Chick-fil-A ‘Kiss In’ Counter-Protest Was Sort of a Bust

Activists outside a Texas Chick-fil-A on Friday. (Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

While Wednesday's Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day inspired an apparently record-setting number of people to display their commitment to bigotry by waiting in line for fast-food sandwiches, the demonstration designed to protest it — Friday's National Same Sex Kiss Day — turned out to be less of a draw.

Organizers expected a couple hundred protesters to converge on New York's single (and closed for the summer) Chick-fil-A outpost, located in NYU's Weinstein dining hall, at 8 p.m. Unfortunately, we're having trouble finding reports on the event besides that of the New York Post's Andrea Peyser (frequently to be taken with a grain of salt), who wrote that only about 20 people showed up for the demonstration and that "just three pairs of guys kissed on the street." We expect more Chick-fil-A backlash there come fall, when the University's generally calorie-conscious and gay-friendly students get back into town. (An NYU spokesman has already promised to "reexamine" the chain's presence on campus.)

Outside of New York, the National Same Sex Kiss Day founder hoped to see at least 15,000 people demonstrating at the restaurant's 1,600 locations. Again, the numbers seem to have fallen short: In Decatur, Georgia, about two dozen demonstrators gathered outside a Chick-fil-A bearing McDonald's bags, rainbow flags, and signs reading, "We’re here, we’re queer, and we’re not eating," and "Eat More Equality." While they declined the free lemonade offered to them by Chick-fil-A employees, they made it clear to reporters that they were there to oppose management, not the restaurant's workers.

Members of Fairview Community Church showed up at a Costa Mesa, California, Chick-fil-A to "stand on behalf of love and inclusion and gay couples." Added Reverend Sarah Halverson, “Love is love, and God has given us love to be shared." Elsewhere in the state, someone scrawled "Tastes Like Hate" on the wall of a Torrance outpost. The protest seemed to fare slightly better online, with individual couples sending in photos of themselves kissing to the group's Facebook page and posting them to Twitter.

So, what's with the low turnout? Many in the gay community seem to feel that the form of this particular demonstration will be less-than-effective when it comes to fostering communication: "It plays right into the fears of the right wing and what they've always thought: We just want to have sex whenever we can!" said Philadelphia Gay News publish Mark Segal. Gay rights activist Pam Spaulding concurred, calling the kiss-in a "stunt for shock value." Of course,  it's possible that Americans — sexual orientation aside — are simply more moved by the promise of a crispy chicken patty than they are the opportunity for a little PDA.

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CNN Accidentally Plays Pink's 'Stupid Girl' Before Segment About Palin and Chick-fil-A

At least, a CNN spokesperson claims the network didn't mean to offer the intro song as commentary on Sarah Palin's intellect prior to a short segment on CNN Sunday Morning regarding Palin's support for fast food chain Chick-fil-A, which is mired in its own public relations crisis right now. The song in question — Pink's "Stupid Girls" — was the first single off her 2006 album I'm Not Dead. "The music selection was a poor choice and was not intended to be linked to any news story," a CNN spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter, adding, "We regret any perception that they were planned together." So it wasn't selected for a particular story, someone at CNN just thinks "Stupid Girls" is a great song to listen to while you're watching the news.

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Mayor Bloomberg Will Not Try to Keep Chick-fil-A Out of New York

Despite his general readiness to prevent New Yorkers from consuming unhealthy things, Michael Bloomberg will not join Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, San Francisco's Edwin Lee, and Boston mayor Thomas Menino in their vows to do what they can (which isn't actually much) to prevent Chick-fil-A from setting up shop in their cities. The New York mayor weighed in on the recent controversy surrounding the fast food chain, the head of which recently voiced his opposition to gay marriage, during his weekly radio show.

Bloomberg said that it is inappropriate for a government entity "to look at somebody's political views and decide whether or not they can live in the city, or operate a business in the city, or work for somebody in the city."

He added that while he personally supported marriage equality "trampling on the freedom to marry whoever you want is exactly the same as trampling on your freedom to open a store." Currently, the city is home to a single Chick-fil-A — and you have to wade through throngs of NYU students to get to it, anyway.

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