Chick-fil-A declares it had a record day Wednesday as a result of Mike Huckabee's call for an "Appreciation Day." But the experience has left some gay and lesbian employees with a bad taste.
A closeted gay woman who said she works at a Chick-fil-A in the South wrote an anonymous column on The Daily Beast about how the day changed her mind on whether LGBT people should boycott her employer.
"When this first started, I implored my friends and allies not to boycott," she said, warning it might hurt employees like her who are trying to make a living. "Now, if I didn't work there, I'd be boycotting too. That much hypocrisy and hatred leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and the last thing I want to eat is their chicken."
The woman confirms Chick-fil-A spokesman Steve Robinson's claim to CNN that "it was a record-setting day."
"We were so busy we nearly ran out of food," she wrote. "Though we didn't have to close early like we feared, by 10 p.m., we barely had anything left."
But her day included working alongside people who talked about proudly being part of "a righteous movement" and voiced their support for Dan Cathy, whose company has donated $5 million and counting to antigay groups and who himself has said marriage equality is "twisted."
One of her fellow employees said he wished gays would go hungry. And The Huffington Post reports on gay and lesbian employees who said customers repeatedly thanked them for hating gay people.
"I'm so glad you don't support the queers, I can eat in peace," one employee remembers being told, according to The Huffington Post.
At the Chick-fil-A in Hollywood, just outside predominantly gay city West Hollywood, singer Pat Boone showed up in line. "Marriage is something instituted by God," he said. Boone was among a distinctly homophobic crowd. They told cameras that "homosexuality is not about love, it is not about family, it is not about civil rights, it's about sex." Another customer claimed being gay leads to polyamory.
See the crowd and Pat Boone in the video below.
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