Chick-fil-A protests not materializing in Charleston

The same-sex kiss protest against the Chick-fil-A president’s opposition to same-sex marriage didn’t materialize in big, if any, numbers around Charleston during the lunch rush today.

Friday was a day that gay rights activists set aside to protest Chick-fil-A venues across the country in a demonstration that called on same-sex couples to kiss each other in the restaurant’s lobbies. The gay-rights group GLAAD pushed the “National Same-Sex Kiss Day.” But lunchtime visits by The Post and Courier to three Chick-fil-A locations, in North Charleston, West Ashley and James Island, indicated business as usual. The protest came weeks after Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy told the Baptist Press that the company was “guilty as charged” for backing “the Biblical definition of a family.”

Warren Redman-Gress, executive director of the Charleston rights group Alliance for For Full Acceptance, said the spirit of the Friday protest was that it would be up to individual couples to enter the restaurants and show a public display of affection, meaning it would not be a large organized or antagonistic event. Some couples would be waiting until evening to take part, he said.