Chik-Fil-A Gay Fallout

[Kantor]

badgenome said:

Soleron said:

Corporations do not have those rights. The individuals that make up those corporations deserve free speech and the ability to donate to who they want, but corporations have never been able to print what they want in advertising material or fund what they want politically.

That said, the government doesn't have the right to stop them building a store in their city because the individuals that make it up disagree with the stated beliefs of the individuals that make up the restaurant. It's not within their power, if we are to have a free market. They can restrict explicitly anti-gay-rights material being distributed through the stores, but not its operations.

I'm pretty sure corporations do have those rights. You may not think they should have them, but the freedom of the press part of the first amendment has been interpreted that way for a long time now - rightly so, I think.

So I'm pretty sure the government can't restrict the distribution of anti-gay rights material. That would never, ever survive in court.

Why is it uncontroversial for Nabisco to Photoshop up a gay pride Oreo or for the Jim Henson Company to be pro gay marriage or for Shittiest Company on the Planet award-winning EA to come out against DOMA, but the second the COO of a company says he's against gay marriage suddenly corporations don't have rights? Do corporations have the right to only express "correct" opinions?

I fully believe that the company can say whatever it likes. However, I reserve the right to criticise them if what they say is bigoted and backwards, and that's what we are seeing here.