this status quo and roll back any protections that we may have are the Family Research Council and the Marriage & Family Foundation. For example, the Family Research council leadership has officially stated that same-gender-loving behavior should be criminalized in this country. They draw their pay, in part, from the donations of companies like Chick-Fil-A. Both groups have also done āmissionaryā work abroad that served to strengthen and promote the criminalization of same-sex relations. Chick-Fil-A has given roughly $5M to these organizations to support their work. Chick-Fil-Aās money comes from the profits they make when you purchase their products.
This isnāt about mutual tolerance because thereās nothing mutual about it. If we agree to disagree on this issue, you walk away a full member of this society and I donāt. There is no ālive and let liveā on this issue because Dan Cathy is spending millions to very specifically NOT let me live. Iām not trying to do that to him.
Asking for āmutual toleranceā on this is like running up to a bully beating a kid to death on the playground and scolding them both for not getting along. Iām not trying to dissolve Mr. Cathyās marriage or make his sex illegal. Iām not trying to make him a second-class citizen, or get him killed. Heās doing that to me, folks; Iām just fighting back.
All your life, youāre told to stand up to bullies, but when WE do it, weāre told WE are the ones being intolerant? Well, okay. Yes. I refuse to tolerate getting my ass kicked. āGuilty as charged.ā