Cracker Barrel has removed the “Pride” section of its website, which once highlighted the chain’s sponsorship of the Nashville Pride Parade. Visitors are now redirected to a “Culture and Belonging” page.
The company insists the change was part of routine site updates, not a reaction to backlash from right-wing conservatives.
“In connection with the Company’s brand work, we have recently made updates to the Cracker Barrel website, including adding new content and removing out-of-date content,” a spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
Cracker Barrel recently attempted to rebrand with a new logo and restaurant redesign. Its conservative-leaning customer base balked at the loss of the chain’s Americana “country store” décor, replaced by a pared-down modernist theme and the removal of “The Old Timer,” an elderly white man leaning on a barrel in the logo.
The changes sparked accusations that Cracker Barrel was trying to go “woke,” prompting the company to quickly reverse course and restore “The Old Timer” to its logo. That reversal did little to quell conservative anger.
The restaurant remained under scrutiny from conservative activists like Robby Starbuck and Chris Rufo, who have built their reputations on pressuring companies to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies — which they claim are discriminatory — and to end any support for or acknowledgment of the LGBTQ community.
Critics also pointed to Cracker Barrel’s sponsorship of the 2024 Nashville Pride Parade and its launch of rainbow-colored rocking chairs for Pride Month. Some objected to the creation of an LGBTQ employee group called the “LGBTQ+ Alliance,” one of several business resource groups that also included racial minorities and veterans.
Those business resource groups are now at the center of complaints filed in July with the Tennessee Attorney General by the right-wing legal group America First Legal. The group argues that Cracker Barrel’s DEI policies create discriminatory employment practices, allegedly favoring minorities at the expense of white heterosexuals. AFL further contends that, because Cracker Barrel’s clientele skews conservative, such policies betray the company’s customer base.
A Cracker Barrel spokesperson told Fox News Digital the company had changed its business resource groups “months ago” to focus on corporate giving. The BRGs, still listed on the company’s website as recently as August 27, have since been removed.
When Martha Nell Smith was a child, she was given a book called The Golden Treasury of Poetry. "I was a nerdy kid, I liked to read," the 72-year-old academic says, adding, "I also liked to play. I was a very sporty kid too. I was a tomboy."
The book contained several poems by Emily Dickinson. "I thought these look so simple, but when you think about it, they are really weird," she says. "But you could say that about almost any Dickinson poem."
Smith recounts the long and winding path that led her to become one of the foremost experts on Emily Dickinson, with a particular focus on the poet's secretly romance-laden letters to her sister-in-law, Susan Dickinson.
The city of St. Petersburg has installed 11 rainbow-colored bike racks in response to the removal of several street murals -- including a Pride-themed mural -- by the Florida Department of Transportation.
The racks were installed in the Grand Central District at Central Avenue and 25th Street, the former location of one of five murals removed at the direction of federal and state authorities.
The mural at Central Avenue and 25th Street featured colored stripes representing the progressive Pride flag and was located just steps from Ride'em Cowboy, one of the city’s best-known LGBTQ nightclubs and a "safe space" for the community, according to Florida Politics.
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, the first out gay leader of the Israeli parliament, angered the ultra-Orthodox parties within the conservative Likud-led governing coalition after voting in favor of a civil marriage bill last week.
The proposed bill, which was ultimately defeated, was introduced by the centrist Yesh Atid party, the largest faction in the opposition. It would have established a legal framework for regulating same-sex partnerships in Israel, including a couples registry, eligibility requirements, registration procedures, and mechanisms for dissolving civil marriages.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.