Recently in the United States, a fast food chain called Chick-fil-A has caused quite the stir, and it has nothing to do with what goes on in the restaurant.
Dan Cathy, Chick-fil-A CEO, recently came out with comments saying he supports traditional marriage. It has also been released that the restaurant chain's charitable foundation, WinShape, donated almost $2 million to groups with anti-gay agendas. The company has said it doesn't discriminate against people based on religion, race, gender or sexual orientation, but that hasn't stopped people from protesting against Chick-fil-A.
Universities across America have taken a stand against the restaurant, with it being reported that over 30 schools have protested or petitioned against Chick-fil-A.
The students object to the anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) remarks from the CEO, and I don't disagree with them.
To me, it is still amazing how much discrimination there is in this world. There are lots of problems in this world and to worry about someone's sexual preference, race or religion is just a waste of time.
Although I don't agree with the remarks of Cathy, the fact that so many people boycotted the restaurant made me think what would it take for me to stop going to my favourite chain restaurant?
The fast food company at which I spend the most money is easily Subway. So if the CEO of that restaurant came out with some discriminatory remarks towards a person's gender, race, religion or sexual preference would I stop eating there? The truth is I would continue to eat there. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and even though I don't agree with it, I wouldn't feel like I was supporting this opinion simply by being a customer of his store.
However, if similar to the case of Chick-fil-A, I found out that one of my favourite companies supported groups with agendas against gays, a certain religion or race I think I would stop supporting said company.
I don't think I could give my hard earned money to a company that would turn around and try and make this world a worse place by adding more discrimination to it. Supporting groups who have an agenda to hate someone seems ridiculous to me. And by supporting that group is only going to bring more hate into the world.
I consider myself an open-minded person and as long as you're causing no harm to other people, I don't care about where you come from, who your with or who you pray to. Growing up in Winnipeg, I got to see people from all walks of life and I feel lucky to have grown up in a community like that. Everybody should be treated equally.
There are obviously some holes in my argument here. All of the clothes I'm wearing now were probably made in China, and no doubt there was cheap or child labour involved, so I may be a little bit of a hypocrite. How about we all start with eliminating the discrimination in North America, and then we can work on helping the rest of the world.
