For the past school year, the hot topic all over Elon’s campus has been Chick-fil-A. Now, after months of protests, debates and research into the matter, the vendor policy group has come to a decision — the chicken is here to stay, and I, for one, am quite happy with this decision.
Personally, I am fully in support of same-sex marriage. I have many friends who are gay or lesbian, and I would never want to do anything that would hurt them. I don’t eat at Chick-fil-A because I agree with Dan Cathy’s views on same-sex marriage, I eat there simply because I enjoy their food. It is none of my business what anybody’s views are on anything. If I was going to choose where to eat and to shop based solely on if the CEO’s views were the same as mine, there would be a lot of places I no longer patronized.
A lot of people are angered over the issue, and I agree that it is their right to be. For those of my friends who don’t support Chick-fil-A and plan on continuing to boycott the company, I commend you for your belief on the issue. I respect your opinion on the matter, and I am asking you to please respect mine as well. That’s how freedom of expression should work. We all have different opinions. And even if we consider some people’s opinions to be “wrong,” we should respect them nonetheless. This is one of the main reasons Chick-fil-A is staying on campus.
We cannot preach inclusion for everyone, then exclude somebody because their beliefs are in opposition to ours. We can’t go around asking every single person what his or her beliefs are on certain subjects and then blacklist those people we don’t agree with. That would be absurd.
If the opposite decision had been made and Chick-fil-A had been removed from campus, a dangerous precedent would have been set. It would have said our school only wants people on our campus who believe fully in the exact same things. If a student on campus was homophobic, but still treated gay people with respect and dignity, we wouldn’t kick him or her off of campus, so why should we treat a vendor any differently?
[quote] Chick-fil-A’s policies have changed significantly in the past year. The company no longer is a benefactor of radical anti-gay marriage groups. So when you buy a chicken sandwich, you are not helping to block same-sex marriage laws from passing— you’re simply enjoying a chicken sandwich.[/quote]
If Chick-fil-A in any way showed discrimination towards its employees or patrons, Elon would be perfectly justified in removing it from campus, but there has been nothing of the sort. As Elon’s Board of Trustees pointed out, “There has been no evidence of discrimination or complaints about service at Chick-fil-A on our campus.” Every time I have stopped by Octagon to get a chicken sandwich, the workers have been nothing but polite and friendly to me. And when I often go there with one of my friends who happens to be openly gay, they always treat him the exact same way. The employees who work there are contracted under Aramark, and they are protected under an antidiscrimination policy.
Elon has made the right decision, the one that embraces all the values our university stands for. Hopefully this decision will not foster more resentment and division, but help to create an environment of mutual respect for different beliefs.