Hundreds flocked to to area Chick-fil-A restaurants Wednesday to show their support for the fast food chain’s owner and his opposition to same-sex marriage.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister, declared it national “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” and encouraged people to pack the restaurants to show their support.

Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy told the Baptist Press last month that the Atlanta-based company was “guilty as charged” for backing “the biblical definition of a family.” That unleashed a torrent of criticism from gay rights groups and others, who have called for boycotts and efforts to block the chain from opening locations.

Opponents of the company’s stance are planning “Kiss Mor Chiks” for Friday, when they are encouraging people of the same sex to show up at Chick-fil-A restaurants around the country and kiss each other.

Two local chains — at Bridgewater Falls in Fairfield Twp. and at Voice of America Centre in West Chester Twp. — were packed with supporters of the restaurant’s president’s religious stance.

By 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, more than 200 people waited about an hour to order at the Bridgewater Falls location and the drive-through line of about 75 cars stretched on to Princeton Road, snarling traffic into the shopping center.

Leah Edwards of Liberty Twp. said after walking out of the restaurants that “freedom of speech tastes good.” She was there because her son, Keith Link, a 1996 Fairfield High School graduate, died of a rare form of liver cancer after he served on a nuclear submarine in the Navy.

“He fought so we could have freedoms,” Edwards said. “The least I can do is support him.”

Kim Testas of Trenton brought her three sons and one daughter to the restaurant. They waited about an hour in the line that stretched outside the restaurant and snaked through the restaurant, but she said it was “well worth it.”

Just then, a woman who was exiting the drive-through, rolled down her window and yelled: “The devil is takin’ a bruising today.”

Mark Burton from Hamilton waited in the line for about 15 minutes, then left, pledging to return for dinner. He said those in line shared the “same traditional family values.”

As he turned and looked back at the line, he added: “That’s cool. That’s America.”

The Rev. Larry Fultz, pastor at Freedom Home Church in Trenton, said he heard about the national rally through Facebook, phone calls and texts.

“We are here because what we stand for is right,” he said.

Doris Jarbo, from West Elkton, said she was “led by Jesus Christ to come” to the restaurant.

There were no protesters at the Bridgewater Falls location. But at the West Chester location, Rob Dyer, 33, and William Renner, 31, held signs that read, “Jesus would not eat chicken marinated with hate,” and “Have a burrito they are made with love.”

Dyer said he’s happily married with two children, and he protested near the entrance in support of friends and relatives who are gay. He said the debate about whether homosexuals should be allowed to marry is “a big civil rights issue that’s being shoved down our throats by churches.”

While protesting, members of church groups handed them pamphlets, they were called derogatory names, told to “get jobs you hippies,” but also handed cups of water by others.

“It’s a shame that this day and age people are still persecuted,” Dyer said. “There was every aspect you’d expect to see.”