Despite vowing to stop financially supporting discriminatory groups, Chick-fil-A has continued to do so. According to ThinkProgress, an investigation into the brand’s tax filings from 2017 revealed donations totaling $1.8 million that were given to organizations including Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), Salvation Army, and Paul Anderson Youth Home—all of which have spoken out in opposition of the LGBTQ community.
Nearly seven years ago, Chick-fil-A received massive backlash for their controversial role in the same-sex marriage debate. However, following CEO Dan Cathy’s comments on the subject and public outrage over the donations, they backtracked. The company released a statement announcing their exit from the policy dispute and promised to stop giving to discriminatory organizations. But clearly, they forgot to follow through.
According to the report, they contributed $1,632,416 to FCA, a non-profit sports ministry that bans employees from participating in “homosexual acts.” Meanwhile, they gave $6,000 to the Georgia-based Paul Anderson Youth Home that has blamed the “sexual, physical, and mental abuse of children” on a cultural “explosion of homosexuality.”
The fast food chain also gave a reported $150 thousand to Salvation Army, a charitable organization with an ongoing anti-LGBTQ stance. However, in 2016 when Chick-fil-A promised to stop supporting causes with a history of intolerance, they refused to cut ties with Salvation Army.
Informing ThinkProgress that they “never donated with the purpose of supporting a social or political agenda,” the company has continued to defend their actions. In a statement to Grubstreet, they noted that The Chick-fil-A Foundation gave $9.9 million in total and the focus of their contributions has always been to “support causes focused on youth and education.”
So, are they back to supporting discriminatory and anti-LGBTQ organizations or what? They’re certainly not apologizing.
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