It appears the cow’s been let out of the barn, and it’s all because Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy voiced his opinion on the subject of gay marriage.

He’s not in favor of it and said as much during an interview with the Baptist Press, an opinion he expounded on during a radio interview. In his comments, Cathy said the company backed the “biblical definition of a family,” and he later added that he believed the nation was “inviting God’s judgement” when we shake our fist at him and say “we know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage.”

His views have ruffled a whole bunch of feathers, with gay rights groups calling for boycotts, metropolitan cities rolling up the red carpet, and even the Jim Hensen Company pulling its Muppet toys from the company’s kids’ meals.

But Cathy has as much right to his opinion as those who support gay marriage, and he should be offered the same respect.

To chastise the man for his views is absurd and akin to that old pot calling the kettle black.

Those crying foul have resorted to labeling, saying Cathy is a bigot and his views discriminatory. “Chick-fil-A values are not Chicago values,” one alderman was quoted as saying, as he called for a proposed Chick-fil-A in his district to be blocked.

“There is no place for discrimination on Boston’s Freedom Trail and no place for your company alongside it,” Boston mayor Thomas Menino wrote in a letter to Cathy, the Associated Press reported.

But aren’t both those statement’s discriminatory? Most certainly they are, with the only difference being that those who support gay marriage issues only stand beside those who share their opinions. Contrary opinions are, in their minds, offensive and, well, wrong.

There’s not been one report that Cathy nor his company have discriminated against anyone. He simply doesn’t support gay marriage and he was bold enough to stand behind his conviction rather than hide in the closet so many have come out of over the last few years.

Cathy and his company have always stood firmly behind their Southern Baptist faith and they’ve never been ashamed to do so. They’ve taken bold steps time after time, the most significant of which has been refusing to open on Sundays. And Cathy isn’t backing away from his beliefs now, even though his belief, and his honesty in expressing that belief, has landed him and the company into a political hot bed.

Those who support gay marriage have every right to do so, and they should stand behind those beliefs if they perceive them as the right thing to do. Likewise those who feel differently.

But neither side should castigate the other for expressing opinions contrary to their own, although in nearly every arena that’s what happens lately.

No one, it seems, has any respect for a view that doesn’t support their own thinking. That’s short-sighted and discriminatory.

Dan Cathy was right to express his opinion, and what’s more, we respect him for sticking by his beliefs.

And yes, we intend to ‘Eat More Chikin,’ simply because it’s good.