Another protest targets Chick-fil-A

(Bob Andres, bandres@ajc.com)

Just in case you hadn’t noticed it, today was “National Marriage Equality Day” at Starbucks, which gays and lesbians launched as another response to conservative talk show host Mike Huckabee’s successful “Chick-fil-A Day” last week.

Equally Wed, a gay and lesbian wedding magazine, sponsored a Facebook campaign urging followers to patronize Starbucks because it is among the “pro-equality companies and organizations” that support same-sex marriages, the group said.

Kirsten Ott Palladino, editor of Equality Wed, told ABC News the group was going to call it “Starbucks Appreciation Day,” but some Starbucks managers wanted the name changed to reflect other companies’ support of gay and lesbian issues.

Thousands of Chick-fil-A supporters in Atlanta and around the country  jammed counters and parking lots last Wednesday to show support for company President and Chief Operating Officer Dan Cathy, who came under fire by gays and lesbians after he warned in an interview that the nation is “inviting God’s judgment” because it is trying to “redefine” marriage as anything but being a union between and man and woman.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLADD, countered Friday with a “National Same-Sex Kiss Day at Chick-fil-A”, inviting same-sex couples to descend on the restaurant’s locations and later post pictures of themselves kissing. The group is also urging a boycott of the chain.

For its Tuesday event, Equally Wed was offering Starbucks gift cards to finalists in a photo contest and a grand prize $100 Amazon.com gift certificate. It is also listing companies and groups it says support gay and lesbian rights, including Abercrombie & Fitch, Amazon.com, Apple, Ben & Jerry’s, Best Buy, Delta Air Lines, Disney, Ford, Google, J.C. Penney, Macy’s, Microsoft, Nike, Sears, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, Target, and Tiffany & Co.

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