Yet another airport has banned Chick-fil-A from doing business for its socially conservative views on biblical marriage.
According to Fox News, the Buffalo Niagara International Airport suspended plans to construct a Chick-fil-A restaurant approved by the hospitality management company Delaware North and the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA). The decision followed Assemblyman Sean Ryan blasting the NFTA on Twitter for allegedly doing business “with corporations who fund hateful and divisive groups.”
“I strongly urge the NFTA to reverse this decision,” Ryan continued. “I don’t believe the leadership of the NFTA intends to help spread hate and discrimination, but allowing a corporation like Chick-fil-A to do business at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport will help to fund continued divisive anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. New York is a welcoming state that celebrates diversity.”
“The views of Chick-fil-A do not represent our state or the Western New York community, and businesses that support discrimination have no place operating in taxpayer-funded public facilities,” he added.
Later, after the NFTA reversed the decision to greenlight Chick-fil-A, Ryan celebrated it on Twitter. “I applaud the decision that has been made to remove Chick-fil-A from plans for the Buffalo Niagara International Airport. Thank you to everyone who reached out to share their opinion.”
He continued: “We hope in the future the NFTA will make every effort to contract with businesses that adhere to anti-discrimination policies, and we’re confident another vendor who better represents the values of the Western New York community will replace Chick-fil-A as a part of this project in the very near future.”
Chick-fil-A has never had in place a policy that discriminates against LGBT employees or LGBT customers. A spokesperson for the business confirmed this in a statement to WKBW.
“Recent coverage about Chick-fil-A continues to drive an inaccurate narrative about our brand. We do not have a political or social agenda or discriminate against any group,” said the spokesperson. “More than 145,000 people from different backgrounds and beliefs represent the Chick-fil-A brand. We embrace all people, regardless of religion, race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity.”
The hate toward the chicken sandwich empire began in 2012 when company president and COO Dan Cathy expressed support for traditional marriage, prompting boycotts across the country from LGBTQ activists.
“I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,'” Cathy said at the time. “I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about.”
Just last year, two major publications wrote scathing articles begging people to boycott the business: The New Yorker and the Huffington Post. “If You Really Love LGBTQ People, You Just Can’t Keep Eating Chick-fil-A,” wrote Noah Michelson of HuffPo. When Chick-fil-A wanted to set up shop in New York City, Dan Piepenring of The New Yorker called it a “creepy infiltration” of the city.
Most recently, a dean at Rider University resigned from his post when the school banned the chicken restaurant on campus. As reported by The Daily Wire’s Ashe Schow, the San Antonio airport recently banned Chick-fil-A from setting up shop for the exact same reason as the NFTA.
“In a 6-4 vote, with one abstention, the San Antonio City Council voted March 21 to deny the chicken restaurant a spot in the terminal’s 10,000 square feet of available space, according to a report from Out In SA, the sister publication of the San Antonio Current,” reported Schow. “The reason the city council voted against Chick-Fil-A is the same reason leftists continue to attack the restaurant chain — the company’s religious views.”
A few days after this news was reported, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent the San Antonion mayor and city council a letter announcing he would open an investigation into whether the council’s decision to keep Chick-fil-A from the airport violated state law.