OPINION: Chick-fil-a is trash
March 9, 2019
Like, okay, the actual food is decent. It has a nice spice palate, it’s often very juicy, and no one does waffle fries quite the same way. It’s super convenient for us to swing through between classes assuming the line isn’t wrapped around the plaza, and it isn’t horribly expensive.
But also in a university that wants to build a universally inclusive environment, why are we allowing a company that has a history of investing in anti-LGBT+ advocacy groups to keep profiting off of our money? Now, I won’t claim to know much about what goes into deciding how we pay food vendors, how we decide who can be on campus, or what funds are used to pay them; I do know, however, that if any of my money in particular is going towards hosting Chick-fil-a, I am not happy about it.
I have maintained an avid boycott against them after finding articles linking Chick-fil-a’s charitable side project WinShape to donations to groups such as Focus on the Family, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Exodus International, and several others. These are organizations that are actively trying to repress and undermine the causes that men, women, and non-binary individuals have died trying to defend.
For a bit of background on these organizations:
- Focus on the Family is a hardline Christian organization that advocates against homosexuality and encourages using God’s message to prevent homosexual behaviors
- Exodus International is a group whose specific mission is to “cure” homosexuality through the “transforming power of Christ.”
- The Family Research Council has been labeled by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-LGBT+ hate group.
- The Fellowship of Christian Athletes has made its members sign a pledge that they will not engage in homosexual acts
So, let me additionally clarify that WinShape is the organization that is making these donations, not necessarily Chick-fil-a. That being said, WinShape is directly affiliated with Chik-fil-a and has been since it was created by Truett Cathy. In its 2015 tax filing, WinShape took in more than 16 million dollars; $16,173,253 of that was from Chick-fil-a.
So what’s your point?
My point is that while I am not calling for an active crusade of protest against a company that I find morally repugnant, I am saying that maybe we shouldn’t be supporting organizations that show a clear disregard for the lives of people in our society. I am saying that I cannot look at those fries without thinking of some teenage boy in an evangelical household having to undergo hours of conversion therapy because they will not let him love who he loves. I am saying that the purchasing of a chicken sandwich and the lives lost from the AIDS epidemic are lost in vain, in favor of organizations that would actively demean their legacy.
Eat what you want, spend your money how you like.
Me, personally, it’s my pleasure to eat elsewhere.
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Really belet • Mar 12, 2019 at 11:57 pm
I’m sad we now live in a country where the new Puritan leftist thought police want to shame people for grabbing a chicken sandwich at a restaurant whose owners have a traditional viewpoint. Enough with shoving your ideology down everyone’s throat. Let me eat my lunch without a lecture! Jeez!
brianna maclean • Mar 12, 2019 at 12:32 pm
To the comment from “really belet,”
The closing of this article says to eat where you want and do what you want but they personally do not support it. This is their opinion and if you are by their choice not to eat at chick-fil-a, idk who is the snowflake here. Just as they do not condemn eating there if you choose, they don’t want to eat there because of their own personal convictions. This IS America, and you should give the respect to their opinion that you are claiming you do not receive. Also, if you look up hate speech, the definition is “abusive or threatening speech or writing that expresses prejudice against a particular group, especially on the basis of race, religion, or sexual orientation.” There is no “hate speech” against your opinions here. I don’t agree with you, but I am glad we live somewhere that we are able to openly disagree with each other’s ideologies.
Really Belet • Mar 9, 2019 at 6:38 pm
Then eat somewhere else and spare the rest of us your holier than thou preaching. So tedious listening to you anti-Christian snowflakes. Learn to respect all views and stop the left wing hate speech and the bulling of the Christian Conservatives. This is America!