By Tim Waggoner

WASHINGTON, July 30, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – American Family Association Chairman and Founder Donald Wildmon has called for the continuation of the boycott of McDonald’s restaurants after the fast food giant announced it has increased its support for the homosexual movement by funding a homosexual pride parade.

“McDonald’s says they ‘stand by and support our people to live and work in a society free of discrimination and harassment,’ here is what they won’t tell you. McDonald’s helped sponsor the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade,” said Wildmon.

McDonald’s expressed its support for the Pride parade via a television commercial, in which a company representative said, amidst montage shots of the parade, “McDonald’s is proud of our diverse workforce and of our recognition by the Human Rights Campaign as a company that actively demonstrates its commitment to the gay and lesbian community.”

AFA previously asked McDonald’s to remain neutral in the culture wars after the company paid $20,000 to become an official “organizational ally and corporate partner” of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and secure a seat on the group’s board of directors. The NGLCC lobbies against laws protecting marriage as being between a man and a woman.

“The company refused, stating they will continue to support the gay agenda including same-sex marriage. AFA has called for a boycott of McDonald’s restaurants,” explained Wildmon.

Wildmon assured pro-family advocates, “This boycott is not about hiring homosexuals or how homosexual employees are treated. It is about McDonald’s choosing to put the full resources of their corporation behind promoting the homosexual agenda.”

In an interview with the Washington Post, McDonald’s spokesman Bill Whitman declared that those (even Christians) who oppose homosexual marriage are motivated by hate, saying, “hatred has no place in our culture.”

Matt Barber, who is the Director of Cultural Affairs with Liberty Counsel and Associate Dean with Liberty University School of Law, said that Whitman’s comments tell Americans, “If you happen to support the historical definition of marriage – which is, and has always been male-female – then you’re a … hatemonger.”

Barber said that McDonald’s idea of inclusion “only swings one way,” referring to the “so-called Employment Non-Discrimination Act,” under which “Christians and other business owners with traditional values would be forced – under penalty of law – to abandon sincerely held religious beliefs and adopt McDonald’s own secular-humanist, moral-relativist view of right and wrong. In many cases, business owners would be persecuted, even if the business in question were expressly faith-based.”

“This pits the government directly against the free exercise of religion and, for that reason, is unconstitutional on its face,” he added.

Barber also said that statistics have proven that McDonald’s decision to support the homosexual agenda is just “bad business.”

“McDonald’s is now publicly supporting counterfeit ‘same-sex marriage,’ despite the fact that, according to a March 2007 CBS/New York Times poll, only 28 percent of Americans believe same-sex pairs should be allowed legally to marry.”

“Marriage is a fundamental building block to any healthy society. If you introduce counterfeit money into commerce, the dollar is devalued. If you introduce counterfeit marriage into society, true marriage is devalued and society is harmed,” stated Barber. “Yet McDonald’s has now thrown its full weight, brand name and presently tarnished reputation behind the push for ‘gay marriage’ in all 50 states.”

AFA is asking all to sign their online boycott McDonald’s petition, which can be found here:

https://www.boycottmcdonalds.com/