Chick-fil-A on campus is not a free speech issue

The issue of whether we should keep Chick-fil-A on campus is multi-faceted, but it isnt complex. Some folks in our community seem to think its a question of free speech. It isnt.

Photo courtesy of breitbart.com

First, and very simply, it isnt a question of free speech legally. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, protecting a freedom of speech, does not apply to private actors. Wake Forest is a private university. Consequently, the freedom of speech enjoyed by our students is due to our commitment to an ethic of free expression, academic freedom and collaborative education.

It is not a legal mandate. Likewise, a legally-relevant question of freedom of speech for Chick-fil-A would arise only if the government prohibited Chick-fil-A from engaging in anti-gay speech or punished it for doing so.

Merely asking it as a commercial enterprise to comply with a generally applicable, neutral nondiscrimination policy, as Chicago and other jurisdictions have, does not prohibit its CEO from saying whatever he wants.

A more difficult question, at least on the surface, is whether ejecting Chick-fil-A from our campus collides with some abstract commitment to free speech.

Again, the answer is no. If we take a principled stand and refuse to support Chick-fil-As anti-gay efforts in this country and elsewhere, Chick-fil-A is not, in any way, forbidden to speak. The real question is whether Wake Forest, ostensibly committed to nondiscrimination on account of sexual orientation, should subsidize Chick-fil-As anti-gay speech.

Chick-fil-A sends millions of dollars in contributions to anti-gay organizations in this country and abroad.

Most disturbing to me is the organizations support of Ugandas Kill the Gays bill, a piece of legislation purportedly aligned with Christian values that imposes the death penalty for anyone who is homosexual or living with HIV.

Now, if Wake Forest elects to eject Chick-fil-A from campus, as many other universities have, because this kind of ugliness conflicts directly with Wake Forests commitment to nondiscrimination, and to its professed commitment to the well-being of minority students of whatever stripe, this does not prevent Chick-fil-A from speaking.

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Chick-fil-A on campus is not a free speech issue