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Anthony Bourdain: Chick-fil-A Execs Allowed To Have "Really Stupid, Offensive" Views
By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 6, 2016
Modified Jun 6, 2016
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Scott Heins / Gothamist
By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 6, 2016
Modified Jun 6, 2016
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Chick-fil-A may have delicious chicken sandwiches and waffles fries, but its history of funding anti-gay organizations means that New Yorkers are caught between supporting LGBT rights and being able to Instagram their tasty lunch. Luckily, now we have chef-turned-raconteur Anthony Bourdain to help ease the troubled consciences of Chick-fil-A fans who are not homophobes.
AdWeek interviewed Bourdain (at Hop Kee in Chinatown), and asked him, "How about government getting involved in where and how we eat? Mayor Bill de Blasio called on New Yorkers to boycott Chick-fil-A given the owner's anti-LGBT views."
Bourdain replied:
Are we looking for nice people to run our companies? We're going to be looking pretty hard. I'm not going to go eat at that restaurant or I'm not going to patronize that business because I don't like what they institutionally support—I don't like the chairman of the board, I don't like who created the company, whatever. There's a whole lot of reasons to just make a personal decision and not go eat at a business and give them your money. I come from a restaurant business where you're lucky if the guy working next to you isn't like an armed robber. I support your inalienable right to say really stupid, offensive shit and believe really stupid, offensive shit that I don't agree with. I support that, and I might even eat your chicken sandwich.
To be fair, Mayor de Blasio never called on a Chick-fil-A boycott; he said, "What the ownership of Chick-fil-A has said is wrong. I'm certainly not going to patronize them and I wouldn't urge any other New Yorker to patronize them. But they do have a legal right" to be in business.
Bourdain probably prefers the Shake Shack Chicken Sandwich anyway—Shake Shack is "one of his top five NYC restaurants.
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anthony bourdain
chick-fil-a
mayor de blasio
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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