In a post yesterday, I described a back-door way to track trends among Facebook users. Today, that tool tells us something about the people who work at Chick-Fil-A.
For some time, Dan Cathy has used his status as President of Chick-Fil-A to reinforce his interpretation of Christian values, including values tracts with meals and closing the restaurants on Sundays. That’s personal-level activity within a business. But more recently it’s become clear that the prominence of the Chick-Fil-A restaurant chain is being used to push a political agenda. Equality Matters has reviewed the Form 990 of Chick-Fil-A’s charitable arm and discovered that nearly $2 million per year has been directed to groups pushing an anti-gay agenda. President Dan Cathy has taken to the airwaves and the newspapers pushing to make it illegal for gay and lesbian people to marry one another.
On Facebook, 140 men who say they’re interested in other men also describe themselves as Chick-Fil-A employees. 320 women who say they’re interested in other women also say they work for Chick-Fil-A. Together, they make up one out of every 25 people who say they work for Chick-Fil-A. That’s something for Dan Cathy to keep in mind when he speaks for the Chick-Fil-A brand. It’s also something to keep in mind when confronting the people working there; there’s not an insignificant chance that the person you confront for working with bigots is also a target of bigots.
As one would expect out of any population, the LGBT community probably makes up between 10 and 30% (in some industries it’s probably much higher). Cathy doesn’t discriminate in hiring (or salary as far as we know) or serving customers, he just doesn’t agree with their worldview or sexual orientation.