Free Republic

BILLINGS - Calling it an opportunity to support "traditional family values", the Montana Family Foundation will open a Chick-fil-A drive-thru in Billings for one day in September. The "Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day" is Sept. 8. For a suggested donation of $20 per person, the public is invited to attend this fundraising event where hot Chick-fil-A chicken, coleslaw and chocolate chip cookies will be available to the first 1000 people. Earlier this summer, Chick-Fil-A CEO Dan Cathy made several statements supporting what he believes to be "the traditional family," saying about same-sex marriage that those who "have the audacity to define what...

I grew up in an Italian neighborhood, so my first understanding of bigotry was that it referred to a very large tree (“Hey, dat’s a big-a tree!”). Now, many years later, I know that it really means supporting traditional marriage. Like President Obama, I have “evolved.” I have advanced on the semantic spectrum from being ethnicized to being politicized. Who needs Noah Webster?William A. Jacobson is an Associate Clinical Professor at the Cornell University Law School. The sesquipedalian title of the statement he posted on July 29, 2012 encapsulates its essence: “Most important legacy of Obama’s gay marriage switch was...

A Los Angeles artist who allegedly painted the words ‘Tastes Like Hate’ on a Chick-fil-A restaurant following the announcement that their president was against marriage equality, is not going to be criminally charged. Manuel Castro, 30, of West Hollywood, was arrested on suspicion of vandalism a few weeks ago, but will not be criminally charged by the LA County district attorney’s office, according to the Los Angeles Times. Prosecutors said earlier this week that they would not be pressing charges after police in Torrance submitted a case. The District Attorney’s letter said: “The suspect has acknowledged his wrongdoing and offered...

A West Hollywood artist who allegedly painted the words "Tastes like hate" on the side of a Chick-fil-A restaurant because of the company president's stand against gay marraige won't be criminally charged by the L.A. County district attorney's office. Prosecutors announced Wednesday they were declining to press charges after Torrance police submitted a case. "The suspect has acknowledged his wrongdoing and offered to make restitution. Finally, the record does not establish the suspect was motivated by religious hatred," the D.A.'s office said in its letter rejecting prosecution.

Dr. Scott Ferguson, assistant professor in the Department of Humanities & Cultural Studies at the University of South Florida, started an online petition that has garnered more than 500 supporters. Following other colleges that have stopped serving Chick-fil-A on their campuses, University of South Florida students and faculty are being invited to sign an online petition to remove Chick-fil-A from the Marshall Student Center.

Los Angeles County prosecutors declined today to file a felony case against a man who publicly claimed responsibility for vandalizing a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Torrance with the words "Tastes Like Hate" in protest of the company president's comments against same-sex marriage. "... It is the conclusion of the District Attorney's Office that this is not a matter for which felony prosecution is appropriate," wrote John Zajec, the head prosecutor in the Torrance office. "The matter is therefore referred to the Torrance City Attorney's Office for consideration of possible misdemeanor prosecution." A representative from the Torrance City Attorney's Office could not...

MBTA Transit Police have arrested a man and two women for allegedly beating and kicking a mentally disabled man on the Downtown Crossing Station Orange Line platform early Monday, officials said Tuesday. Authorities said Carlito Rezende, of Dorchester, a 40-year-old man with schizoaffective disorder who has a restricted ability to communicate with people, injected himself into a conversation he overheard, telling a group of people not to use the word “hate.”

Romney’s IL campaign chief Dan Rutherford says offended pro-family conservatives “can go someplace else and drink” By Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH Exclusive Folks, there is a reason that conservatives often jokingly call the Republican Party “the stupid party” (as opposed to the Democrats being the liberal party). We learned today from the Chicago Sun-Times that the Illinois Republican Party delegation to the GOP convention in Tampa — led by former legislator and current Illinois State Treasurer Dan Rutherford — is partnering with a homosexual activist group that is pushing to close down what it calls the ”hate-filled, homophobic” Chick-fil-A restaurants in...

Students are seeking to have the chain removed from the university's College Park campus. Some 850 people have signed onto a petition seeking to bar Chick-Fil-A from the University of Maryland's College Park campus, the Washington Blade reports.

A new Chick-Fil-A restaurant on the UTPA campus in Edinburg was greeted by protestors on the first day of classes. Students and staff all clamored to buy meals from the new restaurant early Monday afternoon. But a small group of protestors has stationed themselves outside restaurant. The UTPA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Alliance is circulating a petition to have the school close the Chick-Fil-A. Working from behind a security fence, the group collected signatures from supporters. Chick-Fil-A president Dan Cathy recently set off a firestorm of controversy and created a national debate about gay rights. Cathy confirmed more than...

Chick-Fil-A dedications in Sarpy County (NE), to show support for this delicious enterprise. Wed. Aug 29, 9 AM, 72nd & Peters Pkwy. in Papillion, or at 11 AM at 21st & Cornhusker Rd. in Bellevue. This is just a dedication ceremony and not an official opening day event. Both restaurants will open about Nov. 1st.

First, Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy last month endorsed a biblical definition of marriage, thrusting the chain in the middle of the debate on gay marriage. Supporters came out in droves to its stores on Aug. 1, driving records sales, according to Chick-fil-A. Now, San Antonio’s Whataburger Restaurants LLC is taking a stand of a different note by suing one of the country’s largest debt collections agencies.

Alan Wiener checks in on the Chick-fil-a matter. http://radionewyorkinternational.com/archives/aww/2012-0803%20allan%20weiner%20worldwide.mp3

Chicken was in high demand Thursday in the Bay Area, as San Jose's first Chick-fil-A restaurant celebrated its grand opening. Located on the corner of First Street and Headquarters Drive, the store marks the fast food chain's first stand-alone restaurant in the Silicon Valley. Before this one, the closest Chick-fil-A was in Fairfield, and many years ago there was a location in the Sunnyvale Town Center shopping center. The chain intends to open another Bay Area franchise in Walnut Creek in October. Not even a sprinkle of protesters, rallying against Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy's recent anti-gay marriage statements, could darken...

Stopped by the newly opened Chick-Fil-A in San Jose, CA. Business was steady at 11:30 and line was just out the door. No protestors. Got my lunch is less than 10 minutes. Staff was truely up-beat and excited about serving the public. Will be back next week.

The organizer of a large picnic event designed to help unify Republican leaders and supporters in Connecticut next Saturday canceled his plans to serve 100 Chick-fil-A sandwiches after deciding the controversy over the restaurant owner's stand against same-sex marriage might become a distraction. . . Apparently, because same-sex marriage is legal in Connecticut, Beck reconsidered his decision, according to the Post. He plans to give 90 of the sandwiches to a homeless shelter and keep 10 for "event staff to taste."

Chick-fil-A, the fast food chain that San Franciscans reamed last month, has given the gay marriage movement a few more potential Bay Area locations to stage future kiss-ins. According to media outlets, the Atlanta-based chain bought property in Novato in Marin County this past month with hopes of opening a new restaurant soon, and it has other plans to expand to the East Bay. Naturally, this news has left a bad taste in the mouths of the LGBT community. Stuart Gaffney, media director of MarriageEquality USA, told SF Weekly that he wasn't confident the fast-food chain would thrive in this...

NEW YORK, August 20, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – The “ filthy, degenerate, gutter Christians” at the Family Research Council inspired last week’s shooting by “going too far” with their pro-family activism, according to a nationally syndicated liberal talk show host. “You filthy, filthy right-wing b——-ds, you’re going too far!” Mike Malloy told his audience last week. “One of these days somebody’s going to go berserk and walk into one of your filthy holes of religious insanity with a gun.” Switching to a mocking tone, Malloy said, “Oh. I think that happened today.” Malloy went on to say the council would “happily...

Floyd Lee Corkins II, the suspect in Wednesday's shooting ‏at the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Family Research Council, was carrying 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches in a bag when he opened fire, according to the criminal complaint filed by the Justice Department on Thursday. Corkins, 28, of Herndon, Va., was charged with "interstate transportation of a firearm and ammunition"—a federal offense—along with the "intent to kill while armed." The offenses carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for transportation of a weapon, and 30 years for intent to kill. Corkins is expected to make an initial court appearance later...

Mitt Romney campaign spent $500 at Chick-fil-A By: Tarini Parti August 20, 2012 08:44 PM EDT The Romney campaign appreciates Chick-fil-A. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s campaign spent $500 at a Chick-fil-A in Atlanta last month, days before former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s national “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” on Aug 1. Romney’s campaign reported the cost as “meeting expense” in its monthly federal campaign finance filing on Monday. The Atlanta-based fast food chain has come under fire after the company’s president Dan Cathy told the Baptist Press that Chick-fil-A was “guilty as charged” for backing “the biblical definition of a family.”...