At a farm conference, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue likened his ideal of USDA service at its local offices to the service at the Chick-fil-A chain, which has been a target of criticism by gay-rights activists. Perdue described that ideal as a “what’ll you have” greeting, convenient hours, “and a quality product with pleasure.”
A USDA spokesman did not immediately respond to a question about whether Perdue was aware of the controversy when lauding the chain. Chick-fil-A has headquarters in Atlanta and Perdue, a Georgia native, is a former two-term governor of the state, leaving office in early 2011.
Perdue told the Montana Ag Summit last week that Chick-fil-A was “a prestige, quick-service restaurant with quality and excellent service” on the way to his larger point of “making the USDA the most effective and efficient organization in the U.S. government.”
The dispute between Chick-fil-A and activists began early this decade, and stems from the fundamentalist religious views of the chain’s founder, Truett Cathy. The factchecking site Snopes said in 2012 that Chick-fil-A donated money — millions of dollars by some accounts — to organizations that oppose same-sex marriage. A year ago, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said he disagreed with the views of Chick-fil-A’s owners, adding: “I wouldn’t urge any other New Yorker to patronize them.”
For a while, Chick-fil-A was a symbol in the national political debate. For example, Tea Party Republicans in the House offered Chick-fil-A sandwiches to attendees at their noontime “conversations with conservatives.”
Chick-fil-A says that its tradition is to everyone with dignity and respect. On its website, the company says it has been cited for superior customer satisfaction.
When the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013, Chick-fil-A chief executive Dan Cathy called it a “sad day for our nation” in a tweet that was later deleted, said McClatchy in a June 2016 story that began: “Chick-fil-A operates under Christian values, which means it doesn’t support gay marriage and it closes every Sunday for the day of rest…But the restaurant set that aside in order to help the Orlando LGBT community last Sunday.” Two Chick-fil-A outlets provided food for blood donors following the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando.
The Human Rights Campaign gave Chick-fil-A a rating of zero in a buyers guide issued at the end of 2016. The rating was based on assessments of whether the company had non-discrimination policies or offered health insurance to domestic partners.
Over the weekend, delegates to the Republican state convention in Georgia chose John Watson, “a lobbyist who turned Georgia red,” as their state chairman, said the Augusta Chronicle. Watson was the strategist that helped Perdue become, in 2002, the first Republican governor of the state since Reconstruction. Perdue and other big-name Republicans endorsed Watson for chairman. It took three rounds of low-man-out voting before Watson won the required 50 percent for election. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said it was the first time that an establishment candidate was elected chairman since the GOP won dominance of state government.