Which came first: the chicken, or the anti-LGBTQ organizations the chicken donates millions to every year?
Fast food chain Chick-fil-A continued to contribute millions of dollars to organizations with anti-LGBTQ agendas after it promised not to, newly released tax filings obtained by ThinkProgress show.
The privately owned chain, long associated with anti-LGBTQ causes, publicly pledged not to have a political or social agenda after its billionaire CEO, Dan Cathy , stoked outrage and a boycott in 2012 publicly decrying gay marriage .
In 2017 (the most recent tax filing available), Chick-fil-A donated $9.9 million to charity, of which roughly $1.8 million went to three groups known to discriminate against LGBTQ people.
Of the three, Chick-fil-A gave the most, $1.65 million, to an organization called the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Per Chick-fil-As website, the cash funded sports camps and school programs for inner-city youth.
A laudable goal, for sure. Save for the fact the group requires camp leaders to sign a statement of faith prior to being admitted. The nine-point contract includes a sexual purity statement that prohibits heterosexual sex outside of marriage and any homosexual act. A second bullet on the contract states that marriage is exclusively the union of one man and one woman.
Chick-fil-A notes that camp participants unlike camp leaders arent required to sign the pledge. But thats hardly an argument for giving $1.65 million to the group, which harbors and preaches anti-gay sentiment.