Everyone’s favorite childhood puppets are taking a stand for gay marriage.
The Jim Henson Company—creator of the Muppets—announced recently that it would no longer do business with Chick-Fil-A following recent anti-gay marriage comments made by the popular chicken company’s president, Dan Cathy.
“The Jim Henson Company has celebrated and embraced diversity and inclusiveness for over fifty years and we have notified Chick-Fil-A that we do not wish to partner with them on any future endeavors,” the organization, whose namesake grew up in University Park and attended University of Maryland, wrote on its Facebook page.
“Lisa Henson, our CEO is personally a strong supporter of gay marriage and has directed us to donate the payment we received from Chick-Fil-A to GLAAD,” the post concludes.
Their announcement came after Cathy made some very public remarks – both in print and on the radio – affirming his stance on the subject.
"We are very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit,” Cathy said in an interview with the Baptist Press last week. “We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.”
In addition, The Washington Post reported that in a recent interview on the Ken Coleman radio show, Cathy said that “we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage.”
Those comments, among others, have prompted a wave of backlash from various organizations and people – including the mayor of Boston, Thomas Menino, who told the Boston Herald he would keep Chick-Fil-A out of the city.
“If they need licenses in the city, it will be very difficult — unless they open up their policies,” Menino said.
Chick-Fil-A has 45 locations throughout Maryland, including stores in Bowie, Bethesda, Capitol Heights, Germantown, Laurel and Largo.
Now, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has announced his support for the restaurant franchise. On Sunday, he created an event on Facebook encouraging people to show their support and appreciation for Chick-Fil-A.
"The goal is simple: Let's affirm a business that operates on Christian principles and whose executives are willing to take a stand for the Godly values we espouse by simply showing up and eating at Chick-Fil-A on Wednesday, August 1," he wrote on the event page, which currently has over 95,000 attending.
Will you show up next Wednesday to support Huckabee's campaign? Do you think Cathy should have to rethink his policies? Tell us in our poll and in the comments.
Wikipedia summarizes it too: In updating its report in 2004, the GAO found that this number had risen to 1,138 as of December 31, 2003.[28] With respect to Social Security, housing, and food stamps, the GAO found that "recognition of the marital relationship is integral to the design of the program[s]." The other major categories the GAO identified were veteran's benefits, including pensions and survivor benefits; taxes on income, estates, gifts, and property sales; and benefits due federal employees, both civilian and military. Among many specifics, it noted the rights of the widow or widower of the creator of a copyrighted work and certain financial disclosure requirements that include the spouses of members of Congress and certain officers of the federal government. Education loan programs and agriculture price support and loan programs also implicate spouses. Financial aid to "family farms" is restricted to those in which "a majority interest is held by individuals related by marriage or blood."[27]
Hmm you couldnt keep yourself above this either. Cheers!
This is exactly the same as those previous struggles because those opposing the civil rights of other used the Bible and religion to justify their position just like they are doing now. In the 1800's the majority of the south used the Bible and their religion to justify slavery, in the 1900's the majority used the Bible and their religion to justify segregation. Even as late as the 1960's the Bible was used to justify denying marriage rights to bi-racial people. Women's right were denied based on men's religious believes and the Bible. So you see, what the owner of CFA is doing by donating millions of dollars to groups thay are fighting to deny gays and lesbians marriage rights does equate to the other. All those previous struggles had to overcome those who hide behind the Bible and their religious believes, just like the anti marriage equality movement is doing now. But marriage equality will prevail, just like all those previous movements did, and the world will continue to spin.
Feel free to throw whatever pejoratives you wish.
. Isn't it funny that you are a little like calling the kettle black with yours? Have a nice day!
All federal and state laws use the word marriage to describe the legal rights of a spouse (survivor benefits, retirement, etc), without calling the union between same-sex couples a marriage those benefits are denied to them. That's why the word marriage is important. In the state of Maryland the law that was recently passed protected churches from having to perform a same-sex marriage if their religion did not support such a marriage. The law is about legal rights, not religion.