LGBTQ+
Chick-Fil-A Increased Donations To Anti-LGBTQ Group That Bars Employees From ‘Homosexual Acts’: Report
The Chick-fil-A Foundation contributed more than $1.8 million to groups with a record of anti-LGBTQ discrimination, according to newly released 2017 tax filings.
ThinkProgress reports that the foundation, which is almost entirely funded by Chick-fil-A’s corporate treasury, gave “$1,653,416 to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, $6,000 to the Paul Anderson Youth Home, and $150,000 to the Salvation Army,” an increase from their donations to these groups from the previous year.
According to ThinkProgress:
The Fellowship of Christian Athletes is a religious organization that seeks to spread an anti-LGBTQ message to college athletes and requires a strict “sexual purity” policy for its employees that bars any “homosexual acts.” Paul Anderson Youth Home, a “Christian residential home for trouble youth,” teaches boys that homosexuality is wrong and that same-sex marriage is “rage against Jesus Christ and His values.”
The Salvation Army has a long record of opposing legal protections for LGBTQ Americans and at the time of the donations had a written policy of merely complying with local “relevant employment laws.” The organization’s website has since changed to indicate a national policy of non-discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Chick-fil-A has since said that it will cease donating to the Paul Anderson Youth Home because it “does not meet Chick-fil-A’s commitment to creating a welcoming environment to all,” but it will continue donating to the two other groups highlighted by ThinkProgress.
Chick-fil-A, which has a rating of zero in the Human Rights Campaign’s Buyers Guide because the company has no pro-LGBTQ workplace policies, publicly opposed same-sex marriage and donated millions to anti-LGBTQ groups before claiming in 2012 that it had “ceased donating to organizations that promote discrimination, specifically against LGBT civil rights.”
In 2015, however, tax returns revealed that the Chick-fil-A foundation had donated more than $1.3 million to the three anti-LGBT groups.
