Waffle fries? None for me, thanks
UPDATE: So, yesterday (Monday, Nov. 18), the “big news” making the rounds was that the bigots over at Chick-fil-A had promised their charity would stop donating money to the other homophobes at Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Salvation Army. That pissed off Mike Huckabee, well-know so-called Christian homophobe and former governor of Arkansas, who promptly tweeted his displeasure: “In Aug. 2012, I coordinated a national Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day after they were being bullied by militant hate groups. Today, Chick-fil-A betrayed local customers for $$. I regret believing they would stay true to convictions of founder Truett Cathy. Sad.”
(The “sad” there at the end seems to suggest ol’ Mike has been studying at the Donald Trump School of Tweeting.)
At the same time, LGBT advocates and allies (including me) greeted the Chick-fil-A announcement with less than a rousing welcome. In other words, actions speak louder than words, and we don’t trust ’em any further than we could throw ’em.
And, lo and behold, London-based Pink News is today reporting that “the company appears to have quietly back-tracked.” Wow. That didn’t take long, did it?
As we noted in our original post yesterday (see below), by the end of yesterday, Chick-fil-A’s President and CEO Tim Tassopoulos had declared, “No organization will be excluded from future consideration — faith-based or non-faith-based.” And as Pink News pointed out, “A statement on the Chick-fil-A Foundation website said it was ‘happy and proud’ of its 2018 donations, which include Christian organisations that discriminate against LGBT+ people.”
ORIGINAL POST: To Chick-fil-A, or not to Chick-fil-A — that is the question.
Officials with the fast food chain announced today (Monday, Nov. 18), that the company is making some big changes to its charitable foundation and will no longer donate to two agencies that LGBTQ advocates and allies have described as being homophobic.
Chick-fil-A has long been a boycott target due to what many see as anti-LGBT policies and donations, especially donations to the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, both of which have been publicly and adamantly anti-LGBT, and for public statements by former CEO Dan Cathey declaring that his company supported “the biblical definition of the family unit.”
According to CNN Business, the Chick-fil-A foundation in 2018 donated $1.65 million to the FCA and another $115,000 to the Salvation Army.
From here on out, though, company officials said, the Chick-fil-A foundation will work only with organizations that focus on education, homelessness and hunger. Those organizations are Junior Achievement USA, Covenant House International and local food banks.
Still, the idea that Chick-fil-A has changed its homophobic ways rings more than a little hollow, especially considering that President and CEO Tim Tassopoulos said, “No organization will be excluded from future consideration — faith-based or non-faith-based.”
And as Drew Anderson, director of campaigns and rapid response for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said, “If Chick-fil-A is serious about their pledge to stop holding hands with divisive anti-LGBTQ activists, then further transparency is needed regarding their deep ties to organizations like Focus on the Family, which exist purely to harm LGBTQ people and families.”
Anderson added, “Chick-fil-A investors, employees and customers can greet today’s announcement with cautious optimism, but should remember that similar press statements were previously proven to be empty. In addition to refraining from financially supporting anti-LGBTQ organizations, Chick-fil-A still lacks policies to ensure safe workplaces for LGBTQ employees and should unequivocally speak out against the anti-LGBTQ reputation that their brand represents.”
As for me, I think I’ll stick with Popeye’s fried chicken sandwich. It’s better anyway.
— Tammye Nash
Leave it to Tammye Nash to turn a positive into a negative. The gay community has been boycotting and bitching about Chick-Fil_a for years, and now that they finally charge their stance, you’re turning it into a negative.
Typical!
I swear, NOTHING make you people happy. The gay community is becoming as bad, if not worse, than the blacks about complaining about anything and everything.
GET A LIFE!
Oh, honey.
I always use In-N-Out as a comparison. It’s a ‘faith forward’ business, and has been since their inception. They discretely print a Bible verse on their packaging. They pay their workers well.
They also donate to faith-based charities. As far as I’ve dug, I haven’t found any real dirt on any of them (other than belonging to an oppressive religion).
Chick-Fil-A makes a deliberate effort to push an anti-LGBTQ+ agenda & has not issued any type of apology. They can do better but choose not to do it, time & again. Let’s see if they really do what they promise.
But it’s not yet proven to be a truly positive step – we’ve heard this crap from them before and the money still flowed to hate. They may cut back on corporate giving to hate organizations and give more privately, where they think they are free of scrutiny. Time will tell, and it’s too soon to accept them at face value and start eating hate chicken just yet. We have lives, and would like to keep them, so I think maintaining the boycott is on order until they PROVE they have actually mended their ways, not just hidden it again.
they said this 3.5 years ago. So, we’ll see if they mean it.
“You people” way to be demeaning in your response.
And let’s be honest, saying “Hey, we spent millions of dollars supporting groups that alienated you, discriminated, fought against your rights, and practiced conversion therapy. But now we are gonna stop….which we’ve said before…and you should start buying our stuff.
Why, exactly, is it wrong to be doubtful, and to expect them to heal the damage instead of just say “Ok, we are done paying people to subjugate you…money please.”
Hey, J…
You’re the reason why ‘Ok, Boomer’ is in so many people’s vocabulary.