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brand work, we have recently made updates to the Cracker Barrel website, including adding new content and removing out-of-date content,” a spokesperson told Fox News Digital.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.
Terry Sweeney, the first openly gay cast member of Saturday Night Live, had some harsh words for actor Chevy Chase, a member of the show’s original cast who has returned to host multiple times.
"Chevy is one of those turds you flush down the toilet but it comes back up again and again," the 75-year-old Sweeney, best remembered for his exaggerated impression of First Lady Nancy Reagan, told the New York Post.
Sweeney’s comments come as a new CNN documentary, I'm Chevy Chase, and You're Not, directed by Marina Zenovich, is set to premiere on January 1 at 8 p.m.
A New York City subway rider was slashed in the face earlier this month by an unidentified assailant who took offense to him kissing his transgender partner. The attack occurred around 7:50 p.m. on January 10 aboard a southbound No. 6 train as it traveled through Manhattan.
According to police, the 28-year-old victim was kissing his partner when the suspect began shouting anti-gay slurs. The verbal abuse quickly escalated into a physical confrontation. During the argument, the suspect struck the victim with a sharp object, causing a deep laceration on the right side of his face, according to New York CW affiliate WPIX.
The year's nearly out. Sometimes that calls for taking sweet stock of the past months' wonderful events. Coming to the end of 2025, on the other hand, is more like getting to that denouement in the action movie where the survivors take a breath and pat each other on the back for having made it out alive. At this stage, we are Newt getting tucked-in to her Sulaco hibernation tube.
With some effort and a pinch of luck, may we all fare better in 2026 than poor Newt's end at the start of Alien 3.
Why such a shitty year? So much of it, obviously, can be laid at the feet of Lame Duck Donald. Not that he hasn't had loads of assistance in his evil efforts to erase our transgender family and friends, colleagues, and leaders during 2025. The purge, as promised, began right out of the gate on Inauguration Day.
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