What if they threw a protest and nobody came? Well, apparently that is what happened with Kiss a Gay Day that was supposed to be happening at Chick-fil-A locations around the country. I went back to the Torrance location that had literally thousands of supporters on Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day that was held on Wednesday, and the only sign of anything gay was some vandalism done by a coward in the night.
As I mentioned the other day, I walk past the Hawthorne and 182nd Street location daily. This morning, when I was walking the dogs, I noticed that there were several cars in the parking lot and several more in the drive-thru, which was two or three times more than I noticed on Wednesday. What really caught my attention though was that there were several news vans, a helicopter and even a cop or two. I figured that Kiss a Gay Day must have gotten off to a good start and I looked forward to getting home and returning with my camera.
When I got back, the news vans and customers were still there, but I saw no indication of any kind of counter-protest or any same sex kissing, so I was a little confused as to why all the reporters. Did they know something I did not? I approached the KNX Newsradio truck and spoke with the reporter, John Brooks. I asked why there were so many reporters there today, when no one was around on Wednesday when there were huge crowds. Was something coming up? It was then that he showed me a photo of some vandalism that had been to the Chick-fil-A building. That is the first photo in the gallery, and yes, Mr. Brooks gave me permission to publish the photo.
I returned a few times over the course of the day, but the only signs of any kind of demonstration would be the guy standing on the corner with his big Bible and some kids that were handing out some advertisements for Hope Chapel. I was hoping that there might be some kind of showing by supporters of gay marriage, but the vandalism was about it. I do not think the vandal accomplished his goal if he was trying to make a statement.
Post Script: To be honest, I had this all written up and ready to post when Tanya suggested we go to dinner. As we headed out I noticed there were a couple more protesters on the corner and they appeared to be in favor of same sex marriages, so I made a slight detour so I could come back and grab a couple pics. When I mentioned to them that I had about given up, one woman commented that yeah, they had just arrived. It was about 6:30 PM. The two women kissing are a registered same sex couple, which I guess explains why I had to suggest that they actually kiss instead of just holding the signs. When we returned at 9:00 PM there were no protesters from either side, just lines of cars waiting to get their orders placed.
