I am quite positive that A&E thought they would have some sort of leverage when they decided to suspend and then fire Phil Robertson from his own very successful show. Yeah, that didn’t happen. A&E has since been scrambling to minimize the damage and keep the Robertsons from leaving A&E to go to another network.

Meanwhile, Americans from coast to coast have been showing incredible support for Phil and his right to free speech. Most notably, well-known homosexuals like CNN’s Don Lemon have defended Phil Robertson and his right to hold views not considered “politically correct.”

But many want to show a more tangible support for Phil Robertson than just signing a petition or hitting “like” on a Facebook page. So one social media savvy person created the Chick-Phil-A day event to give people an outlet to support the Robertsons. A recent article explains:

“The invitation tells supporters; ‘Stand For Free Speech. Sit For Good Food.’ It goes on to include a couple of simple instructions on what to do on the day: 1. Wear your Duck Commander or camouflage gear. 2. Eat at Chick-fil-A. The event page connected to the Chick-Phil-A Day post about the January 21 dine-in already has tabulated more than 42,000 RSVPs.”

The Facebook announcement for the eat-in makes clear that the event is not being sponsored or driven by Chick-Fil-A. But the creator saw such similarity in what happened to Dan Cathy and Phil Robertson that it seemed like a logic thing to do. Whether or not the upcoming support day will be as popular as the 2012 support day for Chick-Fil-A remains unclear. But with more than 40,000 people nationwide planning to attend already I’d say it is well on its way.

I wonder if any A&E executives will be at Chick-Phil-A day?