Ex employee deems Chick-fil-A ‘a safe place for people to hate’
A former employee of fast food restaurant, Chick-fil-A, has resigned after almost ten years, saying that the company created an atmosphere where it was understood “that Chick-fil-A doesn’t like homosexuals.”
Steve Cammett, 60, recently told CBS that he had worked for the company for over 9 years in branches and at their corporate offices:
“I was a Chick-fil-A enthusiast. … We don’t have enough time to go over all the things I liked about Chick-fil-A.”
He expressed his disappointment at the company’s move towards funding anti-equal marriage groups and that back in July, CEO Dan Cathy announced that the company was against equal marriage.
“It’s become a safe place for people to hate and expect to be patted on the back for it. I don’t want to work in that kind of environment.”
Mr Cammett said: “I felt hurt by those statements.”
He said he could remember situations where customers and employees embraced each other for taking a stand against “those perverts,” speaking with reference to LGBT people.
He said: “Chick-fil-A allowed a mindset to continue, especially amongst their customers, that Chick-fil-A doesn’t like homosexuals.”
On 19 September, Chicago alderman Joe Moreno said in a press release, he had finished negotiations with Chick-fil-A, that the company had agreed to stop funding charities with a political agenda, including those opposed to equal marriage. The letter from Chick-fil-A, addressed to Mr Moreno read:
“The WinShape Foundations is now taking a much closer look at the organizations it considers helping, and in that process will remain true to its stated philosophy of not supporting organizations with political agendas.”
Just over 24 hours later, Chick-fil-A released another statement saying their donations had been “mischaracterised” and that they had been trying to get out of the political debate for months.
Dan Cathy, CEO of Chick-fil-A, later denied that the company had re-evaluated its stance on donating the money.
In a statement posted online by Mike Huckabee, Mr Cathy said:
“Chick-fil-A made no such concessions, and we remain true to who we are and who we have been.”
