It's a different animal of talking about what a place does, and then taking that and making accusations or guilt-tripping people who work or visit there. I don't think anyone would have said anything if it was kept to the first.
This happens in every CFA thread though. Every. Single. One. It's never about just the company, people feel the need to make it personal with the posters who will still eat there. In another thread, it wasn't just casual and sly accusations about supporting bigotry, it was outright calling people who still ate there bigots. You can make the point about what the company does without doing that.
The escalation was out of bounds, I'll give you that. Some people don't respond in the best ways all the time. It's not supposed to be personal in either direction. The support for anti-marriage and anti-LGBTQ groups is a black mark on an otherwise stellar organization to work for and to visit. It personally hurts that they do this, because otherwise they were one of the most positive influences in my life, and I'm talking at a store level. Genuinely cared about each other, which is something I can't say I've ever experienced otherwise. I could go back to my first store after fifteen years and the operator would still know who I am and be genuinely interested in how I've been and what I've done with myself. I still remember the names of everyone I worked with, and am still friends with a fair few.
I'm sorry for the support they give for anti groups. I'm sorry someone else made it personal here. I'm still going to go there occasionally, and I'm still going think fondly of the impact overall they had on my life.