GAY MARRIAGE SUPPORTER CREATES ‘CHICKEN OFFSETS’ FOR PRO-GAY CHICK-FIL-A FANS
When faced with the controversy over Chick-fil-A and the substantial profits it has brought in for the restaurant, cynics might remark that it’s only a matter of time before some enterprising soul finds a way to make money off the mutual antagonism between supporters of gay rights and supporters of Chick-fil-A.
In this case, those cynics would be right. Ted Frank, a lawyer who represents consumers in class action lawsuits and (surprisingly) has a relatively conservative set of legal credentials, has set up a website called “Chicken Offsets,” a play on Al Gore’s concept of “Carbon Offsets.” On the site, Frank offers an odd deal for supporters of gay rights who also are getting withdrawal from the absence of waffle fries and spicy chicken sandwiches:
Hi! I’m Ted Frank and I love the chicken sandwiches at Chick-fil-A. But I also like my gay-married friends and don’t like the guilt of indirectly supporting Chick-fil-A’s stance on gay rights. And I know there are lots of other people in the same boat. So I’ve started ChickenOffset.com. Every time you buy a chicken-sandwich meal at Chick-fil-A, you can buy an “offset” here. You can print out the receipt and demonstrate to your friends that the money you gave for LGBT youth more than compensates for the profits you put in Chick-fil-A’s coffers. $1 gets you 1 chicken-meal offset; $6 for ten offsets. We promise to send at least 90% of the proceeds (and will almost certainly send more than that) after our minimal expenses to It Gets Better and theWilliams Institute.
Confused? Don’t be. All that’s happened is that Mr. Frank has set up what amounts to a market for indulgences, IE the concept of paying money to have your sins wiped clean. In the case of Mr. Frank, that “sin” is eating at a restaurant owned by people who oppose gay marriage. And apparently, Mr. Frank thinks the market price for that indulgence actually decreases the more you sin (that is, the more “chicken offsets” you need to buy to compensate for giving your business to Chick-fil-A). Not a bad deal, if you accept his premise that eating at Chick-fil-A actually requires some form of monetary repentance.
There is no word as to whether Mr. Frank’s business model would be wrecked by the devil-may-care attitude of Antoine Dodson, the gay Youtube star who openly supports Chick-fil-A in spite of their stance on marriage. Said Dodson:
A lot of people from the gay community have been coming to me and telling me that I shouldn’t eat from Chick-fil-A, and I’m thinking like, ‘Oh my God, that’s so crazy. Why? They try to explain it to me about the gay marriage thing and how certain people from Chick-fil-A doesn’t approve of it.[...]Let me tell you this: I have uncles and aunties who do not approve of gay marriages, but they respect me. I don’t care about one person’s opinion or how they feel. That’s fine. Chick-fil-A makes good meals, and I eat there quite frequently. No one is going to stop me from eating there. If I’m going to have a Chick-fil-A sandwich, I’m going to have a Chick-fil-A sandwich.
If Dodson’s viewpoint is the mainstream, then Mr. Frank might not want to give up his day job. That kind of libertarianism could climb in his windows and smash his ‘Chicken Offets’ up.
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