The protest was in response to the corporations $20,000 donation to the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, and a McDonald's executive who was seated on their board.

 

American Family Association's Buddy Smith was on hand for the event, which included a press conference. Smith said that McDonald's needs to project a pro-family philosophy. "They need to line up their associations with that message and drop their membership in the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber," he stated.

 

He adds that the chamber is a political machine that is out to radically redefine marriage and family in America.

 

Peter LaBarbera, of Americans for Truth, supports the boycott, and says their message is that "when you take sides in the culture war, at some point there's gotta be a price to pay. And we're hoping that millions of people join this boycott and it becomes really something the entire pro-family movement gets behind." He stresses that unity is the key to success.

 

 

Through a united stand in protest all at one time today in Chicago, national pro-family groups hope McDonald's will be able to see a lot more clearly that their new pronounced support for an economic lobby group that advocates for homosexual "marriage" is not favored by the families and children it professes to serve.
 
Representatives from several traditional values grassroots groups will be in the Windy City today -- Americans for Truth, Liberty Counsel, Illinois Family Institute, AFA of Pennsylvania, and Culture Campaign -- at a press conference across the street from the hamburger retailers' world headquarters. They will ask consumers to join a boycott already called and led by the American Family Association (AFA), in response to active participation by corporate McDonald's in the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC).
 
AFA spokesman Buddy Smith says many people in the country -- and perhaps ultimately not even the food company executives themselves -- realize what that business alliance ultimately promotes.
 
"The National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce is about more than commerce," Smith explains. "As a matter of fact, they're a political machine with a mission of radically changing America by redefining marriage and family."
 
McDonald's gave $20,000 to the NGLCC for membership and received a seat on its board of directors, and the company has indicated it throws its full weight behind that group's advocacy efforts. Smith says McDonald's refused AFA's repeated requests to reverse course and remain neutral in the cultural war over homosexual marriage -- even stating through a spokesman in an interview with the Washington Post recently that it considers those who oppose homosexuality to be motivated by hate.
 
"This formerly family-friendly corporation of McDonald's just needs to hear from Americans that we believe the God-ordained institution of marriage and family is the bedrock of a healthy society, and it just doesn't need to change," says the AFA spokesman.
 
The pro-family groups say they hope to help McDonald's see that its viewpoint does not line up with traditional gender families that patronize its restaurants -- and are asking people to come today for the 10:00 a.m. rally, sign a petition asking company officials to stop, call local stores and complain, and boycott its restaurants until things change.

Editor's Note: The American Family Association is the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates OneNewsNow.com.

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