Guilt: it’s something many people feel after pulling through the Chick-fil-A drive-thru and retrieving their food, leaving after receiving a “my pleasure!” It’s odd that guilt is such a strong factor in eating from a fast-food restaurant– they’re meant to just be easy and convenient, but eating at Chick-fil-A has much darker, controversial implications. Still, some have managed to excuse and ignore the pain they have contributed to LGBTQ+ through donating to homophobic organizations, pushing that guilt to the side, including myself.
Tax documents from 2018 showed that the company had donated a total of $1.8 million to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) and the Salvation Army. Both of these organizations have proven to be homophobic. The FCA has hateful statements toward the LGBTQ+ community, designating that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. The organization is open to athletes of middle and high school age, meaning these anti-LGBTQ sentiments describing “homosexual acts” as “unholy” will drastically effect the way these young people view LGBTQ+ people, or view themselves if they are queer themselves. The Salvation Army has turned away people in need because of their sexuality and gender identity, and fired a bisexual employee because of her sexuality.
Since then, Chick-fil-A has stopped donating to these two organizations, instead focusing on education, homelessness, and hunger, donating to Junior Achievement USA, Covenant House International, Feeding America, as well as organizations local to specific restaurants. The company, which is extremely rooted in Christianity, did not expressively state that they would stop donating to anti-LGBTQ organizations, but that they would “take a more focused approach.” While the homophobic donations have stopped, is it too little, too late? Is it suddenly okay to continue eating there because they stopped donating? Do they really care about the mistakes they’ve made, or is it just because they received backlash?
According to Ashtin Berry, a hospitality industry activist, “Chick-fil-A is an $11 billion company that supports anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation on a state and federal level. So the individual decision to eat and engage with the business is a decision to be complicit in their practices.” Although Chick-fil-A may not explicitly donate to homophobic organizations anymore, their subtle support for homophobic policies should be enough to deter people from eating there. By continuing to support the business, consumers support their choice to be homophobic. It sends a message that queer people and their rights don’t matter more than eating a good chicken sandwich.
This goes for LGBTQ+ people too: being queer does not excuse someone from being complicit in Chick-fil-A’s homophobia, because the company’s views and actions will still affect other queer people.
Eating there is not beneficial for morality and LGBTQ+ support, but if someone is a member of the community or an ally, they should take responsibility for eating there if they still choose to do so, while knowing that the company is homophobic. Not acknowledging the homophobia, and taking responsibility for being complicit in it is important to check yourself. If a person wouldn’t want someone else knowing that they eat at Chick-fil-A, or would be embarrassed taking responsibility for eating there, they should not be eating there, period.
It’s important to note that it’s okay for a person to change their mind about decisions they’ve made in the past or actions they’ve taken. If you’ve eaten at Chick-fil-A before, but make the active decision to stop eating there, that’s okay, and it’s commendable. As someone who used to it there, but says “it canceled out” because I’m queer myself, it doesn’t make the guilt go away, or make me any less complicit. I’ve changed my mind since then, and that’s perfectly okay.
It can be difficult to actively make the decision to stop eating there, especially if someone’s friends or family see no problem with it, and eat there regularly. In any case of peer pressure, the same advice applies: do what you think is right. What’s right is taking the small step to support LGBTQ+ people, rather than a corporation that has a history of homophobia.
Photos: Her Campus Media