Cheryl Summerville

Cheryl Summerville became a gay rights activist in 1991, when she was fired from her job as a cook at Cracker Barrell for violating the company’s conservative lifestyle policy. In response to several terminations, Atlanta’s Queer Nation chapter organized a national campaign against the restaurant, including a boycott and local protests. The campaign also encouraged people to buy a single share of Cracker Barrel stock, so that new stockholders could pressure Cracker Barrel to create a non-discrimination policy. They persevered until 2002, when Cracker Barrel finally changed its policies to bar decimation on the basis of sexual orientation.