Well, here we go. Leftist big city mayors make jackasses of themselves promising fascist punishment on a private, job-sustaining company because they disapprove of the views of the company’s owner. America responds by supporting free speech and delivering that company its highest ever single-day earnings. The bomb threats and “kiss-in” haven’t hurt the company. So here come the frivolous but expensive lawsuits.
The Civil Rights Agenda, a local LGBT rights advocacy group, filed multiple complaints with the Illinois Department of Human Rights Thursday, alleging that the Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A restaurant chain’s “intolerant corporate culture” violates Illinois law and a provision in the state’s Human Rights Act.
“In our current high speed media and social media environment, Chick-fil-A has announced and caused to be published, to hundreds of millions of people, that LGBT people are unacceptable and objectionable,” said Jacob Meister, Governing Board President of TCRA and the attorney who filed the complaint. “They have made it clear the lives of LGBT individuals are unacceptable to them and that same-gender families are unwelcome at Chick-fil-A.”
None of that is true, but it doesn’t matter. The Civil Rights Agenda is using the courts to do what Adam Smith did to that Chick-Fil-A worker in Tucson: Be a noisy pest. But the lawsuits will also make for an expensive pest, and may end up destroying jobs if not destroying Chick-Fil-A itself.
Hurt feelings are the basis of the lawsuit.
“The complainants are a same-gender family with a daughter,” said Martinez. “Chick-fil-A used to be one of their favorite places to eat until Mr. Cathy’s latest statements were reported so widely. Now, they feel completely unwelcome in the establishment.”
If hurt feelings can become the basis for destroying a thriving company, then no one is safe from the least emotionally stable in our society. Amazon supports many political causes to which I personally object. Does that give me the right to take them to court and punish them?
Mark my words here: This lawsuit, if it succeeds, is only the beginning. Canada has advanced a few years farther down the anti-free speech road on this than we have, and in that country pastors of churches have faced legal action for adhering to the Biblical view of marriage that, until a couple of months ago, was President Obama’s position. If the left can succeed against Chick-Fil-A by killing the company in court, churches will be next. We have already lost the freedom of conscience via the ObamaCare abortifacient mandate, which kicked in August 1 and forces religious charities and hospitals to subsidize medical procedures that violate their religious beliefs. The First Amendment is no longer sufficient protection, not after ObamaCare and not when the left opens up the Pandora’s box of suing over hurt feelings.
Those who support such lawsuits do not care about justice or equality, and do not agree with Voltaire’s principle of disapproving of what one says while pledging to defend to the death their right to say it. Those who support such lawsuits do not care who they hurt. They got their feelings hurt, and they want revenge.
Bryan – Well said. Leftists don’t care a hoot about liberty and freedom. It’s all about what feels good at the moment, and that can change from moment to moment. As Leftists say: It’s all relative. So, hate speech is bad, but any critical speech is hate speech, and then there is no speech at all in the end. Just ask Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant. To be a Leftist is to suffer a form of mental illness.
The name was redacted because the complainant is a hypocrite. How do I know? You can see his name in the upper right on most pages: John Zaharakis, 44 y/o, owner of the gay bar Cocktail in Chicago. They regularly have mostly naked men dancing for the customers, so his claim to be a Christian is more propaganda. His lawsuit doesn’t even state he entered a Chick-Fil-A. Also, look up the Illinois statute. You read further and it plainly states the free exercise of religiously based views shall not constitute a civil rights violation! There’s no record of him having a daughter with his partner, Dusty Hoffman.
But the most hypocritical thing about this all is that his bar discriminates against straight women…they even have a sign! CFA doesn’t bar anyone from their restaurants in ANY way, but John will. Don’t believe me, just google discrimination and Zaharakis. Many of the gay blogs that talk about it even admit that it’s discriminatory. So where’s Rahm & Moreno now? Public records also reveal 15 liens/judgments from the IRS, the state, and private individuals – one of whom was the General Manager of Cocktail! The most recent liens were on July 16, 2012. This is the same day he alleged he felt discriminated against. Someone needs money badly.
This is the best complaint they could muster? The suit itself is baseless and the complainer is the one who should be sued. The arguments these GLBT extremists have are hollow and sensational. Just question their sources before believing the hype.
So they’ve never had a bad experience in one of the restaurants; they’re just “upset” over what they read that someone said in an interview in a magazine they’d never read?
That’s what I thought…Chick-Fil-A supposedly has this deeply seeded intolerant attitude towards gays…and these people have been happy to eat here until now?
I have a hard time understanding the goal here. I’m a heterosexual that fully supports gay marriage, but this stuff really annoys me to the point where I almost don’t even care enough to support their cause these days. CFA has been blatantly open with their Christian leanings and the CEO’s views have been known for as long as I can remember. If you don’t agree, don’t do business there. It’s simple. Any kind of kiss-in is actually more intolerant than anything. CFA as a business isn’t doing anything illegal. They’re an equal opportunity employer and serve anyone without discrimination. Staging a ‘kiss in’ as a sign to any Christian who happens to be there is as insulting as walking into a Mosque with a grill and cooking bacon. It’s a blatant intolerance of one’s religious beliefs. Then they have the audacity to call Christians bigots. That may be true in many cases, but it’s the pot calling the kettle black. This attempted boycott, the lawsuits, the threats, it isn’t helping. I’m not Christian and it turns me off, so I can only imagine how many others are throwing their hands up and saying, “No thanks, I’m not wasting any more time trying to help them.” And remember, this wasn’t CFA that spread this news. Progs swarmed Facebook with it and drew all the attention to it. They should be suing themselves for taking one man’s opinion and ruining this poor family’s routine fast food dining experience.
20 years ago I supported gay marriage. Today I say a pox on them for getting in the faces of everyone who isn’t willing to tell them how superior the gay lifestyle is at every meeting. Many of these incredibly puerile are in for a rude awakening. One day in the not too distant future they are going to find themselves old, low on money and having to rely for all their needs on the very children of all the “breeders” they sneered at for so long.
I agree. Out of respect for two gay family members I was going to vote against the marriage amendment in Minnesota this November. Between the mayors and now this lawsuit I’ve changed my mind. It used to be about tolerance and gay rights, now it has degraded into openly bullying people into submitting to their point of view. The heck with that.
Countersue the bastards.
What whiny little children. And they continue to proclaim how smart and advanced they are.
After Wednesday, they certainly should have the funds to hire the best lawyers money can buy…lol.
I hope it wins. Then I’ll make millions counter suing General Mills, Kraft, Kodak, etc..
What sitting judge would fail to dismiss such a suit as frivolous, a blatant attempt to harass a law-abiding institution through the courts?
Perhaps we should have a Support-Chick-fil-A month, to ensure that they hav adequate resources for the contest.
One of the end games has always been lawsuits in Blue States that have passed or had judicial rulings legalizing same-sex marriage that will force churches to perform those ceremonies or face the loss of their tax-exempt status. Even the most militant gay rights advocates aren’t crazy enough to file one of those suits now, with the election still in doubt, but it would be a shock if the first suit doesn’t show up sometime in the next four years, whether Obama or Romney win in November.
The ultimate end game, of course, is a federal law or Supreme Court ruling allowing same sex marriages, followed by suits in Blue States and in the Blue areas of Red States around the country. That’s going to take a lot longer to effect, but it’s easy to picture a ruling a couple of years from now against the Catholic Church or a conservative Protestant denomination in, say, northern California ordering them to perform same sex weddings or face civil and/or criminal penalties, followed by an affirmation of that ruling by the Ninth Circuit (though if and when that comes, the churches will have the option in court of bringing the beliefs of Islamic worshipers and mosques on the subject into the debate. Won’t stop the left’s anger, but it will cause a lot of cognitive dissonance for the ones who actually care to think their position through).
The Civil Rights Agenda group really isn’t that far away from the good old Mob. “Nice little business you have here, would be a shame if something happened to it.”
The Illinois Department of Human Rights is a typical kangaroo court, peopled by lefties who don’t want anyone’s feelings hurt. They’ll send in inspectors and a whole crowd of other do-gooders, to shake down CFA, all at taxpayer expense of course.
The Illinois Department of Human Rights will issue some bogus report requiring all CFA employees to attend sensitity training, issue public statements, send some “donations” to righteously offended groups, and generally order CFA to flog themselves before the great power of the Lefty state.
The people who will really be hurt are the employees and vendors who rely on CFA for a living. CFA may find it is cheaper to just close up shop in Illinois rather than fund ongoing litigation just to keep their doors open.
I wonder if the affected franchisees could sue the Civil Rights Agenda group right back?
No one makes them “feel” anything, they are their feelings, they choose how they feel. If they don’t like they way they are “feeling”, FEEL DIFFERENT, it’s really that easy, just ask any of their left leaning psychologists or psychiatrists.
Someone tell the children that feelings are primitive animal instincts developed as small children, and when a person matures and experiences “emotional growth”, they learn to think rational and replace this childish instinct with rational, logical thought.
Grow up kids.
We are long overdue for a Constitutional amendment barring lawsuits being filed against “offensive” ANYTHING. Lawsuits against offensive content and other offenses, and the threat of lawsuits, have had a terrible, dampening effect on the truth getting out and people being able to speak their minds, especially if they happen to be conservative. We have a Constitutional RIGHT to freedom of speech. If those of us who hate porn and public nudity can be told “So, don’t LOOK”, then the gay activists can avoid ever going to CFA and forbid their adopted kids to go there. The atheist radicals can just look away from public creches at Christmas and not join in when people are carolling or praying.It’s a free country,people, pull up your grown up panties and DEAL with it. I am sick to DEATH of adults acting like spoiled little children and throwing tantrums as lawsuits.