Chick-Fil-A CEO Denies Stopping Anti-Gay Donations

There was a rumor going around last week that Chick-Fil-A had agreed to stop giving money to anti-gay organizations, and Dan Cathy would like to set the record straight: Chick-fil-A is still giving money to anti-gay organizations.

The Chicago Tribune reported last week that Chicago Alderman Proco Moreno, who had been blocking Chick-fil-A's efforts to open a store in his ward, was going to allow the chain's expansion because he said company officials told him they'd stop donating to anti-gay groups and would release a public statement against discrimination. Moreno and The Civil Rights Agenda, a pro-LGBT organization based in Chicago, said they'd come to an agreement with the fast-food chain.

"I think the most substantive part of this outcome is that Chick-fil-A has ceased donating to organizations that promote discrimination, specifically against LGBT civil rights," said Anthony Martinez, executive director of The Civil Rights Agenda, in a statement.

But Dan Cathy was having none of that.

"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," Cathy said in a statement posted on the website of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. "Chick-fil-A made no such concessions, and we remain true to who we are and who we have been."

Alderman Moreno seems pretty ticked about Cathy's statement, which he says "at the least muddied the progress we had made with Chick-fil-A and, at the worst, contradicted the documents and promises Chick-fil-A made to me and the community earlier this month." 

"Perhaps Mr. Cathy felt that he could make these public statements to Mike Huckabee because I had provided a letter of support for his restaurant to the City of Chicago earlier this week," Moreno continued in a public response to Cathy and Huckabee. "I provided this letter based on the progress we had made with Chick-fil-A. I still need to introduce legislation to make the Chick-fil-A in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago a reality. I will wait to see what Mr. Cathy's next PUBLIC statement is, and reflect on that statement before moving forward with appropriate legislation."