Christian-owned Chick-fil-A has promised to stop giving to anti-LGBTQ charities, a vow it has made at least once before, and broken.
Bisnow reports: “The new initiative will no longer include donating to organizations like the Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Paul Anderson Youth Home, Chick-fil-A says, all of which sparked criticism in the past from the LGBT community due to the organizations' stances on homosexuality.”
Said Chick-fil-A President and Chief Operating Officer Tim Tassopoulos to Bisnow: “There's no question we know that, as we go into new markets, we need to be clear about who we are. There are lots of articles and newscasts about Chick-fil-A, and we thought we needed to be clear about our message.”
CEO Dan Cathy said in early 2011 that the company “would not champion any political agendas on marriage and family,” but in that same year the group's anti-gay giving doubled.
And that anti-LGBTQ giving continued, and actually increased.
Think Progress reported that it gave $1.8 million in 2017 to three groups that actively work against LGBTQ people: ‘The Fellowship of Christian Athletes is a religious organization that seeks to spread an anti-LGBTQ message to college athletes and requires a strict “sexual purity” policy for its employees that bars any “homosexual acts.” Paul Anderson Youth Home, a “Christian residential home for trouble youth,” teaches boys that homosexuality is wrong and that same-sex marriage is “rage against Jesus Christ and His values. The Salvation Army has a long record of opposing legal protections for LGBTQ Americans and at the time of the donations had a written policy of merely complying with local “relevant employment laws.” The organization's website has since changed to indicate a national policy of non-discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.'
In 2012 after Chick Fil-A executives promised to stop supporting anti-gay organizations, Cathy continued to show his support to anti-gay groups, and later stated that the company had never agreed to end its anti-gay funding at all.
Cathy also remained a vocal opponent of marriage equality. Most infamously in June of 2012, Cathy said the company was guilty as charged in its support of so-called pro-family and pro-marriage (re: anti-gay) organizations. A month later he told the Baptist Press, “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.'”
