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Chick-fil-A’s chief operating officer boasts an anti-marriage equality rally sponsored by the fast food company in a Tweet.
I guess Dan Cathy has pulled a fast one on Alderman Proco “Joe” Moreno and Illinois-based advocacy group The Civil Rights Agenda. They declared victory yesterday in an announcement that the lawmaker had negotiated an agreement with chicken sandwich purveyor Chick-fil-A agreeing that it would no longer donate to anti-LGBT organizations — end giving to groups with “political agendas.”
There wasn’t even time for the fundies to erupt over it. The Advocate reports today that:
Although the company’s foundation might not be donating directly, Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy tweeted a photo on Tuesday from the 2012 WinShape Ride for the Family. He wrote alongside the picture of a pack of motorcyclists: “WinShape Ride for the Family bikers locked and loaded for 200 mile ride to Wilmington out of Charleston.”
That long ride is a fundraiser for an organization that helps lobby against marriage equality. Registration forms for the event ask that checks be sent, not to the WinShape Foundation that Chick-fil-A operates, but directly to the Marriage and Family Foundation at 5200 Buffington Road in Atlanta, Ga.
The forms say the ride fee is $3,500 for each individual or couple. But sponsorship packages posted online show that organizations could pledge $5,000 for “silver” status, $10,000 for “gold” or $15,000 and more to reach “platinum.” The Chick-fil-A logo accompanies everything, and so does the WinShape name, but it’s unclear whether the foundation continues to make donations.
…The Marriage and Family Foundation was not only included in the investigation by Equality Matters of the fast-food chain’s questionable giving history, it was identified as the top antigay recipient in 2010. WinShape had given more than $1 million to the group in 2010 alone.
This represents not only a giant loophole of bigotry in the agreement, but it puts messy egg on the face of Alderman Moreno. Chick-fil-A never released a statement about its change of corporate heart in the wake of the announcement, and the company has not promised any timeline to add official anti-discrimination language to its policies, only offering its statement to “treat every person with honor, dignity and respect — regardless of their beliefs, race, creed, sexual orientation and gender.” He was grilled about the agreement on The Young Turks.
As I mentioned yesterday, it’s a PR victory that Cathy felt the need to sit down with any pro-equality activists or lawmakers to discuss the future of its chain and the impact of its openly funded homophobia on the company’s bottom line. But as we all know, the devil is in the details and Chick-fil-A is going to be under the microscope for some time to come — the old “trust, but verify” will apply. If you want to even apply “trust” to this agreement at all.
UPDATE: Chick-Fil-A released its statement on the matter, and it hardly clarifies things.
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 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.
For better understanding of our corporate giving, please click here to download the PDF document titled “Chick-fil-A: Who We Are.”
15 Comments
As despicable as the group may be, I do not think one should consider the owner’s personal donations to it to be a reflection of the corporation. Free speech still matters.
Guess Ald. Moreno forgot to read the fine print. Always remember what the big hand giveth, the little hand taketh back.
which part of the Chick-Fil-A logo and the WinShape name being all over everything at the event didn’t you understand?
Chick-fil-A is privately owned by the Cathy family, so there’s little light between CFA corporate money and money that CFA’s private owner has made from it.
Not to in any way support their actions, but the fundraising motorcycle ride took place on Tuesday, which means that the campaign leading up to it took at least several weeks, if not months. The announcement was made on Wednesday.
Still, this gives us an indication of how we might expect the money to flow from now on. The participants were told to make their checks out directly to the hate group, so the money never flows through WinStone. I also expect that future contributions from the Cathy family will be written on their personal checks rather than coming from WinStone or Chick-fil-A.
I’m not surprised by any of this. Is anyone?
Thanks for the update. There was a big old article in today’s “nooz” paper regaling us serfs with the news that the Cathy family had “reformed” (or similar language) and would no longer donate to homophobic hate groups.
Here at FDL yesterday, we all said: why hoooww nice.
And just figured that the Cathy’s would direct their funding differently to make it seem like the donations were “private” and not part of their Shit-Fil-A empire. As someone already pointed out, there’s no might much difference between private and corp donations in terms of the Cathy family.
Yeah, let’s get all kumbayah about Free Speech for rich religious folks who choose to trounce on the civil rights of those they deem to be not their kind.
The Cathy family is free to do what it wants with their money, but let the chips fall where the may. Don’t get into the kitchen if you can’t stand the heat.
It goes even deeper into the Cathy family. The Marriage and Family Foundation, the beneficiary of this fundraising event, was created years ago by another member of the Cathy family.
I guess we can call this the least surprising event since George W Bush went to war with Iraq.
Seems that Alderman Moreno just fell off the turnip truck. With the lack of political acumen he displays and the ability to so readily capitulate, he could very well be the Democratic Presidential candidate in 8 years.
I wouldn’t eat at Chick-fil-A ever! It sounds like a filling station.
Figures. Color me unsurprised.
My rightwing fundie family all dutifully lined up at their local Shit-Fil-A’s to imbibe their fill of this swill, all the while adjuring me that “anyone is invited to eat at these
unhealthy shitholes“dining” establishments, and no one is kept out due to any discrimination.”I said: I’m sure the uber-wealthy Cathy family is quite happy to fleece LGTB’s, along with everyone else. But then they turn that money over to homophobic Hate groups. No thanks. They didn’t want to “get it.” Their Doug Coe “Family” pastors had definitely indoctrinated them with the “party line.”
ptoui!
Is there anyone here that believed these lying sacks of crap. As soon as I heard the story about them relenting I knew it was a lie. That is the way they operate. Tell the rubes what ever they want to hear and do what you want anyway.
Is it a sin to lie to devils? Dan Cathy thinks not.
The Chick-fil-A logo accompanies everything,
Did you miss this part of the article? The fact that the corporate logo is being utilized should not be classified as personal in any way, shape or form.
If they aren’t giving the logo should be removed ASAP. I certainly won’t be frequenting until it gets removed.
Straw man argument. Nobody is trying to restrict anybody’s free speech. We are trying to end religious homophobia inserting itself into the laws of our nation. Actions are the problem, not words. Are you a troll, or what?