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This gay-marriage thing isn't going away: what your restaurant needs to consider when taking a stance

With increasing support for and legalization of gay marriage among the majority of Americans, particularly millennials, it's worth considering how engaging in controversial issues like this one will impact your restaurant.

April 6, 2015 by Nicole Troxell — Associate Editor, Networld Media Group

From larger brands like McDonald's to smaller brands like Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Top That!, reaching out to millennials has become the "go to" marketing strategy for restaurants.

Why? It's all in the numbers. In 2010, millennials made up 13 billion of the 59 billion visits made to foodservice establishments, spending $73 billion dollars alone.

Restaurants want a chunk of that change, but knowing your audience is key to attracting their attention. Millennials are, according to NPD Group's research, not just about digital, but takeout, snacks, value — and last, but not least, diversity. One in five millennials is Hispanic, making up 65 percentof the Hispanic population in the U.S. Millennials are the generation roughly ages 18 to 29.

Know what else millennials are about? Gay marriage.

Support for legal gay marriage among this generation is at 70 percent for those ages 18 to 34 compared to only 39 percent for those 55 and older.

It's not business, it's personal

It's nothing new for businesses to take a stance on social issues. 

According to Gerry A. Fernandez, president and founder of the Multicultural and Foodservice Hospitality Alliance, an educational nonprofit that helps members build their cultural intelligence to deliver better business results, "Businesses have always taken positions on social issues mostly by just staying silent. During the civil rights era many business owners were complicit in denying Blacks and other minority groups equal access to services simply by not fighting laws that clearly were discriminatory," he said in an interview.

Three years ago when Chick-fil-A took a hardline stance against gay marriage, colleges across the country whose populations were largely made up of millennials, rejected proposals to install the chain on their campuses. Protests erupted across the nation with boycotts of Chick-fil-A that continue to this day.

Smaller brands, however, can suffer even greater losses for "picking sides." Last week Memories Pizza of Walkerton, Indiana, shut down after backlash over the restaurant's anti-gay comments, according to the Huffington Post. Co-owners Crystal and Kevin O'Connor said they would not cater gay weddings due to the fact that this goes again their religious beliefs.

"If a gay couple came in and wanted us to provide pizzas for their wedding, we would have to say no," Crystal told ABC 57 news. "We are a Christian establishment."

Angry Yelp reviews ensued like the following:

Your place is dirty and I have gotten bad service every time I come in. 

ALSO, no one wants your nasty pizza catered to their wedding. I hope your business goes under for your inability to see that Christianity is a religion based on the belief that you should "love thy neighbor".

Some were even sarcastic:

As a strict adherent to the Old Testament I was delighted when I heard about Memories Pizza's courageous stand against the homosexual agenda. I was eager to see if the rest of their pizzeria was as biblically aligned.

Unfortunately the first thing I saw upon entering Memories was the daughter of the proprietor wearing a nylon lanyard and polyester clothing. Leviticus 19:19 immediately came to mind "You are to keep My statutes. You shall not breed together two kinds of your cattle; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor wear a garment upon you of two kinds of material mixed together."

Strike 1 for Ungodliness

I also noticed Crystal was wearing a gold band and had her hair gussied up with product. As Timothy 2:9 reads "I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments."

That was Strike 2 and I was beginning to become concerned that I'd entered a den of iniquity and deception, whose proprietors were merely exploiting my faith to earn a few dollars off the back of the culture war.

Others supported and admired the restaurant for standing up for their beliefs:

AWESOME PIZZA & The NICEST OWNERS! And also, thank you for having the COURAGE to stand up for your beliefs. We as a country are now force fed this gay agenda which pussifies us as Americans. 

I live in California & visit Disneyland a couple times a year & there is nothing more disturbing for young children than to see two gay men holding hands frolicking thru the park! Disneyland at one time was strong in their beliefs & did not allow things like that to take place in their park. But as most companies become "PC" they caved in. 

So hopefully you stay strong & stick to what our forefathers fought so hard for. Don't give in! And thanks again for your strength & and encouragement! Your business is an inspirational blueprint for us all thank you!

And there were those who reminded us that we have the right in this country to agree to disagree:

First, let me state I am a Christian.  That should turn many of you off before I even get started.  Ah well, I suffer because He suffered first.  Most of your reviews have nothing to do with Pizza, so neither will this one.

There is a much deeper issue here than simply the fact that this Pizza place won't cater a homosexual wedding.  The deeper issue is this.  Those of you who are involved in homosexual relationships want others that don't agree with your lifestyle, to accept you.  You do parades, march, protest, and many other things to get our attention so that we will accept what you do and how you choose to live your lives...

What made America great, when it was great, is our ability to care about each other even though we didn't agree with each other.  Political correctness, "judgement", and many other things have gotten in the way of this.  FREEDOM is what this country is about.  Freedom for you to be homosexual.  Freedom for me to be a Christian and to disagree with you...

Memories Pizza shutdown Wednesday after claiming they received threatening messages. The owners also said that the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act would allow the establishment the right to legally refuse to cater a gay wedding, according to Huffington Post.

Crystal O'Connor told The Blaze, a conservative news network run by Glenn Beck, that the father and daughter team were in hiding and unsure if they would re-open.

The story soon went viral and a GoFundMe campaign set up for the team quickly raised $800,000 by Saturday. It's unclear what the co-owners will do with the funding, but donations are no longer being accepted.

The bottom line

The question foodservice establishments need to ask themselves is, "is it worth it?" While Chick-fil-A seems to have recovered, there's a missing population that could mean more money for the chain. This is especially important for smaller business to consider, and any restaurant looking to capture the millennial crowd.

The lesson: Know your audience and how a political stance could impact the bottom line. Though Memories has received a lot of financial support, its future is uncertain, and there's no guarantee any restaurant involved in controversial issues will be granted the same.

"In today’s more socially minded world, every business needs to think deeply about what issues they want to publicly support and which they do not. It’s just smart business to think about how you can be a culturally responsive company," Fernandez said.

With increasing support for and legalization of gay marriage among the majority of Americans, particularly millennials, it's worth considering how engaging in controversial issues like this one could impact your restaurant.

"As with any business, customers are the lifeblood of the enterprise. Companies, like people, can change their mind based upon new information. If this business (Memories Pizza) chooses to reverse their position then it’s likely that most people will move on. If not, then the business owners will have to decide if the business can survive the protest," Fernandez said.  

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