Oh good grief give me a break! Does she also oppose hunger, no jobs available and the color red? Ha, then she should live somewhere else, America is for the land of the free and she probably opposes interracial marriages too! You know like Catholics marrying non Catholics, lol

Thank you Faith Loudon and Chick-Fil-A. Maryland is an one party state filled with bloated government bullies.

All Hail for the TEABAGGER

Your headline is completely ignorant. Maybe she just supports his right to free speech, which last I checked, is all of our right as Americans. He doesn't have discriminatory hiring practices. He just has strong religious beliefs.

I find so many things about this whole situation annoying, but I'll just start with a basic one. I am tired of those in support of Chik-No-Gay saying they are supporting Mr. Cathy's First Amendment right to state his opinion, but then in the same breath seems to be telling everyone else to just get over the matter. So if you do not agree with Ms. Louden, Mr. Cathy's and rest, it's like you shouldn't exercise your right to free speech. Those who disagree should continue to speak out both verbally and by not spending their money with Chick-Fil-A.

Oblviously, the writer of the article did not give Ms. Loudon the benefit of the doubt as to why she thought it was important to support ChickFilA. This issue has nothing to do with being anti-gay. It is an issue of freedom of religion and speech. As someone who knows Faith Loudon personally, her intent was supporting freedom and religion and freedom of speech without government interference. The CEO of Chic-Fil-A never came out to act against any employee or customer of Chic-Fil-A because of their sexual preference. Stop Speculating please. Ask Ms. Loudon yourself why she went there herself. She is amazingly approachable and able to return phone calls. Her phone number and email address ares right on her campaign web site www.faithloudon.com.

IF you read the article. Loudon clearly was there to support first amendment rights by her own quotation.

cftnmom19 - Well said!

They do donate to organizations officially classified as "hate" groups (Look it up. It's true). I was never a fan of their food anyway, so my partner and I can just take our business elsewhere. They have the right to say and/or believe what they wish. The only law I follow is that of the Constitution, that states all men are created equal. They have their right to free speech and choice, so do I. Hell, I may even keep going there if I "choose" to. This whole thing is just silly to me. Bigots will be bigots and haters will hate. It's what Organized Religion teaches (regardless of which Religion).

Let's face it, this has nothing to do with free speech. If it were any other group, this woman would be deemed as acting in a discriminatory manner. She has gay constituents who she needs to consider. She can speak freely when while not impinging on gay civil rights.

It is amazing how the pot is calling the kettle black in this thread. Freedom of speech, freedom of economic choice in spending your hard earned money. Freedom of religion to believe what you want to believe without the government or the people interfering. If you believe in all of this, then you will believe that people who are born gay or lesbian have the right to a civil marriage without the interference of the chicken place, Ms. Loudon, Governors, the US Senate or House of Representative or the President of the US or any religious organization. I now will have to explain to my child why we cannot support this Chicken place, because they are giving $5 million dollars to people who want to interfere with our civil right to be family and have the liberty to choose who we want to marry. I love this country and as a Marine I will always defend it. Why anyone is interested as to who I want to marry is beyond my comprehension. This is about our individual rights we are born with and the government and the people keeping out of our choice to marry. Equal protection under the law is what must be achieved. And yes, when someone tries to sue a church for not marrying a same gender couple, you will find me once again defending the US constitution for freedom of religion, even though I would not agree with the churches decision. It is important to know what we all stand for regardless of our public servants or how much other people want to tell you how to live. thank you!

This is not about gay marriage. Everyone has a right in this country to express their opinion. Everone has a right to boycott business if they don't like what they are doing/saying. When the Government, in the form of a Boston Mayor, a Chicago Mayor and the Mayor of the DC deny someone a business venture because they have a different "value" opinion, that is government subversion and totally unacceptable in our society.

It is incredibly sad that political correctness is silencing our freedom of speech. This is America. We are supposed to be able to disagree and still be civil. Each of us should be free to express our beliefs and values. The expression of said beliefs and values by any CEO should not result in mayors saying they would not permit that business to open up in their city. That is what is dangerous in this whole matter. As candidate for office, Faith Loudon has honestly expressed her beliefs. I find that refreshing. Perhaps if more candidates would act so bravely in this atmosphere of political correctness, then we voters would be able to make more responsible choices.

Yes, as Katherine Butcher said above, we are supposed to be able to disagree and still be civil. I agree with that, wholeheartedly.

I'd like to add that as a businessperson, it is VERY interesting to me that Chick-fil-A has grown every year for 44 straight years....selling chicken sandwiches. That is nothing short of remarkable. ..hmmmm....they must be doing something right. Hmmmm..I wonder what their secret ingredient could be? Hmmm...since today our #1 concern in this country is more jobs, here is a company that grows and grows. Maybe their business model is something that deserves a closer look. We might learn something, and maybe there could more jobs created!

First, I'm disappointed that the author of this article, Anna Staver, chose to use inflammatory language in the title of her article. Second, her choice of words in the article are also calculated, as in this phrase, "….publicly condemned gay marriage," when describing Mr. Cathy's comments to the Baptist Press. Dan Cathy said nothing 'condemning' gay marriage, he simply stated his belief - and that of the other corporate leaders - that they support traditional marriage.

This seems to be the real stumbling block for a lot of people, I guess because its such an emotional subject: a lot of us who have a religious conviction that homosexuality is wrong in the eyes of God can also respect their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Just don't call it a marriage and don't force the religious community to participate. Respect our feelings (and rights) just as you want us to respect yours. Get a civil union and all the rights that come with that.

Chic-Fil-A has caved and has announced that they will no longer be donating to anti-gay groups.

I see the author of the article still has not called Ms. Loudon herself for a direct quote.

Freedom of Speech goes 360 Degrees. It's not a one way street.

Actually now we find that Chic-fil-a has simply found a way to secretly get the money to the same old groups. Isn't that called lying?

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2012/09/21/chick_fil_a_winshape_foundation_chain_holds_fundraiser_for_marriage_and_family_foundation_.html