Would you boycott a restaurant with anti-gay owners? The decision has been taken out of your hands

When I buy a kebab, I don’t ask whether the owner of the shop believes in gay marriage. But the simple act of eating fast-food has become a battleground for some LGBT+ campaigners.

The third largest food outlet in the USA, Chick-fil-A, turned over $10.5bn in 2018. The company has made no secret of its Christian values; even in 2019, its stores close on Sundays for religious reasons.

When Chick-fil-A opened its first outlet in the UK, in Reading, it was targeted by gay rights campaigners who accused the company of homophobia. Reading Pride claimed the chain’s “ethical and moral stance goes completely against our values and that of the UK, as we are a progressive country that has legalised same-sex marriage”. A mere eight days later, Reading’s Oracle shopping centre announced it would not be renewing the shop’s six-month lease.

Is this a victory for gay rights or a bad day for freedom of expression?

The company pays employees extremely well and donates to food banks and homeless charities, and has stopped its donations to the right-wing National Christian Foundation (which opposes gay rights in other countries) in 2012; although the founder continues to donate in a personal capacity.

Should retailers, restaurateurs and café owners have to publicly declare their perspective on gay rights? In Texas, a law was passed earlier this year banning retaliation against any business based on religious beliefs.

Personally I don’t agree with Chick-fil-A’s beliefs, but should they have been forced out of business? They still fund groups that support conversion therapy but they have not denied services to any individual on the grounds of sexuality, as the law rightly requires.

Surely, people are grown up enough to choose for themselves where to eat a chicken sandwich. Whatever happened to the notion of live and let live?