Chick-Fil-A CEO Says The Company Will Stay Anti-Gay

By Anthony Todd in Food on Sep 22, 2012 3:00PM

Well, that lasted for a hot minute. In the wake of the "concessions" made by Chick-Fil-A to Chicago Alderman Joe Moreno (1st), there were some stories that indicated that Chick-Fil-A maybe wasn't about to change it's tune overnight after all. We decided to take a "wait and see" approach before we put on our sad faces. Unfortunately, Dan Cathy, the CEO of Chick-Fil-A who started this whole mess in the first place, has rearranged our features into a frown.

News outlets have already begun reported on Chick-Fil-A's "violations" of their non-agreement. We pointed out the potential for fudging, since the language was so vague. The Advocate reported on Thursday that Chick-Fil-A hosted a fundraiser this week for the Marriage and Family Foundation - a group that has been associated with both the National Organization for Marriage and Exodus International, which believes people can be re-wired from gay to straight.

According to Slate:

The Marriage and Family Foundation was flagged by LGBT advocacy group Equality Matters' investigations into Chick-fil-A donations to anti-gay marriage groups earlier this year. In fact, with $1 million, it was the anti-gay marriage group that received the most money from the fast food chain in 2010. It was also founded by Dan Cathy's brother Donald, who is a senior VP at Chick-fil-A. As the Advocate explains, the group's sole focus isn't on blocking same-sex marriage: It also backs a number of efforts aimed at cutting the divorce rate and helping existing heterosexual couples feel more satisfied with their marriages.

Still, the association with Marriage and Family Foundation, NOM and Exodus was just that - an association. Circumstantial evidence. Maybe this fundraiser had been planned for months, maybe they didn't intend the money to go to anti-gay causes. We still had hope. No more.

Former presidential candidate and conservative talk radio host Mike Huckabee, in an attempt to assuage his anti-marriage audience (and defend himself, as he helped to organize Chick-Fil-A appreciation day) talked to Cathy.

Huckabee: I talked earlier today personally with Dan Cathy, CEO of Chick Fil-A about the new reports that Chick Fil-A had capitulated to demands of the supporters of same sex marriage. This is not true. The company continues to focus on the fair treatment of all of its customers and employees, but to end confusion gave me this statement:

“There continues to be erroneous implications in the media that Chick-fil-A changed our practices and priorities in order to obtain permission for a new restaurant in Chicago. That is incorrect. Chick-fil-A made no such concessions, and we remain true to who we are and who we have been.”

So either the PR folks gave Moreno/Civil Rights Agenda a runaround, Huckabee is lying or things are internally tense over at Chick-Fil-A headquarters. We can't imagine that, after this, Moreno isn't going to renew his objections - couldn't the spin doctors at Chick-Fil-A keep things on message for one week?