Earlier this week, the Chick-fil-A media shitstorm kicked up once again with claims that the group had promised to stop giving money to anti-gay organizations. Though the chicken chain remained quiet at the time, a statement released yesterday claims that its "corporate giving has been mischaracterized," a statement that kind of maybe seems to verify the claims from earlier this week:
A part of our corporate commitment is to be responsible stewards of all that God has entrusted to us. Because of this commitment, Chick-fil-A's giving heritage is focused on programs that educate youth, strengthen families and enrich marriages, and support communities. We will continue to focus our giving in those areas. Our intent is not to support political or social agendas.
So everyone can go back to eating Chick-fil-A guilt-free? Yeah, not so fast. Human Rights Campaign spokesman Fred Sainz tells the Advocate "the words Chick-fil-A used in its statement are actually often associated with opponents of same-sex marriage and LGBT people in general." The Advocate also points out that COO Dan Cathy — the guy who started this whole shitstorm by admitting he was a "guilty as charged" opponent of gay marriage — tweeted a photo from a fundraiser for the Marriage and Family Foundation, an organization activists say helps lobby against gay marriage.
Chick-fil-A: Who We Are. A Response to Recent Controversy
For many months now, Chick-fil-A's corporate giving has been mischaracterized. And while our sincere intent has been to remain out of this political and social debate, events from Chicago this week have once again resulted in questions around our giving. For that reason, we want to provide some context and clarity around who we are, what we believe and our priorities in relation to corporate giving.A part of our corporate commitment is to be responsible stewards of all that God has entrusted to us. Because of this commitment, Chick-fil-A's giving heritage is focused on programs that educate youth, strengthen families and enrich marriages, and support communities. We will continue to focus our giving in those areas. Our intent is not to support political or social agendas.
As we have stated, the Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect – regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. We will continue this tradition in the over 1,600 restaurants run by independent Owner/Operators.
· Chick-fil-A: Who We Are. A Response to Recent Controversy [Official Site via LA Times]
· Chick-fil-A Is Already Raising Questionable Money [The Advocate]
· Chick-fil-A Releases Internal Memo, But Did It Dig a Deeper Hole? [The Advocate]
· All Chick-fil-A Coverage on Eater [-E-]
[Photo: Steve Webel/Flickr]