Have You Had Your Contempt Today?

I didn’t join in the AFA’s boycott of McDonald’s. The AFA, while choosing some good targets, also urges some boycotts that make little sense. That was the category I put a boycott over McDonald’s membership in the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Congress. (For my general thoughts see my column from 12/06, Boycott Nation.)

However, McDonalds is taking this a step further:

Instead, McDonald’s spokesman Bill Whitman told the Washington Post that the boycott was motivated by “hate” and McDonald’s would continue to remain in the NGLCC.

“Hatred has no place in our culture,” McDonald’s USA spokesman Bill Whitman said. “That includes McDonald’s, and we stand by and support our people to live and work in a society free of discrimination and harassment.”

However, the AFA, which has over 2.2 million members, has pointed out that its boycott has nothing to do with McDonald’s homosexual employees, but everything to do with McDonald’s cash from its 31,000 restaurants worldwide flowing from families into anti-family endeavors.

Casting Religious Conservatives as haters shows that AFA was right. McDonalds has departed from the good business decision of staying out of the culture wars and thrown itself right into the middle of it. Am I joining the boycott?

No, I don’t do that in practicality. But I really don’t feel like going to McDonald’s. In the past five months, I’ve tried to turn my physical health around, so McDonald’s staples of burgers and fries have been off-limits for some time. I do enjoy their Chicken Caesar Salad, but they’re not the only provider of grilled chicken Caesar salads on Earth. I can get something similar down at any fast food restaurant for a comparable price.

If you’re into burgers, Wendy’s is just as good, if not better, than McDonalds and again with comparable prices. Near my house there’s a Burger King, a Jack in the Box, and a KFC. Probably, all of them are imperfect, but none have insulted me and my values like McDonalds just has.

There are some places where the only reasonable choice is McDonald’s due to lack of competitors, etc. But in Boise, Idaho, I have so many dining choices, it’s easy to cross McDonalds off the list. This is what McDonalds doesn’t seem to realize. Even in my old hometown of Kalispell (about 1/15 the size of Boise), it’d be easy to kick the clown to the curb.

And if they were going to choose sides in the culture wars, here’s a hint, McDonalds. Large families that read the AFA newsletter are far bigger customers than homosexuals in the Castro Districts. If I were a shareholder, I’d want to know the reason for this really dumb business move regardless of what I thought on the underlying issues.