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“Is Cracker Barrel Serving Up Inclusion or Exclusion? The Truth About Their LGBTQ+ Alliance”

Cracker Barrel is an American cultural artifact. You pull off the interstate, see the rocking chairs, smell the biscuits, and you know exactly what you’re getting: simple food, a throwback dining room, and a place where families of every stripe can catch their breath. That brand promise—comfort without controversy—built a loyal following for decades.

Today, though, Cracker Barrel isn’t just a restaurant. It is also a workplace laboratory for modern corporate “culture and inclusion.” At the heart of that shift is a suite of employee Business Resource Groups, including one called the LGBTQ+ Alliance. Depending on your worldview, that sentence either sounds like a welcome sign or a warning siren. This isn’t about who’s allowed to eat at the table—everyone is. It’s about what a national family restaurant chain chooses to elevate inside its walls, and what that says about its priorities.

Let’s lay out what the LGBTQ+ Alliance is, how we got here, why it’s drawing heat from both sides, and what a customer-first approach should look like.

What Cracker Barrel’s LGBTQ+ Alliance Actually Is

Cracker Barrel describes a set of employee-led Business Resource Groups (BRGs) that offer networking, leadership development, and community engagement. On the company’s careers site, the BRGs listed include AMPT, Be Bold, BWell, HOLA, LGBT Alliance, Neuroverse, SERVE, Women’s Connect, and Toastmasters. The LGBT Alliance says it uplifts LGBTQ+ team members and allies and raises awareness across the company.

A recent civil-rights complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) by America First Legal (AFL) quotes Cracker Barrel’s materials and argues that identity-based BRGs—including the LGBTQ+ Alliance—confer workplace benefits that may disadvantage employees who do not share those identities. The filing calls out the Alliance as providing a space for LGBTQ+ employees to connect and support one another while increasing company-wide awareness, and it frames that as part of a larger pattern it claims violates Title VII. Those are allegations, not legal conclusions, but they are now part of the public record.

Cracker Barrel has not (as of this writing) issued a detailed public rebuttal to that complaint. Media coverage has reported the filing and noted the company’s silence.

A Company With History On This Issue

To understand why any of this matters, you need the backdrop. In 1991, Cracker Barrel issued an internal policy that effectively targeted gay employees, insisting that staff “demonstrate normal heterosexual values.” Firings followed, protests followed those firings, and national attention followed the protests. Under pressure from shareholders and the public, the company rescinded the policy within months. That history is not rumor; it’s documented in historical and legal sources.

Fast forward three decades. By the late 2010s and into 2021, Cracker Barrel was citing its score in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, landing at 80 out of 100. The HRC index is a private advocacy benchmark, not law, but it shows just how far the company moved from its 1991 stance.

So this is a company that went from “policy policing orientation” in 1991 to publicly celebrating Pride Month in 2023, complete with a rainbow rocking chair image that triggered a conservative backlash online. It is a pendulum swing that explains why both applause and anger now snap to attention whenever Cracker Barrel says anything about LGBTQ+ topics.

Why The LGBTQ+ Alliance Touches A Nerve

1) BRGs Are Not Neutral

Supporters see BRGs as harmless affinity groups that improve retention and morale. Critics see them as identity sorting. The company’s own page groups employees into categories—Black, Latino, LGBTQ+, women, neurodivergent, veterans, “modern professionals”—with specific development and mentorship narratives attached to each. That can feel like positive attention if you’re in a featured group. It can also feel like second-class citizenship if you are not, especially when development opportunities are described as tailored to a particular identity. Those optics are exactly what the AFL complaint targets.

2) The Legal Question Is Live

Title VII prohibits discrimination with respect to the “terms, conditions, or privileges of employment” because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. AFL argues that identity-specific development pipelines and leadership programs, if reserved or effectively reserved for members of certain categories, cross that legal line. Whether a court or the EEOC agrees is a separate matter. The point is this is not a purely cultural debate; it is now a regulatory one.

3) Brand Mismatch Risks

Cracker Barrel’s base is a cross-section of America, but it skews toward families, church groups, and road-trippers who like the “everybody relax” vibe. When the conversation around the brand shifts from hot cornbread to hot-button issues, you are choosing to spend brand capital. The 2023 Pride post showed how quickly that capital can evaporate and how combustible the topic is for this audience.

4) Selective Inclusion Looks Like Exclusion

If inclusion is the goal, it should look and feel universal. The list of BRGs currently visible on the careers site does not include an explicitly faith-based group or a general “viewpoint diversity” group. That matters in Tennessee and across much of the chain’s footprint, where a large share of employees and guests center their lives around church, faith, and traditional values. When corporate promotes curated identities but leaves out others that are foundational to its customer and employee base, the effort reads as political rather than welcoming.

From Rainbow Rockers To Remodels: A Company In Transition

The LGBTQ+ Alliance controversy isn’t happening in a vacuum. Cracker Barrel is in the middle of a broader reinvention—new menus, modernized dining rooms, and a design refresh that many loyalists say feels less “front porch” and more “generic white box.” You can argue whether the new look is smart retail strategy, but you cannot deny what it signals: leadership is experimenting with the formula. Taken together, the aesthetic pivot and the BRG portfolio tell customers and employees that the company they thought they knew is under renovation—culturally and literally. That is exactly how a chunk of the audience is hearing it.

The Case For Neutrality In A Divided Country

A restaurant should be a refuge, not a referendum. The Craig Bushon Show Media Team view is simple: keep politics—and identity politics—out of the dining room and off the front porch. Inside the workplace, follow the law, treat everyone with dignity, and develop talent based on performance. Outside the workplace, feed people well and send them on their way.

That stance is not anti-anyone. It is pro-mission. If your business is comfort food and community, then your internal culture should be consistent with that calling: universal welcome, equal treatment, and a relentless focus on service. The more a brand leans into symbolic alignments, the more it tempts boycotts from one side or the other. In a hyper-polarized environment, the only winning move for a family restaurant chain is radical neutrality.

What We Would Do If We Ran The Front Porch

Make All Development Pathways Identity-Neutral

If BRGs exist as social or mentorship clubs open to all, say that clearly and structure them accordingly. If any development program is targeted to a demographic, reframe it by skill, role, geography, or tenure instead. If your “Diverse Employee Leadership Talent Advancement” program is just leadership training, make it merit-based, publish the selection criteria, and focus on performance growth for every manager. If it is truly restricted by identity, you are inviting both legal and brand risk; and you are telling a non-member employee they get a different kind of on-ramp to success.

Replace Labels With Ladders

You want to help under-represented employees advance? Build ladders that anyone can climb: tuition assistance, transparent promotion matrices, paid cross-training, mastery badges tied to raises, and mentoring that is open and opt-in. Cracker Barrel already advertises a range of training programs—Manager in Transition, high-potential seminars, etc. Put those front and center, and make clear that identity has nothing to do with eligibility. That is more defensible legally and far more unifying culturally.

If You Celebrate One Community, Celebrate Them All

If you want to spotlight Pride in June, fine. Then also celebrate the veterans you already honor through SERVE on Veterans Day, the Black community during Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, and also Christmas in a way that respects the fact that a huge share of your guests and employees are Christians. You do not have to erase mainstream traditions to prove you welcome everyone. The key is to avoid the message creep that says “we favor identity over universality.” The current BRG slate shows the company knows how to celebrate several groups; broaden, do not narrow.

Publish A One-Page “Customer-First Compact”

Promise in plain language that no guest will ever be made to feel like they have to pass a political or cultural test to enjoy a meal. Promise that leadership and advancement are based on performance, not identity. Promise that training is about service quality, food safety, and hospitality excellence. Make it a promise to employees too. Then keep it. In a country starving for sanity, that kind of clarity will win you more loyalty than a thousand “awareness” seminars.

Responding To The Legal Heat Without Pouring Gasoline On The Fire

Here’s the reality. Cracker Barrel is under scrutiny. AFL’s complaint asks the EEOC and Tennessee’s attorney general to investigate, claiming that the company’s identity-conscious programs and BRGs violate federal and state civil-rights law. The complaint quotes Cracker Barrel’s own pages, SEC filings, and ESG materials. Media outlets have amplified the story. Whether the claims prevail is an open question, but the risk is real. A prudent company narrows legal attack surface and lowers temperature. The current BRG framing does neither.

There is a smarter path. Keep BRGs as open-membership social networks. Strip any exclusive advantage from them. Make every advancement and mentorship program opt-in for all who meet objective performance thresholds. Train managers that identity is never a selection criterion. If you want to keep an LGBTQ+ Alliance for community and conversation, fine—then ensure there is also obvious space for faith-oriented employees to gather, for veterans, for parents, for caregivers, for sports leagues, for chess clubs. In other words, build culture around human connection, not political signaling.

The Trust Problem No Consultant Can Fix

Cracker Barrel’s 2023 Pride post and subsequent backlash were a reminder that Americans feel exhausted by culture war, and they don’t want it with their chicken and dumplings. After celebrating Pride with a rainbow rocker, the company’s social feeds filled with accusations of going “woke.” Many of those critics are the same families who used to plan road trips around the nearest Cracker Barrel. You may think they overreacted. You may cheer that the company stood with LGBTQ+ staff. But if the brand goal is “Welcome to our table,” then the tactic should be the one that welcomes the most people with the least friction. That is not cowardice; it is hospitality.

Trust is built when companies do what customers expect them to do, do it well, and avoid lecturing their guests. A restaurant can be morally serious and still keep the conversation focused on food, service, and respect. Most customers—LGBTQ+, conservative, liberal, apolitical—will reward that.

How We Got From 1991 To Now

It’s worth spelling out the journey in simple terms.

In 1991 Cracker Barrel wrote a policy aimed at excluding gay employees, then reversed course under pressure from public protests and shareholders. That was wrong, the company admitted as much by rescinding it, and it paid reputationally.
Over the next three decades, the company moved toward modern corporate inclusion frameworks, ultimately adopting BRGs and touting an HRC Corporate Equality Index score of 80 by 2021.
In June 2023, the company publicly celebrated Pride Month with a rainbow rocking chair post and got hammered by a portion of its customer base. The message from the market was unmistakable: people felt the brand had drifted from neutral comfort to cultural signaling.
In July 2025, a conservative legal group filed an EEOC complaint alleging that Cracker Barrel’s identity-based employment initiatives—including BRGs such as the LGBTQ+ Alliance—violate civil-rights law. The company has not publicly offered a detailed rebuttal.

No one can accuse Cracker Barrel of standing still. But constant motion is not the same as wise movement. The first posture hurt people and damaged trust. The current posture risks a mirror-image mistake: privileging one set of identities in ways that now put the company in legal crosshairs and reopen old wounds with a different part of the public.

A Simpler Rule For A Complicated Time

Here is the rule we recommend from the Bushon camp: In a mass-market business, lead with mission, not movements. Acknowledge everyone’s dignity. Hire by merit. Promote by performance. Build community around craft and service. Keep political and cultural signaling out of your brand expressions. Celebrate your people for what they achieve together, not for how their demographic boxes line up. And when someone wants to turn a plate of hashbrown casserole into a referendum on America, smile, refill their coffee, and get back to work.

The Bottom Line

Cracker Barrel’s LGBTQ+ Alliance, as part of a broader BRG framework, is meant to signal welcome to LGBTQ+ employees. Fair enough. But when identity groups become the organizing principle for development, mentorship, and leadership visibility, you drift from welcome to wedge. The law might catch up with you. The market already has.

Cracker Barrel’s brand is the front porch. If leadership wants to keep that porch full, the strategy isn’t to pick sides. It is to pick service. The company should protect every employee’s rights under the law, maintain a workplace free of harassment and discrimination, and make growth opportunities clear, objective, and available to all. Do that consistently, and you won’t need a rainbow rocker or a press release to prove you welcome people. Your restaurants will prove it for you.

That is the way back to the table where America still wants to eat.

Disclaimer: This is opinion and analysis from The Craig Bushon Show Media Team. It is not legal advice.