Supporters Flock to Snellville Chick-fil-A for "Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day"

Snellville residents parked their cars as far as three businesses down in order to attend .  

At the Scenic Highway/124 location, the crowds are always pretty big around lunch time.  Today, cars were backed up all the way down the turning lane, and participants were parking in the lot next door as well as at the neighboring church.  

"I guess Truett Cathy's feeling the love!" said a woman with two young children as she followed a crowd down a side street and into the Chick-fil-A parking lot.  

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Maxine Hook was trekking back to a nearby parking lot with two Chick-fil-A bags, a smile on her face as she showed support for owner Truett Cathy with her friends and neighbors. 

"I believe that we should have our freedom of speech even if we don’t agree," she said as she walked back to her car.  "We should be able to speak how we feel.  I don’t condemn them for what they believe and they shouldn’t condemn us for what we believe."

Inside, the restaurant was packed with wall-to-wall people.  No one was in a rush.  There was a sense of community, solidarity and peace as people discussed the latest they heard on the radio or saw on TV about the current controversy.  

Another Chick-fil-A patron named Susan said she visits Chick-fil-A regularly.  Today, as she eats her chicken salad, she is "so happy they’re taking a stand on Biblical principles and that people are responding." 

At Highpoint Rd., the parking lot at the next door gas station was at capacity.  Considering the gas station is now defunct, these were clearly all Chick-fil-A patrons.  The atmosphere here was much the same.  

Former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee organized this national event.

A Facebook page created by Huckabee says that he is "incensed at the vitriolic assaults on the Chick Fil-A company because the CEO, Dan Cathy, made comments recently in which he affirmed his view that the Biblical view of marriage should be upheld."   

He stipulates that no one is being asked to carry signs, make speeches or openly demonstrate; rather, they are asked to simply show up and eat.

Snellville Patch will revisit Chick-fil-A on Friday during National Same-Sex Kiss Day, an event backed by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.