It finally worked. After a long and contentious history with the LGBT community due to their anti-gay ways, and an explosive string of negative press, as well as the threat of being unable to open locations in cities like Boston and Chicago, the conservative, notoriously anti-LGBT chicken chain, Chick-fil-A, has agreed to halt funding of anti-gay groups.
As I reported here on the Stew before, Chick-fil-A’s President, Dan Cathy, had come out against marriage equality, and had been donating millions to anti-LGBT groups, some of which are designated hate groups. However, in a recent press release from The Civil Rights Agenda (TCRA), it was confirmed to Chicago Alderman Proco “Joe” Moreno that the charitable arm of Chick-fil-A, the Winshape Foundation, would cease and desist with the hate group donations:
“The WinShape Foundations [sic] is now taking a much closer look at the organizations it considers helping, and in that process will remain true to its stated philosophy of not supporting organizations with political agendas.”
The Civil Rights Agenda made note of the fact that funding from the Winshape Foundation would no longer be granted to groups like Focus on the Family and the National Organization for Marriage. Further, Chick-fil-A executives sent out a memo to franchisees and stakeholders saying that the policy of the company is to “treat every person with honor, dignity, and respect—regardless of their beliefs, race, creed, sexual orientation, and gender, and that the “intent is not to engage in political or social debates.” These guidelines were outlined in a document entitled, “Chick-fil-A: Who We Are.”
Thanks to this new stance, Moreno has agreed to drop his efforts to stop Chick-fil-A’s plans for a new restaurant in Chicago’s Northwest Side ward.
“We are very pleased with this outcome and thank Alderman Moreno for his work on this issue,” TCRA executive director Anthony Martinez said in a statement. “I think the most important part of this outcome is that Chick-fil-A has ceased their donations to anti-gay groups in 2011 and going forward. With some of the groups that they were donating to being classified as hate groups, and others actively trying to halt the movement toward full civil rights for LGBT people, Chick-fil-A has taken a big step forward.”
Martinez went on to add:
“We feel this is a strong step forward for Chick-fil-A and the LGBT community; although it is only a step. I’m not going to be eating at Chick-fil-A anytime soon. … I think people should make that decision for themselves.”
While I am certainly glad that Chick-fil-A will no longer be funneling massive amounts of cash into organizations actively working to deny me my Constitutionally given human rights, I am with Mr. Martinez. I definitely will not be eating at Chick-fil-A soon. They have not changed their minds. They are only doing this because they lost money, and they are in damage control mode. They even got desperate enough to have a fake facebook profile in order to try and quell the backlash.
In other words, I doubt their minds have changed one bit. Until there is a full apology and an announcement that they have changed their stance, no Chick-fil-A for me.
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