The story brings two Severson strands together: Foodie Severson is also openly gay, supports gay marriage, and has served as vice-president of the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association.The Times proves once again it is not overly concerned with the religious sensibilities of Christians with its cavalier reference to “Jesus chicken.” The conservative watchdog Media Research Center started off the complaining by criticizing the story and targeting Severson, saying : Arguing the story was evidence of liberal bias supporting a gay agenda, commentators are smearing Severson because she is a former executive board member of NLGJA and has written about gay issues. While the story made me hungry for a Chick-Fil-A, it has apparently made conservative commentators fuming mad. The issue spread into Christian media circles, too.
“If you’re eating Chick-fil-A, you’re eating anti-gay,” one headline read. Students at some universities have also begun trying to get the chain removed from campuses. A Pennsylvania outlet’s sponsorship of a February marriage seminar by one of that state’s most outspoken groups against homosexuality lit up gay blogs around the country. But recently its ethos has run smack into the gay rights movement. Nicknamed “Jesus chicken” by jaded secular fans and embraced by Evangelical Christians, Chick-fil-A is among only a handful of large American companies with conservative religion built into its corporate ethos. College students returning home stop for one even before they say hello to their parents.īut never on Sunday, when the chain is closed. So when an award-winning food writer and Atlanta bureau chief for the NYT writes about the story, we get a great mix of food and politics:ĪTLANTA - The Chick-fil-A sandwich - a hand-breaded chicken breast and a couple of pickles squished into a steamy, white buttered bun - is a staple of some Southern diets and a must-have for people who collect regional food experiences the way some people collect baseball cards.New Yorkers have sprinted through the airport here to grab one between flights. Chcik Fil-A officials have been forced to go to social media to defend themselves. There are talks of protests and boycotts. More specifically, it brings us to Kim Severson’s front page story on the New York Times about the high-profile problems haunting Chick-Fil A for its Christian ethos and support for efforts that are considered anti-gay. It’s a smear that haunts all minority journalists, no matter the evidence to the contrary. One of the founding principles for NLGJA (and other minority journalism groups) is supporting journalists in the newsroom who are assumed to be biased about LGBT news just because they are LGBT.