×
×
homepage logo
LOGIN
SUBSCRIBE

Nashua stands tall in Chick-fil-A flap

By Staff | Aug 6, 2012

It can be risky business when a business owner speaks candidly, especially about emotionally charged topics like gay marriage.

When Dan Cathy, the CEO of chicken restaurant chain Chick-fil-A, said he supports the “biblical definition of the family unit,” his words hit cyberspace like a bomb and renewed the national debate about gay marriage.

But just as business owners have First Amendment rights to say what they want, consumers have the same right to speak with their wallets.

And they did.

National calls for a boycott started having results – people pledged they wouldn’t buy those Chick-n-Strips and waffle fries anymore.

Then came Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and Fox News host, who took to Facebook and called for “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” on Aug. 1. He said he was tired of the hate and bigotry aimed at the restaurant chain.

Boy did people respond.

Around the country, and at the Nashua store in the Pheasant Lane Mall, sales soared and restaurants sold out of food.

But the response to corporations entering the gay debate isn’t always so warm, and even the biggest companies can suffer financial consequences.

Target and Best Buy financially supported the candidacy of Tom Emmer, the Republican candidate for governor of Minnesota in 2010 who was outspoken against gay marriage, and suffered demonstrations outside their stores and calls for boycotts.

Amid the gay debate, calls for boycotts go both ways.

The group One Million Moms called for a boycott of J.C. Penney earlier this year after the company chose openly gay talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres as a spokeswoman.

Not that Chick-fil-A is a small fry.

One of the small guys amid the national furor is Nashua Chick-fil-A franchise owner Anthony Piccola. He stood by the gay community despite big-boss Cathy’s comments.

Piccola issued the following statement as the call for boycotts mounted:

“In both my personal and professional life, I have had and continue to have positive relationships with family, friends, customers and employees in the LGBT community. It would make me sad if someone felt that they were not openly welcomed into my life or restaurant based on their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender,” he said.

“Chick-fil-A at Pheasant Lane Mall has gay employees and serves gay customers with honor, dignity and respect. We also don’t discriminate in giving back to the Nashua community, donating to a wide variety of causes. I would challenge people to come have a conversation with me before they make assumptions or boycott my restaurant.”

And he put his chicken where his mouth is.

Piccola decided to help sponsor the New Hampshire Pride Fest, a gay rally, which will be held Aug. 11 from noon-5 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Park in Manchester.

We applaud Piccolo for sticking his neck out.

It’s also important to note the debate didn’t stay civil everywhere.

Police were investigating graffiti on the side of a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Torrance, Calif., that read “Tastes like hate.” In Tucson, Ariz., an executive at a medical manufacturing company lost his job after filming himself verbally attacking a Chick-fil-A employee and posting the video online. His poor choices led to financial consequences of his own.

We support the rights of both sides of the gay marriage debate to express their views, but we urge people to do so with civility and through honest discourse. This issue isn’t going away soon, and there’s a lot still to talk about.

Maybe we can talk it out over some chicken and fries.

Newsletter

Join thousands already receiving our daily newsletter.

Interests
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *