After years of scrutiny over the destinations of their charitable donations, Chick-fil-A has announced a huge change to one of the most controversial aspects of the company.
On Monday, Nov. 19 Chick-fil-A announced that it will stop donating to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Salvation Army, both of which have been criticized by the LGBTQ+ community. These organizations have received backlash for their “historical opposition to same-sex marriage and for reportedly excluding LGBT individuals from leadership positions.”
Courtesy: Food & Wine
Chick-fil-A itself, an openly Christian company, has been controversial regarding its stance on gay rights. Leading up to 2012, the company made donations to right-wing and religious organizations known for lobbying against gay rights through a foundation called WinShape. One of the organizations the company donated millions of dollars to was the Family Research Council, which not only openly opposed gay marriage but was also labeled as a hate group in 2010.
However, in 2012, Chick-fil-A ended their donations to (almost) all of the controversial foundations after their CEO, Dan Cathy, made some pretty serious comments. He claimed that Chick-fil-A believed in “the biblical definition of a family unit.” Furthermore, Cathy said, “I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage.’”
Even after this, the company maintained its relationship with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Salvation Army, despite their supposed stance on gay rights. In an interview with Business Insider Rodney Bullard, the head of the Chick-fil-A Foundation defended their choice to donate to these organizations saying they were “relevant and impactful in the community,” and that “that’s a much higher calling than any political or cultural war that’s being waged.”
Because of their stance on gay rights, attempts to expand the fast-food chain across the U.S. and into different countries have failed. In March of 2019, Chick-fil-A had to cancel the opening of a location in the Buffalo airport because of the opposition from local politicians. Only several days after opening the first location in the United Kingdom, the company had to announce that its closure would occur in 6 months due to the number of protests. In Toronto, the grand opening of a new location was greeted by a huge amount of protesters who argued that the “antigay policies will clash with the culture of Canada’s largest city.”
Courtesy: Fox News
After ending the donations to the controversial organizations on Monday, Chick-fil-A claims that starting in 2020, they will “deepen [their] giving to a smaller number of organizations working exclusively in the areas of education, homelessness, and hunger.” The organization claims they will stay “true to [their] mission of nourishing the potential in every child.” Read more about their upcoming changes here.
According to the New York Times, advocates for equal rights agree that this is a step in the right direction for the third-largest chain in the US by sales, but ask the chain to do more. However, not everyone is happy with the changes being made by the “Home of the Chicken Sandwich.” Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor, claimed that Chick-fil-A “surrendered to anti-Christian hate groups.” He tweeted out, “Today, Chick-fil-A betrayed local customers for $$. I regret believing they would stay true to convictions of founder Truett Cathy.”
Regardless of political stance, and whether you believe the company is doing this out of the goodness in their hearts or for simply monetary purposes, it can be agreed that Chick-fil-A is making a big change in their image.
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