Fast-food giant Chick-fil-A has left a foul taste in the mouth of customers after reneging on a promise not to donate funds to anti-queer groups.
After years of scrutiny and several airports denying the chain new locations, COO Tim Tassopoulos told the press that the restaurant would no longer funnel money to anti-LGBTQ groups. “There’s no question we know that, as we go into new markets, we need to be clear about who we are,” Tassopoulos said at the time. In the past, the restaurant had made large donations to organizations like the Salvation Army and Fellowship of Christian Athletes, both of which have homophobic polices.
Related: Pray to keep Chick-fil-A anti-gay, says evangelist Franklin Graham
Republican and conservative Christian outcry came fast and loud, and Tassopoulos walked back his words just weeks later. “No organization will be excluded from future consideration–faith-based or non-faith-based,” he told Vice.
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Now newly released tax documents reveal that Chick-fil-A donated even larger amounts to homophobic organizations in 2018. The restaurant gave two installments of $825,000 to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, a group which forbids homosexuality under the guise of “sexual purity.” The Salvation Army also received funds to the tune of $115,000. That organization has taken heat for refusing LGBTQ homeless people shelter, and for refusing to hire queer people as company officers.
In sum, it appears Chick-fil-A has yet to revise its recipes for homophobia. Forgive us if we’ve lost our appetite.
fraziercole
No surprise here. Once a homophobe, always a homophobe.
maleficent
until they come out as queer
RoughRugger
How in gay hell is it “reneging on a promise” to do something a year or more before you made that promise??
Cam
Because they’ve promised to do it 2 other times.
adb
I was rather wondering the same thing. Raking them over coals for a promise made a month ago and financial records from 2018 is lazy journalism.
MacAdvisor
“The restaurant gave two installments of $825,000 to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, a group which forbids homosexuality under the guise of “sexual purity.” The Salvation Army also received funds to the tune of $115,000.”
This is simply and demonstrably false. The restaurant gave money to the Chick-fil-A Foundation, an entirely separate corporation that is a non-profit, and the Foundation gave to those charities. The Foundation, as a non-profit, must make its IRS 990 forms available, which is how we know where the money is going.
While some may see this as a distinction without a difference, the Foundation receives a great deal of its money, not from the Chick-fil-A corporation, but from the Chick-fil-A CEO, a private citizen.
maleficent
when i was in high school the FoCA was one big gaggle of bottoms looking for a rough top