One Day Does Not a Boycott Make

So Chick-Fil-A sold a lot of chicken and waffle fries yesterday. So what. It's not a secret that there are a lot of people out there who think that the State should be determining its policy based on a Christian ethic. They're wrong, of course. The First Amendment makes that much clear if it is clear on any matter at all. There are two reasons why I will continue to boycott Chick-Fil-A and you should too, no matter where you stand on gay marriage.

First, Dan Cathy and his family have supported groups that actively oppose legislation to afford civil rights protection to same-sex couples, using the company's money. Any person is free to believe what they believe, free from persecution. However, commercial speech, speech by a corporate or other business entity, is subject to less protection. Because the purpose of the entity is to make a profit, it is not appropriate for the entity to be enaging in political speech except in very limited circumstances. Chick-Fil-A has not played bby those rules, so the Court has interpreted the First Amendment to afford less protection to commercial speech. One of the areas in which corporations have less freedom than individuals or non-commercial organizations  is advocating a discriminatory treatment by the State of a protected class.

Second, the purpose of a boycott is not to make a big, flash-mob style media event and then go back to business as usual. The purpose is to make the object of the boycott feel financial pain. I don't care how much chicken the Cathys sold yesterday, or how many pounds Mike Huckabee gained back. It wasn't enough to keep them from feeling the pain of every citizen who believes the Government has no business telling folks who they can and cannot marry based on what the Bible says (and let's face it, you can find a passage  in the Bible to support any position, including incest, rape, murder, and mob attacks) deciding they won't add their hard-earned money to the profits the Cathys use to make them moe hated or make their life more difficult.

The results of the boycott will be evident in the decreasing quarterly earnings the company reports. This match ain't hardly started.