Gay Community Stages Same-Sex Kiss-In At Chick-fil-A

By Nick Chiles | Published on August 3, 2012 | Updated on August 3, 2012 12:32 PM EDT

Gay activists protest Chick-fil-A with ‘kiss in’. The chicken sandwich wars will intensify today as the gay community is planning to counter the public’s huge outpouring of support on Wednesday for Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy’s anti gay marriage position by flocking to Chick-fil-A restaurants and kissing each other in the parking lots.

They are calling in National Same Sex Kiss Day at Chick-fil-A and they are urging same sex couples across the country to take photos and videos of themselves kissing outside of Chick-fil-A restaurants,

The nation will be watching closely to see if their numbers come at all close to the “record-setting” sales numbers that franchises saw across the country in response to Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day on Wednesday. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who is also a Baptist minister and former presidential candidate, started the campaign on Facebook, drawing more than 21 million views.

While both sides claim that they are merely exercising their first amendment rights, it is a remarkably American phenomenon that the nation’s social wars have been directed at a fried chicken sandwich. Eating at Chick-fil-A has now become a social statement and will probably remain so for a long time to come. Seeing someone carrying a Chick-fil-A bag will allow the public to make assumptions about their politics.

The scene at many Chick-fil-A’s on Wednesday was bedlam, as lines snaked around the block and cars queued up for hours to show their support for Cathy’s politics. The issue of gay marriage was thrust into the national spotlight by President Obama several months declaring his support for it, provoking a firestorm of reaction on both sides. As the Chick-fil-A protests rage this week, a group of black pastors, the Coalition of African American Pastors, announced that they would be working to encourage black voters to withdraw their support for President Obama in the upcoming election unless he renounces his support for same sex marriage—something which the group must know is extremely unlikely to happen.

Subscribe To The ABS Newsletter — Get our stories in your inbox.

Independent journalism still matters.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way