Almost five years after promising Chick-fil-A would focus on chicken instead of anti-LGBTQ causes, a review of the conservative Christian-led company’s financial records show it’s just as “guilty” as before of funding antigay causes, to use CEO Dan Cathy’s own words.
In 2012, Cathy told a Baptist newspaper his company was “guilty as charged” of supporting Christian groups that are opposed to LGBTQ rights. But in a move designed to promote his business, Chick-fil-A shortly thereafter issued a statement that going forward the firm would stay away from social issues and will “treat every person with honor, dignity and respect-regardless of their beliefs, race, creed, sexual orientation and gender.”
That stance, however, did nothing to improve its Human Rights Campaign corporate equality index scorecard rating of zero.
Now comes proof that Cathy was just blowing smoke.
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IRS records obtained by ThinkProgress show its nonprofit Chick-fil-A Foundation gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to anti-LGBTQ organizations in 2015. The foundation claims it “is focused on helping every child become all they were created to be,” but apparently not if those children are LGBTQ.
Examples cited by ThinkProgress include:
- $1 million in 2015 or nearly one-sixth of its total grants to the the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which prohibits “homosexual acts” and requires “sexual purity.”
- $200,000 to the Paul Anderson Youth Home, a Georgia-based “transformative organization” that operates a “Christian residential home for troubled youth.” The group perpetuates the myth that people are only LGBTQ because they’ve been sexually abused.
- $130,000 to the Salvation Army, which despite its public relations claims of accepting and allowing LGBTQ employees and servicing members of the community equally, has a discouraging record of housing discrimination and opposition to same-sex marriage.
Just like Dan Cathy, who once said the passage of marriage equality laws signaled a “sad day for our nation.”
Things to keep in mind next time you have a choice of fast food restaurants.
