Allan Wall
What does a chicken sandwich have to do with the Homosexual Lobby?
Quite a lot, if you’re referring to Chick-fil-A.
Chick-fil-A is a very successful fast food chain which sells chicken sandwiches. I personally think their sandwiches are very good, as do many others.
Yet, in the past decade, Chick-fil-A has been under fire by purveyors of the Radical Gay Agenda and its followers, and now it’s working to avoid offense to that same lobby. Will it work?
I’ve written about this thrice before, in three previous NewsWithViews articles:
Chick-fil-A Versus the Radical Gay Agenda (August 2012), Chick-fil-A Chickens Out (September 2014), and Why Are They Bashing Chick-Fil-A Now? (May 11th, 2019).
And the saga continues.
First off, how on earth did a chicken sandwich fast food franchise enrage the Homosexual Lobby?
In 2012 Chick-fil-A was at the center of a media firestorm involving the powerful gay lobby, which has much clout in today’s society.
The restaurant chain, owned by the devout Baptist Cathy family, did not refuse to serve gay customers, nor did it fire employees for being gay, nor has the company supported violence against homosexuals.
So what was the big deal?
Chick-fil-A through its charitable arm known as the WinShape Foundation, had donated money to several organizations which oppose gay marriage and the Radical Gay Agenda. That was enough to make the company a target.
When interviewed by Baptist Press, Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy affirmed that “We are very much supportive of the family – the biblical definition of the family unit.”
In a later talk show interview, Mr. Cathy stated that “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’. I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about.”
Dan Cathy, by his donations and comments, had dared oppose the Radical Gay Agenda.
When these donations and statements were noised abroad to the general public, the radical gay activists and supporters went into a tizzy. There were calls for protests and boycotts against the company, other companies broke ties with Chick-fil-A and city governments tried to prevent them from opening stores in their municipalities.
On the other hand, some notable individuals spoke up for Chick-fil-A. Even the American Civil Liberties Union defended the company’s right to free speech. Mitt Romney, however, then the 2012 GOP candidate for president, refused to defend Chick-fil-A even on free speech grounds. Romney later lost the election.
Grassroots supporters of Chick-fil-A found a great way to support the company. On August 1st, 2012, Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, thousands of supporters showed up at Chick-fil-A restaurants to support the company by buying its products.
The company enjoyed record-breaking sales. An average Chick-fil-A restaurant had 29.9 percent more sales than usual, and 367 more customers than on a typical Wednesday business day.
It was a great victory for freedom of speech and a great show of support for Chick-fil-A. It showed that social conservatives too could use the economic weapon.
But even before Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, the company was already beginning to backpedal.
In July of 2012, a month before the Appreciation Day, a company statement said that “Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.”
In September of 2012, a month after Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, a pressure group called “The Civil Rights Agenda” had already reported that Chick-fil-A “ceased donating to organizations that promote discrimination, specifically against LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) civil rights.”
By March 2014, the company’s tax reports indicated that Chick-fil-A had indeed stopped donating funds to all the organizations that the Gay Agenda groups had objected to, with one exception – the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which the same-sex promoters consider anti-gay. In that same month, Dan Cathy expressed his regrets for having brought his company into the controversy.
To summarize, Dan Cathy of Chick-fil-A opposed same-sex marriage, stood up for traditional marriage and was attacked. Grassroots supporters turned out to support the company, and Chick-fil-A profited. Rather than follow up on that victory, Chick-fil-A chickened out and surrendered to the Same-Sex Marriage Agenda.
That’s what the gay lobby activists wanted all along.
When it came to high-profile support for traditional marriage, Chick-fil-A chickened out.
But that wasn’t the end of it. By early 2019, even though the company had chickened out, Chick-fil-A was under attack again. And there’s a lesson there.
Here’s how Think Progress reports it: “Chick-fil-A has taken great pains to downplay its anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and giving, seven years into a national boycott by LGBTQ and allied diners. But contrary to the company’s latest claims that it has no political or social agenda, newly released tax filings show that, in 2017, the Chick-fil-A Foundation gave more than $1.8 million to a trio of groups with a record of anti-LGBTQ discrimination.” (Click here for article link).
So, according to Think Progress, as of 2017, the Chick-fil-A foundation was giving money to “a trio of groups with a record of anti-LGBTQ discrimination”.
These supposedly anti-LGBTQ groups were the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the Salvation Army and the Paul Anderson Youth Home.
But even the Think Progress article said that the Salvation Army had changed its website “to indicate a national policy of non-discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.” And yes, the Salvation Army is getting more “liberal” on that issue.
As for the Paul Anderson Youth Home, the Think Progress reported that in 2017 the Chick-fil-A foundation had decided not to donate to that group anymore.
The Fellowship of Christian Athletes was under attack simply for upholding Christian morality, which includes the prohibition of homosexual acts. Think Progress calls that discriminatory.
Anyway, by November of 2019, Chick-fil-A had confirmed to the Washington Post that it had stopped giving to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Salvation Army. (See source here).
The Chick-fil-A Foundation does, however, plan to give to Covenant House International.
What sort of group is that? Don’t let the name fool you.
According to Jeff Maples of Reformation Charlotte, “Not only is Covenant House known for their full acceptance and celebration of homosexuality — they even had a float in a gay pride parade earlier this year — but Covenant House is pro-abortion, even driving women directly to abortion clinics.”
(Maples article here).
So there you go. Within one decade Chick-fil-A has gone from opposing the gay agenda to supporting it.
But are they trusted by the Homosexual Lobby yet?
Maybe not.
That previously-quoted Washington Post article quoted a certain Drew Anderson, “director of campaigns and rapid response for GLAAD”. (GLAAD is an LGBT activist group).
Regarding Chick-fil-A, Drew Anderson declared that: “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. 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.”
So Chick-fil-A chickened out and betrayed its supporters and kowtowed to the Gay Lobby. But it still may not be enough.
There’s a lesson there.
© 2019 Allan Wall – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Allan Wall: allanwall39@gmail.com
