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Gay Couples Head to Chick-fil-A for Kiss-In Protest

By JENNIFER PRESTON, ROBBIE BROWN and KIM SEVERSON

Two days after hundreds of thousands of people packed Chick-fil-A restaurants to demonstrate their support for the fast-food chain's position against gay rights, supporters of same-sex marriage staged what they called a “kiss-in” on Friday at locations across the country.

As part of National Same-Sex Kiss Day, more than 14,000 people had signed up for an event on Facebook that encouraged couples to visit one of the restaurants and photograph themselves kissing.

While some shared their photos on Twitter and Facebook, others submitted them to a Tumblr page set up for the event.

In one photo on Tumblr, a young man is pictured with a woman. He said he took his mother to Chick-fil-A because his boyfriend was out of town.

While the kiss-ins were planned mostly for Friday night, there were some smaller protests and kiss-ins at restau rants earlier in the day.

In Decatur, Ga., about two dozen protesters, including families with small children, showed up at a Chick-fil-A at lunchtime, some with bags of McDonald's food.

The restaurant did a steady business as the protesters stood outside, getting supportive honks from passing motorists and waving rainbow flags and signs with slogans like, “We're here, we're queer, and we're not eating,” and “Eat Mor Equality.”

Most of the customers said in interviews that they supported gay rights, but that they did not think the food chain's opposition to same-sex marriage prohibited them from eating at Chick-fil-A. The demonstrators made it clear that they were not protesting local Chick-fil-A employees, who offered free lemonade that the protesters declined to take.

Among those gathered outside was Marci Alt, who runs a production company that publishes the Gay Community Yellow Pages in Atlanta. Ms. Alt, who was at the protest with her par tner, Marlysa Alt, has started a petition on Change.org that invited the restaurant's president, Dan T. Cathy, to have dinner with her and her family.

“I make great matzo ball soup,” said Marci Alt, who said she wanted to ask Mr. Cathy whether he really thinks “that we are not the same kind of normal family as you and your wife?”

Ms. Alt said she was surprised by how many people showed up to support Chick-fil-A on Wednesday.

Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, used his television show and Facebook to help organize what he called “appreciation day.” He asked people to show up on Wednesday after gay-rights advocates had called for a boycott of the chain because of the millions the company has donated to organizations that are lobbying against laws allowing same-sex marriage, and after remarks from Mr. Cathy, who said that the biblical view of marriage should be upheld.

Ms. Alt said she believes that many of those who showed up on Wednesday were unaware of how the company uses its money to support groups that lobby against gay rights.

“A lot of those same people have gay daughters, gay sons, gay parents,” she said. “Knowing that my money is going to be used to oppose gay marriage - I can't choose that.”

Throughout the day, people shared photos of kisses being exchanged at Chick-fil-A, as part of the kiss-in event, on Twitter and other social networking sites.

Instead of heading to a restaurant to share their kiss, Bria Kam and Chrissy Chambers from Atlanta wrote a song about why they were no longer going to eat the chicken sandwiches and waffle fries they love, and performed it in a YouTube video.

On Twitter, some people openly displayed th eir disdain for the kiss-in, including a state legislator from Rhode Island, Representative Daniel P. Gordon Jr. who posted this with the hashtag, #protip:

The overflowing conversation over Chick-fil-A on social media platforms in recent days reveals strong feelings on both sides of the debate.

An Arizona man, Adam Smith, lost his job as an executive for a medical firm after he posted a video online of his encounter with a Chick-fil-A employee at a drive-up window on Wednesday. He taped the conversation with the employee, who did not lose her composure as he told her that he did not know how she could “live with herself” working for a company that gives money to hate groups.

In California, employees at a Chick-fil-A in Torrance found graffiti when they arrived to work on Friday.

The company has not been discussing the boycott or the appreciation day organized by Mr. Huckabee. In a brief statement on Friday, Steve Robinson, the executive vice president of marketing for the chain, said: “At Chick-fil-A, we appreciate all of our customers and are glad to serve them at any time. Our goal is simple: To provide great food, genuine hospitality and to have a positive influence on all who come into contact with Chick-fil-A.”

Herndon Graddick, president of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said that people have every right to speak up against Chick-fil-A.

“As a private company, Chick-fil-A has every right to alienate as many customers as they want,” he said in a statement. “But consumers and communities have every right to speak up when a company's president accuses them of ‘inviting God's wrath' by treating their L.G.B.T. friends, neighbors and family members with respect.”

Many online have been talking about how they are finding comments about the controversy over Chick-fil-A disheartening.

On Wednesday night, a Texas man posted on Facebook that he was going to unfriend all of the people who shared photos of their chicken sandwiches, as he said they didn't understand how hurtful it was to him, a gay man, to see those photos in his news feed.

A woman from Kentucky wrote on her Facebook page Friday night:

“This is the one and ONLY comment I will ever make about all the drama concerning Chick-fil-A: (and YES, I am totally sick and tired of reading about it just like everyone else), most of the comments I have read have really opened my eyes to the hatred and intolerance a majority of people have. I don't care if your gay, straight, bi, transgender, Christian, atheist or spiritual. We ALL have different beliefs. That's what makes the world go round. But people please, I beg you, pleas e leave your RUDE and disgusting comments to yourself. And yes, I know all about your First Amendment right to Freedom of Speech, but use it wisely, because you never know who's feelings you are really going to hurt. And in all honesty, my opinion of many of you has totally changed for the worse…”