Chick-Fil-A's new desserts are sweet -- but the chain's politics don't fly

By Jenn Wohletz Mon., Apr. 23 2012 at 9:31 AM

In January 2011, news broke that the WinShape Foundation, the "charitable arm" of Chick-Fil-A, had been actively fighting against same-sex marriage, hosting conferences with high-profile, anti-gay organizations including Focus on the Family.

A same-sex couple was turned away from a WinShape marriage retreat, prompting a candid e-mail exchange in which WinShape stated, "WinShape Retreat defines marriage from the Biblical standard as being between one man and one woman. Groups/Individuals are welcome who offer wholesome, educational conferences and programs that are compatible with Biblical values and WinShape's purpose."

I contacted a representative from Chick-Fil-A to ascertain whether or not the company has changed their position on same-sex marriage since last January, and as of publication I have not recieved a response.

J. Wohletz

How does any of this affect the food at Chick-Fil-A? It doesn't, and people are free to spend their money wherever they like. But this will probably be the first and last time I eat there voluntarily, because although those waffle fries are positively scrumptious, I prefer gay rights over chicken sandwiches, and suppressing rights stinks worse than the grease at the mall stores.

But I'll miss those ketchup packets...

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Tags:

biscuit, brownie, Chick-Fil-A, chicken sandwich, Focus on the Family, same-sex marriage, waffle fries

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Bee

We eat there as often as we can because of their policy against gay marriage and I compliment the manager of each store at which we eat. Do you know their business actually increased during the protest the gay community organized against them? Regardless of what your morons think, most people in America are against same sex marriages.

Ted Simmons

You are an idiot - get a life! Chick-Fila- is a fast food restaurant - best there is - not a high-priced restaurant.

Guest

If you love the chicken, but despise the politics, here's what you do... Chick-Fil-A has very attentive customer service. If you voice a complaint, however minor, online or in a less modern fashion, they will usually send you a bunch of coupons. Save them for strong cravings and have the willpower to refuse the fries and voila... You get your chicken AND cost the company a little money. It's not a very nice thing to do, of course, but if you're a gay-loving lefty you're going to hell anyway, right?

GFTW

Thanks for the heads up, Wolowitz! It's great to see a corporation stick to their guns, and non-left-wing ones at that! I'll encourage everybody to eat there, but I can't bring myself to eat their crappy food. I totally hear 'ya about boycotting corporations -- I've been boycotting Ben and Jerry's for almost a decade now! Hypocritical hippies...

Jenn the Lambasted

@GFTW:disqus OOOOooooo----what did BJs do to arouse your ire? This sounds juicy!

GFTW

THEY'RE HIPPIES!!

Christopher Cina

Is it really necessary to provide ink promoting the Denver chains? It's bad enough we have to compete with them as restaurateurs for dining dollars. The annual marketing budgets for these corporations is roughly a years revenue for the average independent restaurant. Now we have to compete with them for content in the local free paper/site? Come on...

Jack

@twitter-26798439:disqus : Promoting, huh? Apparently you have not been reading the blogs closely enough.....

Jack

@twitter-26798439:disqus : Okay, if that wasn't clear enough for you, Wohletz basically bags all over these fast food joints, and in one of them she points out that eating locally is better. If nothing else, she is doing you guys a favor.

SmokingLoon

I absolutely agree! And, anyway, it's just chicken and pickles!

Joey M.

But they are really delicious chicken and pickles.

Bree Davies

I disagree. I appreciate someone looking into the world of chain restaurants. She's not promoting as much as she's dissecting what we drive by every day, and that, to me, is more interesting than someone picking apart the menu of a place I would never be able to afford to go to anyway. We have enough foodie culture here, which often feels too exclusive for us common mall folk. You wanna read that stuff, go catch up on Yelp, where white people in cubicle office jobs go to slobber all over hep restaurants.

Keep on, Jenn in Chains!

Jenn

Keep Jenn in Chains! I need money to buy "Asshole Cream" to rub on my life, and the co-pays for that are outrageous!

Jenn the Misunderstood

You fucking sing it, soul sistah!

Purpleroadking

I have never eaten there. It's odd that a company would take such a stand in light of how hard it is to stay in business in today's economy. Perhaps they were just hoping not to get any bad publicity out of the whole ordeal. I'll bet you if they receive too much backlash off of this they will change their position.

monopod

Unlikely. Chik-Fil-A has been roasted (no pun intended) in the media for years over this, and they haven't changed their tune. They make the best fast food chicken sandwiches out there, and that's been enough to keep them going despite being arguably out-of-step with the American public on this issue, perhaps because most folks don't stop to consider the politics of the place where they get their fast food grease fix.

They're also not open on Sundays due to their religious affiliations, which you'd think would cut into their profits pretty seriously (and caused them to be booted from the Denver Airport, which requires restaurants to be open seven days a week). Nevertheless, they've stuck with it. The determination is kind of admirable, actually, if I didn't find their stance personally abhorrent.

mmmmm, chicken

Agree. They continue to be closed on Sundays, regardless of profit. CFA was started by a very religious man, and his beliefs are still very integral to the company. Agree or not, this will not change any time soon.

And i think they are extremely profitable, no matter what. CFA restaurants and drive-thrus in my area seemed to be jammed packed from the moment they open to the moment they close.

oh, and the best nuggets. the nuggets are to die for.

Jack

@Purpleroadking: I hope so. Food and politics are two things that really have had an intimate relationship since the dawn of civilization, and I do my small part when I can to choose buying delicious waffle fries somewhere else over depriving same-sex couples basic rights.