Why is it because I live my life so gay, I should not eat Chick-fil-A? I’m going to eat it anyway.
Or so goes the music video “Chow Down (at Chick-fil-A),” which is fast becoming an internet sensation. In the video, three self-proclaimed drag queens “endorse” Chick-fil-A, singing both about the restaurant’s renowned fried chicken and their own sexual exploits.
The video (watch below) is the latest, and most viral example of a wave of recent protests against Chick-fil-A’s support of Christian and perceived anti-gay organizations. The company, which has over 1,500 locations and annual sales over $3.5 billion, is a family-owned business endowed with the values of founder S. Truett Cathy, a 91-year-old billionaire.
Cathy, still Chairman and CEO, opened his first restaurant in 1946 in Hapeville, Georgia and is credited with inventing Chick-fil-A’s signature boneless breast Chicken sandwich. But that’s not the only legacy he’s created for the company. Cathy is a devout Baptist who mandates that Chick-fil-A stores remain closed on Sundays.
In a Forbes article in 2007, Cathy said that he values married workers because he believes they are more industrious:
Family members of prospective operators–children, even–are frequently interviewed so Cathy and his family can learn more about job candidates and their relationships at home. “If a man can’t manage his own life, he can’t manage a business,” says Cathy, who says he would probably fire an employee or terminate an operator who “has been sinful or done something harmful to their family members.”
Those conservative religious values are part of the company’s identity, and they have recently drawn criticism from gay rights activists. One Chick-fil-A outlet in Pennsylvania sponsored an event last month by the Pennsylvania Family Institute, which has fought against gay marriage in that state. Last year, Equality Matters, an LGBT advocacy group, called out the company’s philanthropic arm, the WinShape Foundation, for donating more than $1 million to groups they called anti-gay, such as Focus on the Family and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
The company did not immediately return requests for comment.
Cathy’s son Dan, the current Chick-fil-A COO, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution earlier this year, “While my family and I believe in the Biblical definition of marriage, we love and respect anyone who disagrees.” However, Dan Cathy’s bio on the company website noted his commitment to Chick-fil-A’s explicitly Christian corporate purpose: “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us.”
Protesters, especially on college campuses around the country, have not been satisfied by the executive’s statements. Nor, apparently, were the trio who sang in the “Chow Down (at Chick-fil-A)” music video. The three singers call themselves Willam Belli, Detox, and Vicky Vox. While suggestively posing and discussing sexual trysts that Truett Cathy and his family certainly disagree with, the singers also praise the company’s chicken.
“We just want some meat without your bible,” they sing at one point. Watch it and then tell us what you think:
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