Boycotting Chick-Fil-A Is About More Than Chicken
As consumers develop more awareness about the companies (and CEOs) they’re paying, there’s been increased discourse regarding boycotting or withdrawing support from companies that don’t align with personal values. This can include that company’s view on labor policies, or their political alignment, especially concerning their support (or lack thereof) for the LGBTQ+ community.
Chick-Fil-A is one of a few companies that is commonly cited as homophobic, especially when considering its past (and present) contributions to anti-LGBTQ+ organizations.
When met with these accusations in 2012, COO Dan Cathy simply claimed the company was “guilty as charged,” and are “very much supportive of the biblical definition of the family unit.”
The “biblical definition” of the family unit is generally associated with a heterosexual couple raising their equally heterosexual children. Cathy’s statement is hypocritical at best, considering he claims the company “supports the family unit,” while simultaneously admitting that they do not support non-heterosexual family units, which, according to a government census, encapsulates 2 to 3.7 million children being raised by an LGBTQ+ parent, 200,000 of them being raised by same-sex couples.
Considering this statement was made in 2012, one could assume that Cathy’s view on the “family unit” may have changed. The company has even stated (multiple times) that it would be making changes to their charitable donations, reevaluating the groups yearly. However, the company has continued to donate to groups that do not support the LGBTQ+ community. These groups have included the Salvation Army and the Paul Anderson Youth Home, both of which have long-standing records of anti-LGBTQ+ advocacy.
Nowhere on Chick-Fil-A’s website will it say outright: “we don’t support the LGBTQ+ community.” But Chick-Fil-A’s donation track record says just that. With every dollar paid to the Salvation Army, The Paul Anderson Home, or other organizations, Chick-Fil-A has inadvertently rewarded them for discriminating against LGBTQ people.
People often have complete disregard for this, stating that they don’t want to get wrapped up in politics, they just want to eat their food. Every consumer should be informed on where exactly their money is going, and who it is paying, directly and indirectly. In the case of companies like Chick-Fil-A, it is hard to “separate the food from the founder” considering every dollar paid for food has the potential to harm a member of the LGBTQ community. It is important to acknowledge the harmful nature of labeling oneself as an “activist” or an “ally” while simultaneously putting money into the pockets of anti-LGBTQ organizations. A person’s activism or allyship should not be situational, especially not over chicken.