August 1, Dan Cathy President and CEO Chick-fil-A Buffington Rd. Atlanta, Georgia. Dear Dan,

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1 August 1, 2012 Dan Cathy President and CEO Chick-fil-A Buffington Rd. Atlanta, Georgia Dear Dan, I may soon be facing a very difficult decision regarding my career, and I would like your help as I weigh my options. For most of the past 9 years, I have been working in some capacity within the Chick-fil-A family. I have been richly blessed to have worked alongside some of the finest people I have ever known during this period. And even though you may not immediately recognize my name, I feel confident that you would remember me if you were to see me and speak with me. And I feel equally confident that you know virtually nothing about my life outside of Chick-fil-A. I have been told that I have a passion for those things that I believe in (including Chick-fil-A), and since I was a young boy I felt very connected with the George Bernard Shaw quote, Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not.

2 That passion and the love in my heart urge you to reach out to the hundreds (and possibly more) Chick-fil-A employees and other people whom you have, to paraphrase a wise man, hurt their hearts and minds in ways that may never be healed. In the fall of 1995, SunTrust Service Corporation (my employer at that time) sent me to a software conference in Arizona. The keynote speaker was James Collins, who had just written Built to Last. A statement he made as part of his presentation has had a profound impact on my life: Our goal should be to replace the tyranny of OR thinking with the genius of AND thinking. There has been hardly a day in my life since then when I have not had the opportunity to put that wisdom into practice. It has impacted my personal relationships, my parenting, my grand parenting, my financial decisions, my business relationships and perhaps most importantly, my spiritual life. My wife could relate countless times that I have changed the word but to the word and in mid sentence! So it is easy for me to say that I admire and respect Dan Cathy AND I disagree with some of his beliefs and perspective. I remember my reaction back in 2006 when working at the Chick-fil-A Help Desk when I heard a voice message that you had sent to all corporate employees asking that we pray for your friend Bill Campbell, the convicted former mayor of Atlanta (who was just beginning a prison sentence in Florida). I thought you had lost your mind! I remember thinking how can

3 he ask us to pray for that sleazy, lying, cheating politician? Then I caught myself you really can love someone AND not agree with their life choices and actions! I had been unfairly judging Dan Cathy - guilty as charged Steve! In hopes of becoming a Chick-fil-A Operator, I left the Chick-fil-A Help Desk at the end of 2006 to go to work with Alex Rodriguez at the Perimeter Pointe store. I did apply to be an Operater while under Alex s leadership, but I suspect somebody discovered some dirty little secrets about Steve Cammett. He is NOT married to his first wife! He isn t even married to his second wife! In fact, he had just recently married his third wife! I now feel that I may have been disqualified in part because of my history of being married multiple times. What Chick-fil-A doesn t know about Steve Cammett is that at the same time that Dan Cathy was being raised in the loving, caring family led by S. Truett Cathy, Steve was trying to survive in a family under the despotic rule of George Everett Cammett, Jr., a self-admitted sexual predator. It has taken me a lifetime to overcome that heritage! And I am very happy to report that (to the best of my knowledge and by the grace of God), the pattern of behavior found in my father s actions has not continued in subsequent generations of Cammett men. AND, it has left numerous scars. My father s first known victim was my oldest half-sister Carol. By all accounts, my father began raping Carol in her early teen years, if not sooner. Carol passed away in 1992, but not

4 before confiding in me that she chose a gay life style because she could not fathom the thought that she might have a child who would subsequently suffer the same fate that she had. I don t believe that it was necessarily God s plan for her to take the path she chose, yet I also believe that God understood that choice. God has a purpose for my life and has His reasons for allowing me to be the son of George Cammett and I believe that I am slowly and surely fulfilling that purpose. Had I been born to Truett and Jeannette Cathy, that purpose may have looked somewhat different even though I believe that we serve the exact same God! Recently on my way to visit to my family in Northern Indiana, I spent an evening with an old business colleague (and friend). This visit led to a possible job opportunity that would take me back to my previous career as an Information Technology professional. This situation arose totally independent of the recent controversy regarding the comments that you made which were subsequently released to the press. However, I have come to realize that this could be the perfect opportunity to move on from Chick-fil-A - a company whose professional values and business model I enthusiastically endorse. Yet I would be untrue to myself and my God if I hid the fact that I felt judged and hurt by your comments regarding gay marriage and your statement that we are still married to our first wives. I realize that you did not mean to judge me and hurt me by those statements, and I also know that they DID very deeply hurt me, many of my gay friends/family and those Chick-fil-A employees who are gay and/or not still married to

5 their first wives. During my tenure with Chick-fil-A I have hired and worked side-by-side with a number of gay and divorced people. They are amongst the very finest of God s children, not to mention hard workers who also passionately support the Chick-fil-A business model! I pray that you will consider making a public statement declaring your love, acceptance and support for gay and divorced people. Just to tolerate them is not enough. This should not be hard for you to do, because I believe with all my heart that you, the Cathy family and Chick-fil-A s senior leadership team DO love all of God s children. As a bonus to me personally, it would expand my options in following the path on which God would take me in the final years of my professional life. And I look forward to once again being able to enthusiastically encourage the world to Eat Mor Chikin! However, I won t be able to make that proclamation with a clear conscience until I truly believe that Chick-fil-A is a safe place to be white, black, Christian, Muslim, American, Chinese - or any other classification of human being (including those who are gay and/or divorced). As of this moment, my conscience will not allow me to make such a statement. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and I pray that you will take these things to heart. Sincerely, Steve Cammett