Chick-fil-A has made headlines over the past few years for being decidedly right wing and homophobic. During the Grammy Awards this year, Chick-fil-A ran a commercial featuring the 1980s hit “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.” The song by Jefferson Starship, the legal-wrangling offshoot of the famous 1960s Jefferson Airplane, was owned by lead singer Grace Slick. Why did a veteran of social activism and the 1960s like Slick allow her music to be used by a famously homophobic brand? In an op-ed on Forbes, Slick says Chuick-fil-A’s stance on gay marriage and other issues “pisses her off.”
I firmly believe that men should be able to marry men, and women women. I am passionately against anyone who would try to suppress this basic human right. So my first thought when "Check"-fil-A came to me was, “F**k no!”
But then I decided, “F**k yes.”
So that was my voice you heard on the Chick-fil-A commercial during the Grammy Awards telecast. I am donating every dime that I make from that ad to Lambda Legal, the largest national legal organization working to advance the civil rights of LGBTQ people, and everyone living with HIV. Admittedly it’s not the millions that WinShape has given to organizations that define marriage as heterosexual. But instead of them replacing my song with someone else's and losing this opportunity to strike back at anti-LGBTQ forces, I decided to spend the cash in direct opposition to "Check"-fil-A’s causes – and to make a public example of them, too. We’re going to take some of their money, and pay it back.
It’s an interesting take on how to use the system and I cannot say that I blame her.