Last month, Richard Ellis, VP of Communications for McDonald's USA, was elected to the NGLCC board and said he was "thrilled to join the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce team and ready to get to work." McDonald's is also listed as a Chamber corporate partner.

"With publicity stunts like this, you have to begin to wonder if the entire staff at the American Family Association was in a coma the last decade when corporate America rocketed towards equality," Human Rights Campaign spokesman Brad Luna told PageOneQ today. McDonald's scored an 85% rating from the HRC Equality Index.

Brent Childers, executive director of Faith In America, an organization devoted to fighting religious based bigotry and homophobia, said that "for the American Family Association to cast dispersion on McDonald's efforts to promote businesses owned by gay and lesbian citizens under a banner of so-called religious values, is perhaps the most hypocritical position yet by this group and it is a disgrace to all the genuine efforts on the part of business who truly value their employees and their families."

"The NGLCC is an economic advocacy organization that represents the business interests of LGBT-owned companies, just as the US Hispanic Chamber, the US Women's Chamber or the US Black Chamber represents those of Hispanic, Women and African American business owners," NGLCC president Justin Nelson told PageOneQ, "I would offer up that if anyone takes the time to understand our agenda – an agenda focused on access to affordable health care, creating opportunities for new business development, developing avenues for increased revenues, creating jobs and growing the workforce -- anyone that would call this a 'radical homosexual business agenda' either chooses to ignore reality or is unaware that the vast majority of American small businesses subscribe to their definition of a radical homosexual business agenda."