“My View” from the July 24, 2012, edition of “Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer.”
Eliot Spitzer:
Chick-fil-A makes a great chicken sandwich — and I used to like getting one, with their amazing lemonade — whenever I was in the South. Chick-fil-A’s are as numerous there as Starbucks on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. In fact, before I knew more about Chick-fil-A, I used to joke about helping to open them here in New York.
Then I found out the company — according to the LGBT group Equality Matters — has donated millions of dollars to groups that oppose gay rights, and Chick-fil-A’s president, Dan Cathy, told a Baptist newspaper that he supported the “biblical” definition of family.
Which is why former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas has asked that folks who share the company’s values stop by a Chick-fil-A on Aug. 1, to show support for the company’s conservative values. And that’s fair enough.
If you really don’t think gays and lesbians should have the same rights as everyone else and oppose same-sex marriage, stop by a Chick-fil-A. If you truly believe gays and lesbians should be second-class citizens and if you sincerely don’t want them to marry the people they love — well, it’s your money — stop by a Chick-fil-A.
But the same goes for those of us who support same-sex marriage and have what we consider to be a more modern view of civil rights. We are boycotting Chick-fil-A because these are our consumer dollars and they’re part of our voice. We should use them for products we like, to support companies we like and to back causes we like.
As for me, as good as those Chick-fil-A lunches used to taste, there are other places to get a chicken sandwich.
Over the next few weeks we’ll be talking more about companies whose leadership uses company profits to support their conservative worldview. I have no problem with that — in fact I applaud their involvement in politics.
But those of us who disagree have to remember that we, too, can exercise our rights, flex our muscles and show our commitment to the values we believe in — from the way we spend our consumer dollars to the way we choose the companies in which we invest. And, of course, to the way we vote in elections. All of these are levers that deserve to be used.
That’s “My View.”
