Community Corner

Port Jefferson Residents Weigh in on Chick-fil-A CEO's Same-Sex Marriage Comments

Two letters to the editor of Newsday published the same day come from Port Jefferson area.

Patricia Costell, of Port Jefferson Station, and Nancy Macnab, of Port Jefferson, both had letters to the editor published on Newsday's website on the same day regarding the recent row over Chick-fil-A owner Dan Cathy's comments about gay marriage.

Cathy was quoted as saying in a radio interview that same-sex marriage invites "God’s judgment on our nation."

"We are very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit," Cathy then told The Baptist Press in a recent interview. "We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that."

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The stance may be one man's right to free speech and dedication to his Christian prinicpals and Costell said that Cathy has a right to express his opinion just like the protesters against the restaurant have that same right.

"Chick-fil-A owner Dan Cathy is free to express his beliefs, just as those who have organized the boycott are," wrote Costell in her letter to Newsday. "The political boycott is not to stop him from speaking; it is to engage the public in an action to express opposition to his opinions and actions."

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Last June, New York State passed a gay marriage bill, becoming the sixth state to do so at the time and . One week later and by the summer, in the village of Port Jefferson.

Port Jefferson resident Macnab weighed in on the debate in her letter to Newsday saying that Chick-fil-A is not making discrimination a company policy.

"Chick-fil-A is not refusing to serve patrons," she wrote. "Let's not bully Chick-fil-A because of its owner."

Mcnab – who wrote a book expressing her views on school bullying – defended Cathy's right to free speech and attributes the resulting fight to the same "zero-tolerance policies" that can be found in public schools.

"We are reaping the consequences of teaching zero-tolerance policies in our public schools," Mcnab wrote. "It has infiltrated our political thinking. The application of zero tolerance will always lead us into the tyranny of bullying. Zero-tolerance thinking has no tolerance for democracy."

To read both letters on Newsday's website click here.

What do you think about Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy's comments and the reaction? Tell us in the comments.

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