Chick-fil-A, the Atlanta-based chicken chain that professes to have “no agenda against anyone,” poured its fast-food profits into anti-gay groups to the tune of $2 million. Cluck you, gays.
That’s probably not something Dan Cathy, Chick-fil-A’s president, was bragging about last month when he was lining up for the AIDS Walk Atlanta 5K Run. (He smoked his competitors and won the 55-59 age group.)
A look at the company’s charitable giving shows that Chick-fil-A’s charitable arm – the anti-gay marriage WinShape Foundation in Rome, Ga. – pumped more than $1.7 million into seven anti-gay groups in 2009, which is the latest year that public records are available. The information was uncovered by Equality Matters, which ignited a firestorm of controversy aimed at Chick-fil-A earlier this year when it reported that the company donated more than $1 million to anti-gay groups between 2003-2008.
When that controversy erupted, Cathy fumbled the company’s response and maintained that WinShape welcomes everyone when it clearly rejects same-sex couples.
Sadly, Chick-fil-A’s gay conundrum is unlikely to impact its bottom line, which means continued happy days for Focus on the Family and the other anti-gay groups it enriches.
