A new report details the massive amount of money the city of San Antonio has allegedly spent thus far in order to block Chick-fil-A from opening a restaurant at an airport because six members of the city council believes the popular fast-food franchise is &#8220;anti-LGBTQ.&#8221;
Chick-fil-A, which recently became the nation&#8217;s third-largest fast-food franchise, has been under perpetual fire from the progressive left because of the traditional Christian views of its owners and its charitable arm&#8217;s donations to Christian organizations, including some that have expressed traditional views on marriage and sexuality. Though Chick-fil-A does not discriminate against LGBT customers and employs LGBT individuals, it has been branded as &#8220;anti-LGBTQ&#8221; by the left.
Among those who have condemned the franchise are six members of San Antonio&#8217;s city council, who voted last March to ban the franchise from opening a restaurant at the San Antonio International Airport, citing its supposed &#8220;legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior.&#8221;
&#8220;With this decision, the City Council reaffirmed the work our city has done to become a champion of equality and inclusion,&#8221; the city council declared in a <a href="https://www.kens5.com/article/news/community/plan-to-bring-new-restaurants-to-sa-airport-amended-by-city-council-to-exclude-chick-fil-a/273-b8e90ec4-f077-48c3-a79d-7511dca48ba0">press release</a>, announcing its 6-4 vote. &#8220;San Antonio is a city full of compassion, and we do not have room in our public facilities for a business with a legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior.&#8221;
The decision sparked two lawsuits and a federal investigation, and, according to calculations by CBS-affiliate <a href="https://www.kens5.com/article/money/citys-chick-fil-a-fight-has-cost-more-than-300k-so-far/273-2bae1e94-62fe-4bc8-ba95-3dab02558696">KENS5</a>, has thus far cost more than $300,000 in legal fees. &#8220;According to the latest numbers, to day, the city has paid at least $315,000, with other invoices pending,&#8221; the outlet reports.
Days after the council&#8217;s decision in March to exclude the franchise, the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation, while multiple Texas political figures publicly condemned the city council&#8217;s discriminatory move, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R).
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The details of this story are even worse. San Antonio City Council voted to ban ⁦<a href="https://twitter.com/ChickfilA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ChickfilA</a>⁩ from the airport bc the company gave to&#8230;the Fellowship of Christian Athletes &amp; the Salvation Army?!? That’s ridiculous. And not Texas. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LeftistIntolerance?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LeftistIntolerance</a> <a href="https://t.co/ApTnlpS2E0">https://t.co/ApTnlpS2E0</a>
&mdash; Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) <a href="https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1109532206542848000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Among the reasons cited for labeling the company &#8220;anti-LGBTQ&#8221; was its donations to Christian charities, particularly the Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Paul Anderson Youth Home, which were listed a day earlier in a report by left-wing site <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/chick-fil-a-anti-lgbtq-donations-tax-filings-62ca15281f17/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Think Progress</a> on Chick-fil-A&#8217;s <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/402397177/Chick-Fil-A-Foundation-2017" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2017 tax filings</a>.
In a decision met with backlash from the company&#8217;s large number of faith-based fans, Chick-fil-A President and Chief Operating Officer Tim Tassopoulos <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-chick-fil-a-to-stop-donating-to-christian-charities-branded-anti-lgbt">announced</a> in November that the foundation was no longer going to donate to the Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes or the Paul Anderson Youth Home.
“There’s no question we know that, as we go into new markets, we need to be clear about who we are,” Tassopoulos said. “There are lots of articles and newscasts about Chick-fil-A, and we thought we needed to be clear about our message.”
As noted by <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/san-antonio-chick-fil-a-open-legal-fees">Fox Business</a>, Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy has since admitted that the chain &#8220;inadvertently discredited&#8221; groups with the decision.
&#8220;We understand how some thought we were abandoning our longstanding support of faith-based organization,&#8221; Cathy wrote in a Dec. 5 <a href="https://www.afa.net/media/449831/letter-from-chick-fil-a.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">letter</a> to American Family Association President Tim Wildmon. &#8220;We inadvertently discredited several outstanding organizations that have effectively served communities for years.&#8221;
&#8220;The intent of our corporate giving has always been to have impact &#8212; not to make a statement or support a political or social agenda,&#8221; wrote Cathy. &#8220;Chick-fil-A will give to faith-based and other organizations that we believe to be highly effective in a particular area.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chick-fil-a-ceo-says-company-will-still-glorify-god-after-throwing-salvation-army-under-the-bus">Chick-Fil-A CEO Says Company Will Still ‘Glorify God’ After Throwing Salvation Army Under The Bus</a>

Chick-fil-A

Report Details Ungodly Amount Of Money San Antonio Has Spent Blocking Chick-Fil-A

Christianity

Texas

Chick-fil-A may now be having second thoughts after departing from Christian organizations like The Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes after LGBTQ activists branded them as homophobic.
In a December fifth <a href="https://www.afa.net/media/449831/letter-from-chick-fil-a.pdf">letter </a>to Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association, Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy expressed some regret after the business “inadvertently discredited several outstanding organizations” after shifting gears on its corporate giving strategy this past November.
&#8220;As you have seen, recently we announced changes to our giving strategy at the Chick-fil-A Foundation. These changes were made to better focus on hunger, homelessness and education,&#8221; wrote Cathy. “We understand how some thought we were abandoning our longstanding support of faith-based organizations. We inadvertently discredited several outstanding organizations that have effectively served communities for years.&#8221;
“Some also questioned if our commitment to our Corporate Purpose was waning. Let me state unequivocally: It is not,” he added.
Cathy went on to say that Chick-fil-A never had any intention of weighing into political or social movements, asserting that it will simply be focusing on ways to fix hunger, homelessness, and education.
&#8220;The intent of our corporate giving has always been to have impact &#8212; not to make a statement or support a political or social agenda,&#8221; wrote Cathy. &#8220;In the future, our company will seek to make a greater impact by addressing the challenges of hunger, homelessness and education. Chick-fil-A will give to faith based and other organizations that we believe to be highly effective in a particular area.
&#8220;Grant recipients will likely rotate, as we assess from year to year partners who help us meet our stated goals,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Also, our operators in your community will continue to invest in local causes that are meaningful at their discretion. Additionally, our family will continue to fund and operate our family foundations and give to other charities of our choice.&#8221;
Though Wildmon <a href="https://www.afa.net/activism/action-alerts/2020/chick-fil-a-responds-to-afa-letter/">said</a> that Cathy&#8217;s letter was a &#8220;welcomed clarification,&#8221; he still expressed caution for people reading deeper. He cited the fact that Chick-fil-A donated to organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Covenant House, which has <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/new-chick-fil-a-donation-recipient-hosts-drag-queen-story-hour-events">supported</a> &#8220;drag queen story hour&#8221; in public libraries.
“It appears that Mr. Cathy understands how many evangelicals perceived the company&#8217;s decision, as he stated that these Christian groups were ‘inadvertently discredited,’” <a href="https://www.afa.net/activism/action-alerts/2020/chick-fil-a-responds-to-afa-letter/">said</a> Wildmon. “The fact that Dan Cathy called these two Christian groups ‘outstanding organizations’ will mean a lot to evangelicals.”
&#8220;However, I also mentioned in my initial letter that Chick-fil-A stated that the company would support Covenant House, a ministry to homeless youth, including homosexual young people. While it is admirable to help hurting youth in desperate circumstances — including those who are LGBTQ — Covenant House also openly promotes homosexuality as normal, natural, and healthy,&#8221; continued Wildmon. &#8220;This was evident in Covenant House&#8217;s participation in the NYC gay pride parade and a number of other efforts that make it clear the ministry does not hold to a biblical view of human sexuality.&#8221;
“As a result, AFA will continue to monitor Chick-fil-A&#8217;s corporate giving, at least for the foreseeable future,” concluded Wildmon. “We believe our supporters rely on us to do so.”

US-ECONOMY-RETAIL-FOOD

Chick-Fil-A CEO Says Company Will Still ‘Glorify God’ After Throwing Salvation Army Under The Bus

LGBT

Salvation Army

Same-Sex Marriage

In 2017, according to tax <a style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;" href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/262343206/201843169349100994/IRS990PF">records</a>, Chick-Fil-A donated $2,500 to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a  group that has targeted Christian organizations in the past by categorizing groups that disapprove of same-sex marriage as  “hate-groups.”
<a href="https://thefederalist.com/2019/11/27/chick-fil-a-donated-to-anti-christian-southern-poverty-law-center/">The Federalist</a> notes:
<blockquote>It was the SPLC that motivated a terrorist shooter in 2012 to launch an assault on the Family Research Council with a semi-automatic pistol, 100 rounds of ammo, and 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches. “Southern Poverty Law [Center] lists anti-gay groups. I found them online,” said the shooter in an interrogation video made public by the FBI, adding that his plan was to “kill as many as possible and smear the Chick-fil-A sandwiches in victims’ faces, and kill the guard.”</blockquote>
Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, reacted to the report from <a href="https://townhall.com/columnists/ryanbomberger/2019/11/26/cowardice-and-capitulation-the-shocking-things-chickfila-funds-n2557072">Townhall</a> that Chick-fil-A had donated to the SPLC: “Not only has Chick-fil-A abandoned donations to Christian groups including the Salvation Army, it has donated to one of the most extreme anti-Christian groups in America. Anyone who opposes the SPLC…is slandered and slapped with the ‘extremist’ label or even worse, their ‘hate group’ designation. It’s time for Christians to find a fast food alternative to Chick-fil-A.”
Earlier this month, in an interview with <a href="https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/retail/exclusive-amid-global-expansion-and-lgbt-pushback-chick-fil-a-changes-charitable-giving-structure-101818">Bisnow</a>, Chick-fil-A President and Chief Operating Officer Tim Tassopoulos stated that the food chain would be changing which charities it donates to. Bisnow reported Chick-fil-A&#8217;s  charitable actions &#8220;will no longer include donating to organizations like the Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Paul Anderson Youth Home.&#8221;
Tassopoulos told Bisnow, &#8220;There’s no question we know that, as we go into new markets, we need to be clear about who we are. There are lots of articles and newscasts about Chick-fil-A, and we thought we needed to be clear about our message.&#8221;
The Salvation Army <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/salvation-army-releases-statement-on-chick-fil-a-cutting-ties-chick-fil-a-issues-new-statement">issued a statement</a> following the Bisnow report, reading:
<blockquote>We’re saddened to learn that a corporate partner has felt it necessary to divert funding to other hunger, education and homelessness organizations — areas in which The Salvation Army, as the largest social services provider in the world, is already fully committed.We serve more than 23 million individuals a year, including those in the LGBTQ+ community. In fact, we believe we are the largest provider of poverty relief to the LGBTQ+ population. When misinformation is perpetuated without fact, our ability to serve those in need, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, religion or any other factor, is at risk. We urge the public to seek the truth before rushing to ill-informed judgment and greatly appreciate those partners and donors who ensure that anyone who needs our help feels safe and comfortable to come through our doors.</blockquote>
Ryan Bomberger, writing for Townhall, noted:
<blockquote>The Chick-fil-A Foundation’s recent <a href="https://thechickenwire.chick-fil-a.com/News/Chick-fil-A-responds-to-questions-about-our-charitable-giving">announcement</a> about its future funding again reaffirmed its redirection and capitulation. It just so happens that the same three groups <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/chick-fil-a-still-anti-gay-970f079bf85/">targeted</a> for years by LGBT organizations as anti-LGBT “hate groups” just happened to be the same ones that would no longer be funded: <a href="https://www.salvationarmy.org/">The Salvation Army</a>, <a href="https://www.payh.org/">Paul Anderson Youth Home</a> and <a href="https://www.fca.org/">Fellowship of Christian Athletes</a>. Chick-fil-A’s press release acknowledges that these groups were “characterized as anti-LGBT groups” but never dispels that.</blockquote>
Bomberger listed other leftist organizations that Chick-fil-A funds, including the YWCA, whose pro-abortion stance is evidenced by their repeated partnership with Planned Parenthood; the New Leaders Council, which identifies as a “hub of progressive millennial thought leadership” which exists to “support one another along their individual path to a more progressive political and cultural landscape”; The Pace Center for Girls, which has featured pro-abortion activist Gloria Steinem: Usher’s New Look, which has held a “Disruptivator Summit,” and Chris 180, which Bomberger notes “boasts of <a href="https://chris180.org/training/lgbtq-awareness/">being awarded</a> the ‘Leader in Supporting and Serving LGBT Families and Youth&#8217; from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRC).”
&nbsp;

COLLEGE FOOTBALL: AUG 31 Chick-fil-A Kickoff &#8211; Duke v Alabama

Report: Chick-Fil-A Funded Anti-Christian SPLC, Other Leftist Groups

Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)

Chick-fil-A&#8217;s disappointing decision to discontinue donations to &#8220;controversial&#8221; Christian charities is emblematic of the power of political correctness and the bullying left that drives it. If the previously stalwart Chick-fil-A folds, who is left standing to fight?
Tireless, intolerant LGBTQ activists bombarded the restaurant chain with protests and accusations about it being &#8220;anti-gay.&#8221; The gist of its sin is that it has donated millions of dollars to The Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which have historically opposed same-sex marriage.
Just this week, the restaurant chain announced it has stopped funding these two charities. &#8220;We made multi-year commitments to both organizations and we fulfilled those obligations in 2018,&#8221; said a spokeswoman for the company. She added that the company would focus its giving on &#8220;education, homelessness and hunger.&#8221;
The Salvation Army issued a statement expressing that it was &#8220;saddened&#8221; by this development. &#8220;We serve more than 23 million individuals a year, including those in the LGBTQ+ community,&#8221; the statement reads. &#8220;In fact, we believe we are the largest provider of poverty relief to the LGBTQ+ population.&#8221;
You see, it&#8217;s not about being anti-gay at all. It&#8217;s about dictating to people how they must think, what they may or may not say, and to whom they may contribute. Indeed, Chick-fil-A has been savaged in the past for its charitable donations and for CEO Dan Cathy&#8217;s public opposition to same-sex marriage. Chick-fil-A had, to this point, demonstrated admirable courage and commitment to its principles by enduring this criticism and pressing forward without caving to the PC thought police. In the end, however, it just couldn&#8217;t stand the heat.
The irony is that the company&#8217;s contrition won&#8217;t win it any points, for leftist activists are never satisfied unless you go beyond capitulation to abject groveling and become a full-throated ambassador for their views.
&#8220;If Chick-Fil-A is serious about their pledge to stop holding hands with divisive anti-LGBTQ activists, then further transparency is needed regarding their deep ties to organizations like Focus on the Family, which exist purely to harm LGBTQ people and families,&#8221; said Drew Anderson, GLAAD&#8217;s director of campaigns and rapid response, in a statement.
We are living at a time when the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, both of which are dedicated to winning souls for Jesus Christ, are considered by huge swaths of our culture to be outright evil. This inversion of our moral standards is consistent with the left&#8217;s support — and eerie glorification — of abortion on demand to the point of birth and beyond.
Notice that it isn&#8217;t Chick-fil-A, the Salvation Army or the Fellowship of Christian Athletes who are casting anyone as evil. It is quite the other way around. These organizations aren&#8217;t calling for the muzzling of contrary opinions, though one may wonder whether Chick-fil-A might eventually be pushed to that point.
There is no appeasing the left unless the offender is willing to deny himself and his heart. I detail this phenomenon in my book &#8220;Guilty by Reason of Insanity: Why the Democrats Must Not Win,&#8221; and it is no trifling matter.
Let me give you a few examples. Former Vice President Joe Biden was shamed into retracting his gracious statement on Vice President Mike Pence being a &#8220;decent guy.&#8221; The left wouldn&#8217;t let that innocuous comment stand, and Biden dutifully apologized. Actor Mark Duplass was badgered into apologizing for having said that conservative Ben Shapiro was kind and fair to him. Conservatives must be ostracized. Kevin Hart was pressured into withdrawing as host of the Academy Awards for a decade-old joke. His withdrawal and apology weren&#8217;t enough. One progressive writer said that apologizing is like a math problem. To get credit, you have to show your work. To achieve atonement, he had to show his &#8220;changed life&#8221; through his actions. NBC News&#8217; Tom Brokaw profusely apologized when he opined that &#8220;Hispanics should work harder at assimilation.&#8221; But that was insufficient. Some called on NBC to produce a series on American Hispanics, to contribute money to the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and to increase diversity among &#8220;Meet the Press&#8221; guests.
There are tons of other examples, but even more disturbing than the left&#8217;s implacability is that so many people on the left and the right knuckle under to this bullying. They are bludgeoned into not only apologizing when they&#8217;ve done nothing wrong but also publicly renouncing their heartfelt views.
In interviews for my book, many hosts ask me what advice I have for conservatives who seek to stem the tide of leftism overtaking our culture and our political system. One answer is that we must quit downplaying the left&#8217;s systematic assaults on our society and begin to fight with the same level of persistence. This requires maintaining the courage of our convictions and standing up against the PC bullying of the tyrannical left, which can be very difficult, as shown by the Chick-fil-A example. Let this be a wake-up call for all patriots and those who still embrace the ideas and values that have made this nation uniquely great.
David Limbaugh is a writer, author and attorney. His latest book is &#8220;Guilty by Reason of Insanity: Why the Democrats Must Not Win.&#8221; Follow him on Twitter @davidlimbaugh and his website at www.davidlimbaugh.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

LIMBAUGH: Leftist Bullying Works

Earlier this week, erstwhile culinary icon of Southern-inspired cultural conservatism Chick-fil-A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/walsh-chick-fil-a-just-caved-to-the-rage-mob-theyre-about-to-learn-the-hard-way-that-surrendering-never-pays-off">kowtowed</a> to the <a href="https://americanmind.org/post/brand-warfare-is-a-fight-to-the-death/">hectoring bullies</a> of radical LGBT activism and announced that it would henceforth refrain from donating to such deeply polarizing and horrifyingly conservative Christian organizations as &#8230; the <a href="https://theresurgent.com/2019/11/19/chick-fil-a-is-made-to-care-caves-to-progressives-abandons-salvation-army/">Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes</a>. Apparently, a mere organizational affiliation with Christianity in the year 2019 suffices to incite &#8220;homophobic&#8221; or &#8220;transphobic&#8221; smears from the secularist outrage mob.
Far be it from me to tell a private company that it has made a poor business decision, but the reality is that Chick-fil-A has all but assuredly made a poor business decision. As many in the commentariat class have pointed out, Chick-fil-A&#8217;s business model has only increasingly flourished as the Left&#8217;s attacks against it have contemporaneously amplified. The predictable result of Chick-fil-A&#8217;s corporate cowardice will only be the alienation of the company&#8217;s core supporters and the failure to appease its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/backlash-chick-fil-a-faces-heat-for-caving-to-leftists-cutting-ties-with-christian-orgs">insatiable foes</a> on the Left.
As Spencer Klavan aptly put it at <a href="https://americanmind.org/post/brand-warfare-is-a-fight-to-the-death/">The American Mind</a>, &#8220;The attack on Chick-fil-A makes plain that radical leftists are not in this for a compromise, or an equitable live-and-let-live solution. &#8230; Destruction, not détente, is the goal.&#8221; Indeed. And against this backdrop of leftist/secularist cultural hegemony, overly defensive calls for pluralism and procedural &#8220;tolerance&#8221; are woefully <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-social-conservatives-must-defend-the-intrinsic-good-of-religion">inadequate</a> <a href="https://americanmind.org/discourse/our-constitutional-order-prioritizes-justice-not-procedure/">responses</a> for those of us on the political Right.
The latest Chick-fil-A imbroglio is, of course, a downstream symptom of an upstream cause: The utterly toxic <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-stop-politicization-what-should-not-be-josh-hammer">politicization of all facets</a> of our day-to-day lives. As Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shapiro-how-to-disunite-america">argued</a> in his syndicated column this week, this is a deeply pernicious trend. The fraying of the American social fabric, already a years- or decades-long phenomenon, continues to worsen unabated. A nation where warring political tribes not only consume different media, but eat different chicken sandwiches and wear differing clothing lines, is a country destined for bitter strife, at best — or internecine violence, at worst.
Americans of good faith all ought to agree that we should not want to live in a country where such an anodyne institution as a chicken sandwich chain elicits this level of hostility, and engenders this level of politicized passion, due to its Christian-inspired donative proclivities.
The question for conservatives, amidst this debilitating backdrop of politicized bifurcation, a widening economic and cultural chasm <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/11/josh-hawleys-striking-critique-of-american-life/">between the classes</a>, and metastasizing crises of hyper-individualistic atomism and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/23/opinion/loneliness-political-polarization.html">despondency</a>, is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-path-forward-conservative-movement-josh-hammer">how best to proceed</a> as a political movement. The republic often seems to be falling apart at the seams, and it is incumbent upon all of us in the political and commentariat classes to think very hard about what it is we can do to plot a salutary path forward. Above all else, that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-path-forward-conservative-movement-josh-hammer">path forward</a> must focus on how best to heal our polity&#8217;s fractious wounds and concomitantly re-inculcate a sense of proud Americanism.
It ought to be obvious that &#8220;live-and-let-live&#8221;-style classical liberalism — a political movement centered around the conservation of certain Enlightenment-era procedural norms, and not around the conservation of substantive moral or cultural norms — is both <a href="https://www.voterstudygroup.org/assets/i/uploads/reports/Graphs-Charts/1101/figure2_drutman_e4aabc39aab12644609701bbacdff252.png">politically wanting</a> and woefully inadequate to confront the crises of our times. Rather, a resurgent, forward-looking conservatism simply must better account for a human nature that, contra Ayn Rand, is inherently inimical to radical individualism. Human nature yearns for communitarianism — for inclusion in what Edmund Burke famously called the &#8220;<a href="https://www.bartleby.com/24/3/4.html">little platoon[s]</a>&#8221; of society. Yet the sclerotic and morally bankrupt reality of contemporary American political life presents us, as New York Post Op-Ed Editor Sohrab Ahmari <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2019/11/joker-and-our-crisis-of-solidarity">put it this week</a> at First Things, with a &#8220;bipartisan abolition of solidarity.&#8221;
Conservatives simply must become more willing to rethink outmoded Reagan-era orthodoxies and to discard the anachronistic bromides of what some now dub &#8220;<a href="https://www.theamericanconservative.com/2009/07/23/conservative-inc/">Conservatism, Inc.</a>&#8221; As Ahmari framed it, the human nature reality for both leftists and libertarians/procedure-centric classical liberals is that &#8220;the longing for solidarity can never be permanently repressed.&#8221;
It is past time to make this pursuit of solidarity a core underlying basis of our conservative political agenda. To be sure, filling out the substantive details of this solidaristic, assimilationist, nationally cohesive conservative agenda — what many of us might call <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-national-conservatism-conference-josh-hammer">&#8220;national conservatism&#8221;</a> — remains a work in progress. Here is how I <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-national-conservatism-conference-josh-hammer">briefly outlined</a> parts of the agenda, back in July:
<blockquote>
National conservatism means a politics concretely focused on the mutually interdependent bonds of human loyalty upon which a society ultimately depends — as opposed to the atomization espoused by hyper-individualistic doctrinaire libertarianism. National conservatism means a politics focused on national solidarity and reinforcing the shared customs, traits, norms, and mores that establish America not merely as an idea but also as a tangible people — as opposed to the <a href="https://americanmind.org/essays/defend-america-defeat-multiculturalism/" data-reader-unique-id="185">existential scourge of divisive multiculturalism</a>. National conservatism means viewing America as a nation-state with an economy — as opposed to viewing America as but one border-less abstraction within a globalized economy. National conservatism means the articulation and advancement of all domestic and foreign policy alike through the lens of national self-interest — as opposed to policy advancement based on transnational considerations or the needs of foreigners. National conservatism means a hardened immigration system that <a href="https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/was-amy-wax-speech-racist-immigration/" data-reader-unique-id="186">prioritizes cultural assimilation above all else</a> — as opposed to a laxer immigration system that prioritizes the cheap labor needs of the Fortune 500. National conservatism means a foreign affairs approach premised on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/45699/hammer-america-needs-re-think-its-global-alliances-josh-hammer" data-reader-unique-id="187">narrow alliances with like-minded, self-sufficient nations</a> who share America’s core national security concerns — as opposed to a foreign affairs approach premised on a tendentiously moralistic, sovereignty-undermining transnational agenda. National conservatism means a world order of sovereign nation-states — as opposed to the soft tyranny of the unelectable transnational bureaucrats in Turtle Bay and Brussels. National conservatism means a domestic affairs approach that, while undoubtedly market-oriented, resists the vestigial temptation to shirk the levers of political power as a means to advance the conservative cause in the realms of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49361/hammer-josh-hawleys-bill-taking-big-tech-josh-hammer" data-reader-unique-id="188">Big Tech</a>, higher education, and other private spheres that increasingly pose just as dire a threat to our way of life as does over-zealous Big Government itself. National conservatism means a conservatism that works for the American heartland and for all rungs of the economic ladder — as opposed to a purist anti-regulation agenda that merely speaks for the economic interests of the bi-coastal elite.
</blockquote>
There are many <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidAFrench/status/1197611846217416710">erudite conservative critics</a> of this prospective political model. I share some of their concerns. And it is true that policy wonks must dedicate substantial time to fleshing out more of the intricate details. But I also do not see a viable alternative path forward. America will regain its sense of national solidarity — its sense of patriotism and of communitarian belongingness in the greatest nation-state in the history of the world — or it will eventually wither and die. I, for one, am hoping for the former.

HAMMER: On Chick-Fil-A, Political Tribalism, And The Need For National Solidarity

Homosexuality

Nationalism

Religion

Speaking on Tuesday night with Fox News Host Shannon Bream on FoxNews@Night, Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro slammed Chick-fil-A for capitulating to the LGBT activists by saying they would no longer donate to Christian charities such as The Salvation Army and The Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
<a href="https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/retail/exclusive-amid-global-expansion-and-lgbt-pushback-chick-fil-a-changes-charitable-giving-structure-101818">Bisnow</a> reported earlier this week that Chick-fil-A&#8217;s charitable actions &#8220;will no longer include donating to organizations like the Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Paul Anderson Youth Home.&#8221; As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-chick-fil-a-to-stop-donating-to-christian-charities-branded-anti-lgbt">The Daily Wire</a> reported, &#8220;Instead of those Christian organizations, Chick-fil-A told Bisnow, it will give $9M to &#8216;organizations like Junior Achievement USA to support education, Covenant House International to fight homelessness and community food banks for its hunger initiative in each city where the chain operates,&#8217; the outlet reports.&#8221;
Shapiro commented:
<blockquote>It’s completely idiotic, completely idiotic. Chick-fil-A’s, their gross revenue went from $1 billion in 2001 to $10.5 billion this year, and did so despite the fact that the Left has been targeting them since 2013, when they found out that Dan Cathy, who is the CEO of Chick-fil-A, was in favor of traditional marriage. That has not slowed Chick-fil-A’s growth one iota; in fact, that Chick-fil-A decided to bow down before the lords of political correctness and then cut Christian charities out because those Christian charities happen not to support same-sex marriage militantly, is pretty astonishing, and it‘s a horrible sign for our culture if we are really now only going to eat at restaurants where the activities of the restaurants don’t matter, right?
Chick-fil-A will serve anybody, gay, straight, doesn’t matter, everybody is happy to eat a chicken sandwich Chick-fil-A will serve; the real question is if you are going to start boycotting businesses based on the personal views of the owners of the business, well, then we’re going to end up with basically a two-tiered political system in every aspect of American life. And the country can’t last that way. If I literally have to check out the political donation record of the restaurant owner where I go to patronize the burger, I don’t know how we’re going to last as a country this way.</blockquote>
Bream quoted Drew Anderson, GLAAD’s Director of campaigns, stating, &#8220;In addition to refraining from financially supporting anti-LGBTQ organizations, Chick-fil-A still lacks policies to ensure safe workplaces for LGBTQ employees and should unequivocally speak out against the anti-LGBTQ reputation that their brand represents.” Bream commented, “So, the Left doesn’t sound satisfied by this move Chick-fil-A’s made.”
Shapiro responded:
<blockquote>Because the Left will never be satisfied. The Boy Scouts did the same thing and the Left went after the Boy Scouts. Once you give an inch to the Left with regard to your fundamental principles, the Left will never stop. If Chick-fil-A believes that they bought off the Left through all of this and that the Left is suddenly going to start switching their dollars over from whatever vegan restaurants they are patronizing to Chick-fil-A, they&#8217;ve got another thing coming. Chick-fil-A is not going to win any supporters on the Left and they&#8217;re going to lose a lot of supporters on the Right who feel like they surrendered to nasty, censorious cancel culture.</blockquote>
Video below:
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JAdcbazQ0ls?start=24" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

WATCH: Shapiro On Chick-Fil-A: ‘They Surrendered To Nasty, Censorious Cancel Culture’

Ben Shapiro

This week, Chick-fil-A, the immensely popular Christian-owned chicken sandwich giant, caved to the cultural left. For years, the left targeted Chick-fil-A, dating back to the 2012 revelation that Chairman and CEO Dan Cathy supports traditional marriage — and, horror of horrors, that charities given donations by Chick-fil-A support traditional marriage. This prompted paroxysms of outrage in the media, who quickly demanded that Chick-fil-A tow the Democratic Party line, despite the fact that then-President Barack Obama did not officially endorse same-sex marriage until May 2012.
The rage of the cultural left led to unsuccessful boycotts — Chick-fil-A&#8217;s business expanded from $1 billion in 2001 to $5 billion in 2013 to $10.5 billion today — but successful hijackings of local government. When the cultural left can&#8217;t achieve what it wants through public mobilization, it simply uses the power of government to blackmail those it dislikes.
So, despite the fact that Chick-fil-A had never discriminated against gay customers — it would sell a chicken sandwich to anyone — then-Boston Mayor Thomas Menino promised to ban the franchise from the city. Then-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel quickly followed suit, pledging to support an alderman&#8217;s plan to block Chick-fil-A from opening a restaurant at Chicago O&#8217;Hare Airport. San Antonio recently blocked Chick-fil-A from opening a restaurant at its airport, and the airport in Buffalo, New York, followed suit. San Jose, California, pledged not to renew Chick-fil-A&#8217;s lease when it ran out.
Chick-fil-A has continued to receive blowback — and the blowback has widened, helped along by a hostile media. So Chick-fil-A decided to back down and announced publicly that it will no longer donate to traditional Christian charities such as The Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Paul Anderson Youth Home. Chick-fil-A President and Chief Operating Officer Tim Tassopoulos explained, &#8220;as we go into new markets, we need to be clear about who we are.&#8221;
Well, now they&#8217;re clear. They&#8217;re chickens.
Our First Amendment culture is endangered when local governments are given the capacity to block businesses from operating, not on the basis of business discrimination but on the viewpoint of the company&#8217;s founders alone. That&#8217;s precisely what&#8217;s happening here. If giving to Christian charities now bars you from opening a restaurant at the airport, our culture is beyond the point of no return.
But there&#8217;s something even more troubling going on here. In a free country, of course we get to choose which businesses to patronize. But is it good for the culture for us to segregate our business based on examining the politics of those who own our companies? Do we really want a country where we shop based on political affiliation? Where every decision, every day, is rooted in partisanship?
America&#8217;s social fabric is already fraying. Politics has invaded everything from education to sports, from movies to fashion. Should politics now determine where we buy a chicken sandwich? A country that punishes restaurants because its founders don&#8217;t openly celebrate same-sex marriage is a country destined to bifurcate. And that&#8217;s pretty fowl.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/walsh-chick-fil-a-just-caved-to-the-rage-mob-theyre-about-to-learn-the-hard-way-that-surrendering-never-pays-off">WALSH: Chick-Fil-A Just Caved To The Rage Mob. They’re About To Learn The Hard Way That Surrendering Never Pays Off.</a>

Chick-fil-A Logo

SHAPIRO: How To Disunite America

On Monday, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-chick-fil-a-to-stop-donating-to-christian-charities-branded-anti-lgbt">The Daily Wire</a> reported on beloved fast-food chain Chick-fil-A putting a stop to their donations to Christian-based charities deemed &#8220;anti-LGBT&#8221; by the Left:
<blockquote>In an interview with <a href="https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/retail/exclusive-amid-global-expansion-and-lgbt-pushback-chick-fil-a-changes-charitable-giving-structure-101818">Bisnow</a>, Chick-fil-A President and Chief Operating Officer Tim Tassopoulos announced that the famous fried chicken chain plans to make significant changes in which charities it donates to, in part because “as we go into new markets, we need to be clear about who we are.” Amid continued boycotts of the highly popular and successful chain over its donations to supposed “anti-LGBT” groups and causes, Tassopoulos revealed that the company’s foundation will no longer donate to some high-profile Christian organizations.</blockquote>
As one might have predicted, the move was not enough to quell the backlash from activist groups on the Left the company was apparently attempting to appease. Powerful LGBT agenda lobby GLAAD quickly posted a statement condemning Chick-fil-A for allegedly still being anti-LGBT.
&#8220;If Chick-Fil-A is serious about their pledge to stop holding hands with divisive anti-LGBTQ activists, then further transparency is needed regarding their deep ties to organizations like Focus on the Family, which exist purely to harm LGBTQ people and families,&#8221; a statement from the organization reads.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
“If Chick-Fil-A is serious about their pledge to stop holding hands with divisive anti-LGBTQ activists, then further transparency is needed regarding their deep ties to organizations like Focus on the Family, which exist purely to harm LGBTQ people and families&quot; <a href="https://twitter.com/AndersonDrew?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AndersonDrew</a> <a href="https://t.co/0OXfScv1z6">https://t.co/0OXfScv1z6</a>
&mdash; GLAAD (@glaad) <a href="https://twitter.com/glaad/status/1196490637681537024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Chick-Fil-A investors, employees, and customers can greet today’s announcement with cautious optimism,&#8221; the statement continues, &#8220;but should remember that similar press statements were previously proven to be empty.&#8221;
&#8220;In addition to refraining from financially supporting anti-LGBTQ organizations, Chick-Fil-A still lacks policies to ensure safe workplaces for LGBTQ employees and should unequivocally speak out against the anti-LGBTQ reputation that their brand represents,&#8221; GLAAD concludes.
Speaking to Bisnow, Tassopoulos said the chicken chain would forgo donations to some Christian charities and give $9M to “organizations like Junior Achievement USA to support education, Covenant House International to fight homelessness and community food banks for its hunger initiative in each city where the chain operates,” the outlet reported. In addition, Chick-fil-A will donate $25,000 to a local food bank whenever they open a new location.
As noted by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/salvation-army-releases-statement-on-chick-fil-a-cutting-ties-chick-fil-a-issues-new-statement">The Daily Wire</a> on Monday, in addition to falling short of satisfying groups like GLAAD on the Left, folks on the Right voiced their disappointment over Chick-fil-A &#8220;caving&#8221; to anti-Christian pressures.
Following the backlash, the organization released a statement clarifying their charity-shift, which emphasized that they have no plans to open on Sundays:
<blockquote>Beginning in 2020 the Chick-fil-A Foundation will introduce a more focused giving approach, donating to a smaller number of organizations working exclusively in the areas of hunger, homelessness and education. We have also proactively disclosed our 2018 tax filing and a preview of 2019 gifts to date on chick-fil-afoundation.org. The intent of charitable giving from the Chick-fil-A Foundation is to nourish the potential in every child.
Our goal is to donate to the most effective organizations in the areas of education, homelessness and hunger. No organization will be excluded from future consideration – faith-based or non-faith based. I also wanted to add that Chick-fil-A will not be opening on Sundays.</blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/salvation-army-releases-statement-on-chick-fil-a-cutting-ties-chick-fil-a-issues-new-statement">Salvation Army Releases Statement On Chick-fil-A Cutting Ties. Chick-fil-A Issues New Statement.</a>

GLAAD’s Response To Chick-Fil-A Cave Is Exactly What You’d Expect

GLAAD

The Salvation Army responded on Monday to reports that Chick-fil-A was cutting ties with the Christian organization over its support for traditional marriage by noting that it is the largest social services provider in the world and that it serves millions of members of the LGBT community.
&#8220;We’re saddened to learn that a corporate partner has felt it necessary to divert funding to other hunger, education and homelessness organizations — areas in which The Salvation Army, as the largest social services provider in the world, is already fully committed,&#8221; The Salvation Army said in a statement. &#8220;We serve more than 23 million individuals a year, including those in the LGBTQ+ community. In fact, we believe we are the largest provider of poverty relief to the LGBTQ+ population.&#8221;
&#8220;When misinformation is perpetuated without fact, our ability to serve those in need, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, religion or any other factor, is at risk,&#8221; The Salvation Army continued. &#8220;We urge the public to seek the truth before rushing to ill-informed judgment and greatly appreciate those partners and donors who ensure that anyone who needs our help feels safe and comfortable to come through our doors.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
We love all. We serve all. 
Read The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SalvationArmy?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SalvationArmy</a>&#8216;s full statement in the image and here: <a href="https://t.co/F079r7lbMX">https://t.co/F079r7lbMX</a> <a href="https://t.co/0jJv0Ed2zP">pic.twitter.com/0jJv0Ed2zP</a>
— Salvation Army USA (@SalvationArmyUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/SalvationArmyUS/status/1196543204721602561?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
The Salvation Army&#8217;s statement came in response to an interview that Chick-fil-A President and Chief Operating Officer Tim Tassopoulos gave to Bisnow.
“As Chick-fil-A expands globally and into more liberal parts of the U.S., the chicken chain plans to change which charities it donates to after years of bad press and protests from the LGBT community,” Bisnow reported. “Beginning next year, Chick-fil-A will move away from its current philanthropic structure, Bisnow has learned. After donating to more than 300 charitable organizations this year, the Atlanta-based fast-food chain will instead focus on three initiatives with one accompanying charity each: education, homelessness and hunger. ”
“There’s no question we know that, as we go into new markets, we need to be clear about who we are,” Tassopoulos told Bisnow. “There are lots of articles and newscasts about Chick-fil-A, and we thought we needed to be clear about our message.”
Bisnow noted that Chick-fil-A would &#8220;no longer include donating to organizations like the Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Paul Anderson Youth Home.”
After facing intense backlash online ever since announcing its decision, Chick-fil-A gave a new statement to The Christian Post:
<blockquote>Beginning in 2020 the Chick-fil-A Foundation will introduce a more focused giving approach, donating to a smaller number of organizations working exclusively in the areas of hunger, homelessness and education. We have also proactively disclosed our 2018 tax filing and a preview of 2019 gifts to date on chick-fil-afoundation.org. The intent of charitable giving from the Chick-fil-A Foundation is to nourish the potential in every child.
Our goal is to donate to the most effective organizations in the areas of education, homelessness and hunger. No organization will be excluded from future consideration – faith-based or non-faith based. I also wanted to add that Chick-fil-A will not be opening on Sundays.</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/backlash-chick-fil-a-faces-heat-for-caving-to-leftists-cutting-ties-with-christian-orgs">READ: BACKLASH: Chick-Fil-A Faces Heat For Caving To Leftists, Cutting Ties With Christian Orgs</a>

The Salvation Army

Salvation Army Releases Statement On Chick-fil-A Cutting Ties. Chick-fil-A Issues New Statement.

Chick-fil-A iPhone

BACKLASH: Chick-Fil-A Faces Heat For Caving To Leftists, Cutting Ties With Christian Orgs

Political Correctness

As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-chick-fil-a-to-stop-donating-to-christian-charities-branded-anti-lgbt">reports</a> today, Chick-fil-A, one of the last remaining large companies to stand in defiance of the P.C. police and the LGBT rage mob, has suddenly and inexplicably caved. Chick-fil-A President and Chief Operating Officer Tim Tassopoulos announced in an <a href="https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/retail/exclusive-amid-global-expansion-and-lgbt-pushback-chick-fil-a-changes-charitable-giving-structure-101818">interview</a> that the company will no longer donate to certain Christian charities that the aforementioned rage mob has deemed &#8220;anti-LGBT.&#8221; Tassopoulos says that as the company goes into &#8220;new markets,&#8221; he wants &#8220;to be clear about who we are.&#8221; And &#8220;who [they] are&#8221; appears to confirm the old maxim about becoming what you eat — or, in this case, what you serve.
As Bisnow <a href="https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/retail/exclusive-amid-global-expansion-and-lgbt-pushback-chick-fil-a-changes-charitable-giving-structure-101818">explains</a>:
<blockquote>“Beginning next year, Chick-fil-A will move away from its current philanthropic structure, Bisnow has learned. After donating to more than 300 charitable organizations this year, the Atlanta-based fast-food chain will instead focus on three initiatives with one accompanying charity each: education, homelessness and hunger.&#8221;</blockquote>
And which charities will lose out, now that Chick-fil-A has shifted focus to education, homelessness, and hunger? The company confirms that it will be breaking ties with Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and the Paul Anderson Youth Home. In other words, it will stop donating to charities that help with education, homelessness, and hunger, in order to focus more on education, homelessness, and hunger.
Of course, the real sin of these unfortunate organizations is not that they fail to help exactly the people Chick-fil-A says it wants to help, but that they are all Christian. And, as LGBT protestors have been screaming ever since Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy defended biblical marriage in an interview seven years ago, the fact that they are Christian automatically makes them anti-LGBT. Just last week, pop singer Ellie Goulding <a href="https://relevantmagazine.com/culture/ellie-goulding-will-perform-halftime-show-after-debate-over-salvation-armys-lgbt-stance/">threatened</a> to pull out of her halftime performance during the Dallas Cowboys&#8217; Thanksgiving game because of the NFL&#8217;s association with the Salvation Army. Goulding relented on her threat (though every football fan would prefer if she&#8217;d stuck to her guns), only for Chick-fil-A to jump on the dog pile a few days later.
The change of heart is somewhat confounding. Yes, they&#8217;ve been boycotted on and off for the past seven years. Yes, LGBT activists were prone to lashing out at the restaurant&#8217;s &#8220;hate chicken.&#8221; But none of this appeared to be negatively affecting the company&#8217;s bottom line. Indeed, the opposite was the case. The initial boycott in 2012 gave rise to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2012/08/01/us/chick-fil-a-appreciation/index.html">Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day</a>, where fans of the restaurant waited in lines wrapped around the block to show their support in the form of eating their delicious chicken. The enthusiasm never died. Chick-fil-A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/boycott-backfire-new-rankings-show-chick-fil-amanda-prestigiacomo">rose in popularity</a> during the intervening years, tripling its sales and becoming one of the top three restaurant chains in the country.
This capitulation will not stop the bleeding, because there was no bleeding. Now that might change. This move is much more likely to alienate Chick-fil-A&#8217;s supporters than to appease its critics. Surrendering to political correctness almost never pays off, and Chick-fil-A isn&#8217;t likely to be an exception. Personally, I don&#8217;t care what charities a chicken restaurant does or does not support. That is their affair and their decision to make. I am not going to boycott. Their chicken sandwiches are still delicious, which is my primary concern when I&#8217;m in the drive-thru. But it is disappointing and somewhat bewildering to see them cave like this. Their refusal, until now, was important for reasons that have nothing to do with gay marriage or homosexuality. It was good to have at least one major company with the stones to defy the Rage Mob. Regardless of the reason for the defiance, or the issue at the center of the controversy, the defiance itself was the point. Their surrender, on the other hand, has no point.
This is what Chick-fil-A will now learn the hard way, as have so many before them: You cannot appease the mob. It doesn&#8217;t matter if you give them what they want. It doesn&#8217;t matter if you fall to your feet, confess your sins, and beg forgiveness. All your self-abdication will do is empower and encourage your critics. They will not forgive you (not that Chick-fil-A needed forgiveness). This is an age of scalp-claiming, not mercy. Now they will happily take yours, celebrate the victory, and move on to the next target. You aren&#8217;t their friend now, or their ally. You&#8217;re just a trophy on their shelf. Congratulations, Chick-fil-A.
Oh well. Popeyes is better anyway.

Chick-fil-A logo on football field

WALSH: Chick-Fil-A Just Caved To The Rage Mob. They’re About To Learn The Hard Way That Surrendering Never Pays Off.

Traditional Marriage

In an interview with <a href="https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/retail/exclusive-amid-global-expansion-and-lgbt-pushback-chick-fil-a-changes-charitable-giving-structure-101818">Bisnow</a>, Chick-fil-A President and Chief Operating Officer Tim Tassopoulos announced that the famous fried chicken chain plans to make significant changes in which charities it donates to, in part because &#8220;as we go into new markets, we need to be clear about who we are.&#8221; Amid continued boycotts of the highly popular and successful chain over its donations to supposed &#8220;anti-LGBT&#8221; groups and causes, Tassopoulos revealed that the company&#8217;s foundation will no longer donate to some high-profile Christian organizations.
&#8220;As Chick-fil-A expands globally and into more liberal parts of the U.S., the chicken chain plans to change which charities it donates to after years of bad press and protests from the LGBT community,&#8221; Bisnow reported Monday. &#8220;Beginning next year, Chick-fil-A will move away from its current philanthropic structure, Bisnow has learned. After donating to more than 300 charitable organizations this year, the Atlanta-based fast-food chain will instead focus on three initiatives with one accompanying charity each: education, homelessness and hunger. &#8221;
&#8220;There’s no question we know that, as we go into new markets, we need to be clear about who we are,&#8221; Tassopoulos told Bisnow. &#8220;There are lots of articles and newscasts about Chick-fil-A, and we thought we needed to be clear about our message.&#8221;
With its new, more narrowed approach to charitable donations, the company&#8217;s charitable actions &#8220;will no longer include donating to organizations like the Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Paul Anderson Youth Home,&#8221; Bisnow reports.
Those three organizations, Bisnow underscores, have inspired claims of an &#8220;anti-LGBT&#8221; agenda supposedly being promoted by Chick-fil-A. Under pressure from LGBT activists earlier this year, Chick-fil-A felt compelled to defend its donations specifically to those three organizations (see statement below).
Instead of those Christian organizations, Chick-fil-A told Bisnow, it will give $9M to &#8220;organizations like Junior Achievement USA to support education, Covenant House International to fight homelessness and community food banks for its hunger initiative in each city where the chain operates,&#8221; the outlet eports. It will also give $25K to a local food bank whenever it opens a new location.
&#8220;This provides more focus and more clarity,&#8221; said Tassopoulos.
Boycotts and protests from the Left of Chick-fil-A began back while the same-sex marriage debate was raging nationally and have continued in recent months, including bans of the chain at some airports and some progressive-run cities.
Earlier this year, Chick-fil-A responded to criticism it said was &#8220;mischaracteriz[ing] the mission of the [Chick-fil-A] Foundation.&#8221; In the statement, the company specifically addressed the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, The Salvation Army, and Paul Anderson Youth Home. Below is the full statement issued in March 2019 answering the question &#8220;<a href="https://thechickenwire.chick-fil-a.com/news/chick-fil-a-responds-to-questions-about-our-charitable-giving">Where does the Foundation donate money?</a>&#8221;
<blockquote>The Chick-fil-A Foundation (the “Foundation”) was created in 2012 to have a positive influence in the communities by donating to programs that support youth, education, and leadership programs nationwide. In 2017, the Foundation donated $9.9 million in charitable contributions, gifts and grants. To view the 2017 Community Affairs &amp; Foundation Stewardship Report, please <a href="https://www.chick-fil-afoundation.org/stewardship-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">click here</a>.
Recently, media organizations reported on the Foundation’s 2017 charitable giving, which reported in a way that mischaracterizes the mission of the Foundation. The articles highlight the $1.8 million out of the overall $9.9 million that was donated to three organizations characterized as anti-LGBTQ groups. However, below explains how the Foundation giving acts to ensure that its donations align with programs that benefit youth and education.
1.Fellowship of Christian Athletes:  In 2017, the Foundation provided $1.6 million to support summer sports camps for inner-city youth. Participating children were not required to be a member of FCA and did not have to sign any FCA pledges.
2. Salvation Army: In 2017, the Foundation provided approximately $150,000 to support children’s programs in Atlanta, including <a href="https://www.chick-fil-a.com/Stories/Inside-Chick-fil-A/2015/11/03/Inner-City-Inspiration-Camp-Inspires-Future-Leaders-On-and-Off-the-Field" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">camps for kids</a> and the <a href="https://www.angeltreeatlanta.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Angel Tree</a>. As a result, 11,000 children in need throughout the Atlanta area received gifts during the holiday season.
3. Paul Anderson Youth Home: In 2017, the Foundation provided approximately $6,000 to support a bike ride fundraiser, operational support, an annual Christmas dinner theatre for local children as well as a technology capital campaign. However, in 2017, a decision was made by the Foundation to no longer donate to the group.
The work of the Foundation is committed to youth and education. The Foundation’s giving helps with economic mobility of young people by focusing on homelessness and poverty, education, and community revitalization, and is done with no political or social agenda. The narrative that our giving was done to support a political or non-inclusive agenda is inaccurate and misleading.
Beyond the three organizations, the Foundation was honored to donate a combined $1.23 million in grants to 22 not-for-profits, located in 18 states throughout the country. The grants were awarded to local organizations focused on fostering leadership and entrepreneurial spirit in children in the local communities were Chick-fil-A restaurants are located. The Foundation donated more than $1.2 million in awards in 2017 as well. Now in its fifth year, the True Inspiration Awards were created to carry on Chick-fil-A Founder S. Truett Cathy’s legacy of generosity, community service and dedication to inspiring children to become future leaders.
In addition to giving to youth and education programs nationwide, the Foundation also gives back in its hometown of Atlanta each year – especially to non-profit organizations serving Atlanta’s Westside.</blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/salvation-army-issues-update-on-british-singer-who-demanded-donation-to-lgbt-cause-to-perform-at-nfl-game">Salvation Army Issues Update On British Singer Who Demanded Donation To LGBT Cause To Perform At NFL Game</a>

Chick-fil-A Protest

Chick-Fil-A To Stop Donating To Christian Charities Branded ‘Anti-LGBT’

Around 100 students walked out of West Linn High School in Oregon last week in protest of the school&#8217;s decision to allow a Chick-fil-A food truck to sell chicken sandwiches during one of the school&#8217;s football games, among other microaggressions they said were making LGBT students feel &#8220;unsafe.&#8221;
&#8220;West Linn High School’s Gay-Straight Alliance organized the walkout and says the current culture at the school is not safe for LGBTQ+ students. They posted to Instagram saying students are being harassed in sports games and in classrooms,&#8221; local news station KATU reported.
The Chick-fil-A food truck was, apparently, the most egregious example of harassment, but a transgender student&#8217;s car was also vandalized with the word, &#8220;queer.&#8221;
&#8220;We walked out to show our student pride,” Billie Henderson, the student whose car was targeted, told the local public ration station. “To show that despite everything we’ve been through, we are still proud of who we are, and we won’t back down and we won’t make exceptions for anyone.”
&#8220;A group of counterprotesters also walked out of classes wearing “Make America Great Again” hats and waving American flags and Chick-fil-A bags,&#8221; the <a href="https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/nov/14/chick-fil-a-food-truck-sparks-walkout-at-oregon-hi/">Washington Times reported</a>.
The school&#8217;s public information officer, Andrew Kilstrom, could not confirm any specific incidents of harassment but said that there have been issues in the past, and the school continues to work to promote a culture of inclusion.
“The West Linn-Wilsonville School District takes all matters of school safety seriously, and diligently investigates and addresses all potential safety concerns,” he added. “That includes bullying or cyberbullying.”
West Linn High School noted that they did not approve of the walkout, though they do encourage students to speak their minds.
It&#8217;s not clear what prompted the Oregon school to invite Chick-fil-A to sell food on campus during sporting events, but the chicken sandwich chain has drawn protests from LGBTQ rights activsts across the country since 2012, when LGBTQ rights groups discovered that Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy is opposed to same-sex marriage and has donated to socially conservative organizations. Activists have staged protests against Chick-fil-A in a number of states, often to no avail. New store openings are typically marked by long lines and extended waits for the famous sandwich.
In some rare cases, activists have been able to prevent new Chick-fil-A locations from opening, typically in airports.
West Linn High School football boosters typically invite a number of vendors to sell food at football games over the course of the season, and the sports program receives a cut of the proceeds, <a href="https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/nov/14/chick-fil-a-food-truck-sparks-walkout-at-oregon-hi/">the Washington Times reports</a>. &#8220;The school said the Chick-fil-A food truck will remain at the football games throughout the season, but it will reconsider its vetting process moving forward.&#8221;
District staff, additionally, are working with the affected students to address their concerns.
The students do appear to have gotten at least temporary results with their walkout. The same local news organization, <a href="https://katu.com/news/local/chick-fil-a-food-cart-missing-from-west-linn-football-game">KATU, reported</a> earlier this week that the Chick-fil-A food truck and and the company&#8217;s food cart were conspicuously absent from last friday&#8217;s sporting event.

Chick-Fil-A Food Truck Triggers Oregon Students, Sparks Walkout

Just a little over a week after Chick-fil-A opened its first location in the United Kingdom, the restaurant will be closing because the shopping center will not extend the restaurant&#8217;s six-month lease in response to the protests of LGBTQ activists.
&#8220;Gay rights campaigners called for a boycott of Chick-fil-A, which opened its first branch at The Oracle shopping centre in Reading on 10 October,&#8221; reports the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-berkshire-50094551">BBC</a>.
A spokesperson for The Oracle shopping center told the BBC that &#8220;the right thing to do&#8221; was to prevent the fast-food chain from doing business in response to the LGBTQ outcry.
&#8220;We always look to introduce new concepts for our customers, however, we have decided on this occasion that the right thing to do is to only allow Chick-Fil-A to trade with us for the initial six-month pilot period, and not to extend the lease any further,&#8221; said the spokesperson.
Reading Pride expressed delight over the &#8220;good news,&#8221; saying the six-month period was &#8220;reasonable request &#8230; to allow for re-settlement and notice for employees that have moved from other jobs.&#8221; Reading Pride did, however, promise to keep haranguing the restaurant with protests until it officially left the shopping center for good.
Chick-fil-A told the BBC that the organization has donated to Christian groups for youth and education, noting that they serve as home to a diverse number of employees. &#8220;There are 145,000 people – black, white; gay, straight; Christian, non-Christian – who represent Chick-fil-A,&#8221; said a spokesperson.
Speaking with <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/18/chick-fil-as-first-uk-location-will-close-after-pressure-from-lgbtq-rights-group.html">CNBC</a>, a Chick-fil-A spokesperson said that the chicken empire will continue expansion into international markets.
&#8220;Chick-fil-A is always evaluating potential new locations in the hope of serving customers great food and award winning service. This six month pilot licensed location in Reading, UK is part of our exploration in international markets,&#8221; the spokesperson said.
The hate toward the chicken sandwich empire began in 2012, when company president Dan Cathy expressed support for traditional one-man/one-woman 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,&#8217;” Cathy <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/chick-fil-a-president-says-gods-judgment-coming-because-of-same-sex-marriage-78485/#SUuZKIURo5MhCW2p.99">said at the time</a>. “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: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/29418/new-yorker-columnist-chick-fil-evil-and-must-be-ben-shapiro">The New Yorker</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/31789/huffpost-if-you-really-love-lgbtq-people-you-just-joseph-curl">HuffPost</a>. “If You Really Love LGBTQ People, You Just Can’t Keep Eating Chick-fil-A,” wrote Noah Michelson of HuffPost. 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. Following that, multiple universities and two city airports have banned Chick-fil-A from doing business.
Despite the efforts to harm the business, with college campuses and two city airports banning the chain from opening up shop, the chicken empire’s sales continue to climb and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chick-fil-sales-have-doubled-face-leftist-paul-bois">have only doubled</a> since the boycotts launched in 2012.
“Chick-fil-A’s annual sales have more than doubled since LGBT and liberal groups began calling for a boycott of the restaurant in 2012, according to a new analysis,” reported <a href="https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/chick-fil-a-s-sales-have-doubled-since-lgbt-boycott-began-in-2012.html">Christian Headlines</a> last month. “In 2012, when controversy arose over the CEO’s comments about same-sex marriage, <a href="https://www.wsbradio.com/business/chick-fil-keeps-growing-despite-uproar/9Qtv5hIeJUc59lFUfxZQ3L/">sales totaled</a> $4.6 billion, up from $4.1 billion the year before. In 2018, sales <a href="https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/chick-fil-a-with-a-mission-to-glorify-god-is-now-3rd-largest-restaurant-in-u-s.html">totaled</a> $10.46 billion, making it the third-largest restaurant in the United States behind McDonald’s and Starbucks.”

&#8220;Chick-Fil-A Is Anti-Gay!&#8221; PETA And The LGBT Community Protest

Chick-Fil-A Closing First U.K. Location After Pressure From LGBTQ Activists

United Kingdom

In yet another instance of an institution refusing Chick-fil-A due to the Christian views of the company&#8217;s founding family, a high school in New Orleans declined a free catered lunch from the fast-food restaurant due to opposition to the company&#8217;s alleged anti-LGBTQ stances.
&#8220;On Oct. 10, Steven Corbett, principal of Lusher High School, said that he had recently declined a free lunch from the chicken-centric chain for his employees, provided through the College Football Playoff Foundation (CFPF), explaining that the restaurant’s values do not align with those of the school,&#8221; reports <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/high-school-decline-chick-fil-a">Fox News</a>.
In a statement to <a href="https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/local/lusher-high-school-turns-down-free-chick-fil-a-lunch-over-companys-anti-lgbtq-history/289-70b1156b-2c39-4285-9692-1d186d161594">WWL-TV</a>, Corbett said the school would be offending its LGBT employees and students if it permitted Chick-fil-A on campus.
&#8220;Out of respect to our LGBTQ staff, we have chosen to not serve Chick-fil-A at an employee lunch. The number one rule at Lusher is to &#8216;be kind&#8217; and we live this motto every day,&#8221; Corbett said. &#8220;Chick-fil-A has been politically outspoken about its views, and we feel it is not part of Lusher’s culture of kindness and community. Anytime an organization is anti-LGBTQ, and has efforts to infringe upon their rights, we thought it was important to support and stand up for their community at this time.&#8221;
A spokesperson for CFPF said that the organization respects Lusher&#8217;s decision and announced that lunch from another restaurant would be served instead.
&#8220;[We are just] glad teachers will have a good lunch tomorrow,&#8221; spokesperson Tony Fay said.
A spokesperson for Chick-fil-A told Fox News that the business has no political or social agenda when it comes to serving food.
&#8220;We are a restaurant company focused on food and hospitality and have no political or social agenda. Our priority is on providing a welcoming and respectful environment for our guests and team members,&#8221; the spokesperson said.
The hate toward the chicken sandwich empire began in 2012, when company president Dan Cathy expressed support for traditional one-man/one-woman marriage, prompting boycotts across the country from LGBTQ activists.
&#8220;I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, &#8216;We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,'&#8221; Cathy <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/chick-fil-a-president-says-gods-judgment-coming-because-of-same-sex-marriage-78485/#SUuZKIURo5MhCW2p.99">said at the time</a>. &#8220;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.&#8221;
Just last year, two major publications wrote scathing articles begging people to boycott the business: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/29418/new-yorker-columnist-chick-fil-evil-and-must-be-ben-shapiro">The New Yorker</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/31789/huffpost-if-you-really-love-lgbtq-people-you-just-joseph-curl">HuffPost</a>. &#8220;If You Really Love LGBTQ People, You Just Can’t Keep Eating Chick-fil-A,&#8221; wrote Noah Michelson of HuffPost. When Chick-fil-A wanted to set up shop in New York City, Dan Piepenring of The New Yorker called it a &#8220;creepy infiltration&#8221; of the city.
Despite the efforts to harm the business, with college campuses and two city airports banning the chain from opening up shop, the chicken empire&#8217;s sales continue to climb and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chick-fil-sales-have-doubled-face-leftist-paul-bois">have only doubled</a> since the boycotts launched in 2012.
&#8220;Chick-fil-A’s annual sales have more than doubled since LGBT and liberal groups began calling for a boycott of the restaurant in 2012, according to a new analysis,&#8221; reported <a href="https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/chick-fil-a-s-sales-have-doubled-since-lgbt-boycott-began-in-2012.html">Christian Headlines</a> last month. &#8220;In 2012, when controversy arose over the CEO’s comments about same-sex marriage, <a href="https://www.wsbradio.com/business/chick-fil-keeps-growing-despite-uproar/9Qtv5hIeJUc59lFUfxZQ3L/">sales totaled</a> $4.6 billion, up from $4.1 billion the year before. In 2018, sales <a href="https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/chick-fil-a-with-a-mission-to-glorify-god-is-now-3rd-largest-restaurant-in-u-s.html">totaled</a> $10.46 billion, making it the third-largest restaurant in the United States behind McDonald’s and Starbucks.&#8221;

High School Declines Free Chick-Fil-A Due To Alleged Anti-LGBTQ Bigotry

Once again, a Chick-fil-A employee came to the rescue, and this time it went far, far beyond the call of duty. This time, it happened in Virginia, where a woman dropped her phone in the parking lot and it slipped into a storm drain.
As <a href="https://katu.com/news/offbeat/chick-fil-a-climbs-down-storm-drain-to-get-customers-phone">KATU</a> reported, Shauna Hall, from Stafford, Virginia, told her story <a href="https://www.facebook.com/shauna.hall07/posts/10219623415954385?__tn__=K-R">on Facebook</a>:
<blockquote>This afternoon I park at our local Chick-fil-A and as I go to get my son out of the van, no joke, my phone drops and bounces right into the storm drain I’m parked next too. My iPhone that we just paid off and that I had just put a brand new Otterbox on two days before. After a moment of loosing (sic) my freakin mind, I lay on the ground, placing my head best I can between my van and the drain, looking into the dark abyss to see if by any chance it has landed somewhere I can reach. Of course it has not. In disbelief and as I am about to puke and cry, I go in and ask for a manager. The manager comes over to talk to me and is very friendly but unsure how to help.
Just then another employee behind her says he is going to grab a grab-stick and a mirror to try and help. He does so and we escort him out to the scene. Without hesitation, and in his uniform, he lays on the ground and attempts to locate the phone. He can’t see it either and we both realize the worse. It has, in fact, fallen dead smack in the middle, down the actual drainage hole. So we go back inside where we go to a table as my son is hungry and I still can’t believe what has happened. Then the young man who has been trying to help me, comes over with my order ticket and tells me he has completely refunded my mobile dine-in order and that our food will be out shortly. Thanking him I tell him he didn’t have to do that, but he tells me it was no problem as I’m clearly already having a bad day. He then offers his personal phone for me to use if I want to call anyone but I know no numbers by heart.
He then joins us at the booth and calls the county trying to get some help. They hang up on him but we get the idea to go back out and call my phone to see if we can hear it (fearing we won’t as the hole is most definitely full of water because of course we are in the middle of a drought but had a full day of rain yesterday). But just before he makes the call, we notice the manhole cover over top the drain is not bolted so we try to lift it. It’s really heavy so he does most the lifting and ends up slicing his finger open. After running in quickly to clean the wound, he is able to remove the cover and there at the very bottom of the drain hole is my phone. After trying to reach it with his grab-stick then dropping his stick, he tells me it’s a manhole for a reason and he is going down. He then climbs down into the hole and retrieves my phone which miraculously is not broken or wet. I was so thankful I freaking hugged him. Not only did he slice his finger and was filthy from laying on the ground and climbing in the hole, I find out he had actually just gotten off shift and was still willing to help me.
So this is Seth. Turns out he is also the store’s Digital Marketing Director. He is also now my hero and favorite Chick-fil-A employee. As he was about to climb out of the hole he asked me to snap a picture so he could show his girlfriend what he did at work today.
Service with a smile. Just another day at Chick-fil-A.</blockquote>
For other examples of employees of Chick-Fil-A going beyond the call of duty, how about the time a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/worlds-best-service-chick-fil-manager-sends-boat-hank-berrien">Chick-fil-A manager sent a boat to rescue an elderly couple in Houston</a>, or the time an employee of Chick-Fil-A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-chick-fil-employee-shows-why-chick-fil-wins-hank-berrien">ran after a car whose occupant had forgotten their order</a>, or the time a teenage boy working at a Chick-fil-A looked through the drive-thru window and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-teenage-chick-fil-employee-does-something-hank-berrien">noticed that a 6-year-old boy in a car in the drive-thru lane was choking</a>, so he jumped through the drive-thru window and ran to the car, where he found the mother of the boy begging for someone to help her save her child from being choked by a seatbelt that had gotten tangled around his neck, then yanked out his pocketknife and cut the young child free.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL: DEC 29 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl &#8211; Florida v Michigan

Chick-Fil-A Employee Goes Underground To Save A Customer’s Day

The Left&#8217;s most-hated fast-food chain, Chick-fil-A, seems to just keep ramping up the sales no matter how much harassment or protest is thrown its way. Ever since the left-wing boycott crusade against the chicken empire began in 2012, sales have not only increased, they have doubled.
&#8220;Chick-fil-A’s annual sales have more than doubled since LGBT and liberal groups began calling for a boycott of the restaurant in 2012, according to a new analysis,&#8221; reports <a href="https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/chick-fil-a-s-sales-have-doubled-since-lgbt-boycott-began-in-2012.html">Christian Headlines</a>. &#8220;In 2012, when controversy arose over the CEO’s comments about same-sex marriage, <a href="https://www.wsbradio.com/business/chick-fil-keeps-growing-despite-uproar/9Qtv5hIeJUc59lFUfxZQ3L/">sales totaled</a> $4.6 billion, up from $4.1 billion the year before. In 2018, sales <a href="https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/chick-fil-a-with-a-mission-to-glorify-god-is-now-3rd-largest-restaurant-in-u-s.html">totaled</a> $10.46 billion, making it the third-largest restaurant in the United States behind McDonald’s and Starbucks.&#8221;
On top of the sales bumps, the chain has added 700 new restaurants in the span of those seven years. Journal &amp; Courier <a href="https://www.jconline.com/story/news/2019/09/17/chickfila-starbucks-mcdonalds-boycott-lgbt-donations-fast-food-restaurant-purdue-university/2301619001/">noted</a> that in 2018 alone, Chick-fil-A saw a sales increase more than four times that of Starbucks at 16.7%.
More details below:
<blockquote>There are more than 2,400 Chick-fil-A locations nationwide, compared to more than 14,000 Starbucks&#8217; and McDonald&#8217;s locations each.
Start-up costs for an operator for a Chick-fil-A are only $10,000, just 10 percent of the minimum cost for a McDonald&#8217;s. The average Chick-fil-A location brought in $4.6 million in annual sales in 2018.
Chick-fil-A&#8217;s digital sales via delivery and carryout are also continuing to grow and the restaurant was found to be teenagers&#8217; favorite fast food restaurant, <a href="https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/financing/chick-fil-has-displaced-starbucks-teens-favored-chain" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a">ousting Starbucks in a 2019 survey.</a> While Chick-fil-A does lag considerably behind the coffee shop chain internationally, the company did open it&#8217;s first Canadian location this year with plans to open another 15 locations in the city.</blockquote>
Kalinowski Equity Research founder Mark Kalinowski told Business Insider that with enough time, Chick-fl-A may well surpass Starbucks. &#8220;Can they reach $30 billion? I think that&#8217;s also a realistic goal if you give them enough time, and that should put them ahead of Starbucks,&#8221; he said.
Glenn T. Stanton, director of global family formation studies at Focus on the Family, told Christian Headlines that the numbers show Chick-fil-A&#8217;s enemies are in a small but vocal minority.
&#8220;The only ones who seem to have any kind of beef with the wildly popular chicken restaurant are a minivan-size group of squeaky extremists on the far left,&#8221; said Stanton. &#8220;They’ve concluded that Chick-fil-A is bigoted without the slightest bit of evidence – only that their founders believe in natural marriage. Their position sits very well with the rest of us.&#8221;
&#8220;Not only have they doubled their sales in the last few years, but they have won the prize for the fast-food establishment with the highest customer service rating the last four years running,&#8221; Stanton continued. &#8220;Bigoted businesses do not tend to rate well in customer satisfaction. Chick-fil-A was won this vaulted spot because it is their pleasure to serve everyone who comes through their doors and do so with all graciousness.&#8221;
Despite the high numbers, the leftist enemies of Chick-fil-A have nevertheless persisted, increasingly upping their tactics at every turn by banning restaurants from opening on college campuses and even airports. Residents of Toronto recently took the protests to extreme levels when they showed up at a store&#8217;s grand opening brandishing angry signs while <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51481/chick-fil-welcomed-toronto-both-long-lines-and-molly-prince">staging die-ins outside</a> the restaurant.
Northwestern University management professor Brayden King said the boycotts were, however, successful by getting media attention.
&#8220;I think the activists would say the boycott against Chick-fil-A is successful even if they didn’t get people who typically go to Chick-fil-A to stop buying Chick-fil-A sandwiches,&#8221; King <a href="https://www.jconline.com/story/news/2019/09/17/chickfila-starbucks-mcdonalds-boycott-lgbt-donations-fast-food-restaurant-purdue-university/2301619001/">told</a> the podcast Freakonomics. &#8220;The reason they would say it was successful is because they got the media to pay attention.&#8221;

chickfila_0

Chick-Fil-A Sales Have Only Doubled Since The LGBT Boycotts Began In 2012

Chick-fil-A fans are fighting back against city and university governments seeking to ban the business from airports and college campuses.
&#8220;Five Texas fans of Chick-fil-A have filed a lawsuit against the city of San Antonio for its decision to ban the chicken-centric chain from opening up shop in the local airport,&#8221; reports <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/travel/chick-fil-a-supporters-lawsuit-san-antonio-airport-ban">Fox News</a>. &#8220;On Sept. 5, plaintiffs Patrick Von Dohlen, Brian Greco, Kevin Jason Khattar, Michael Knuffke and Daniel Petri filed suit against the city under S.B. 1978, otherwise known as the &#8216;Save Chick-fil-A Bill.'&#8221;
Earlier this year, the San Antonio city council voted to ban Chick-fil-A from opening up shop in the city&#8217;s international airport because the company previously espoused traditional views on marriage.
&#8220;With this decision, the City Council reaffirmed the work our city has done to become a champion of equality and inclusion,&#8221; Roberto C. Treviño, San Antonio&#8217;s District 1 city councilman, said at the time. &#8220;San Antonio is a city full of compassion, and we don&#8217;t have room in our public facilities for a business with a legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior.&#8221;
The &#8220;<a href="http://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=86R&amp;Bill=SB1978">Save Chick-fil-A Bill</a>&#8221; was signed into law by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott this past June and bars government institutions from harming businesses merely for their religious beliefs or for donating to religious organizations. More on the <a href="http://sanantoniofamilyassociation.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Chick-fil-A-Original-Petition-FINAL.pdf">lawsuit</a> from Fox News:
<blockquote>In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs pushed for the court to declare that the city of San Antonio “violated and continues to violate” the law by banning Chick-fil-A from the San Antonio airport and issue an injunction to block the city and airport shop operator Paradies Lagardère from banning the chain at the air hub in the future. Furthermore, the plaintiffs also hope to issue another injunction to have a Chick-fil-A open at the airport and issue an order to stop the city from &#8220;taking any adverse action against Chick-fil-A or any other person or entity, which is based wholly or partly on that person or entity&#8217;s support for religious organizations that oppose homosexual behavior” and receive attorney’s fees and other relief.</blockquote>
In a statement on Monday, Jonathan Saenz, president of the conservative group Texas Values Action, said the bullying against Chick-fil-A by San Antonio has given people no choice but to take legal action.
&#8220;The continued religious ban on Chick-fil-A by the San Antonio City Council has left citizens with no choice but to take this case to court,&#8221; said Saenz, according to <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2019/09/09/san-antonio-chick-fil-a-lawsuit/">The Texas Tribune</a>. &#8220;Any other vendor that tries to replace Chick-fil-A at the airport will be doing so under a major cloud of long and costly litigation with the city.”
Laura Mayes, chief communications officer for the city of San Antonio, told The Texas Tribune, however, that the lawsuit was merely a &#8220;political agenda.&#8221;
&#8220;Among the many weaknesses in their case, they are trying to rely on a law that did not exist when Council voted on the airport concessions contract,&#8221; Mayes said. &#8220;We will seek a quick resolution from the Court.&#8221;
The organized targeting of the chicken sandwich empire began in 2012 when company founder Dan Cathy expressed support for traditional one-man/one-woman marriage, prompting boycotts across the country from LGBTQ activists.
&#8220;I think we are inviting God&#8217;s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, &#8216;We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,'&#8221; Cathy <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/chick-fil-a-president-says-gods-judgment-coming-because-of-same-sex-marriage-78485/#SUuZKIURo5MhCW2p.99">said at the time</a>. &#8220;I pray God&#8217;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.&#8221;

Chick-Fil-A

Texas Residents File Lawsuit Against San Antonio Banning Chick-Fil-A From Airport

On Friday, September 6, the popular American fast-food chain, Chick-fil-A opened its second Canadian location in downtown Toronto.
Like the biting chill of a cold breeze on a winter day, left-wing acrimony flooded the fast-food giant&#8217;s grand opening, as spades of protesters convened outside, imbued with indignation. Protesters were largely comprised of two batches of activism: vegan and LGBT – united by their socialist penchants. While the former was chanting hymns decrying any and all animal products (meat is murder!) the latter bellowed at Chick-fil-A patrons that they ought to be eating at KFC instead. And meanwhile, a woman with a megaphone blamed the whole kerfuffle on capitalism.
But the largest crowd was the one waiting to get inside – several people <a href="https://www.blogto.com/eat_drink/2019/09/people-waited-line-overnight-opening-chick-fil-toronto/">were allegedly</a> in line overnight – to see what all the crazed commotion was about. Lines extending around the block pushed wait times for the ostensibly speedy &#8220;fast-food&#8221; to 40 minutes. Excitement and interest in the chicken sandwich, previously only available to denizens south of the border, was fundamentally fueled by the protesters themselves, whose hysterical antics – such as <a href="https://twitter.com/blogTO/status/1169998472742940672">staging a &#8220;die in&#8221;</a> – had done little more than belittle their own cause, and drive interest in their trifling ailment (a chicken sandwich).
Demonstrations were organized and provoked by a far-left Toronto-based organization called The 519. Several days prior to the fast-food chain&#8217;s opening, <a href="http://www.the519.org/about">The 519</a> stated on their Twitter page, &#8220;It is time for hate and discrimination to #CluckOff. Join us to protest against the opening of Chick-fil-A in Toronto on Friday, September 6.&#8221; – <a href="https://twitter.com/The519/status/1169383789958750213">@The519, September 4 2019</a>
The locally consumed blog hitched itself to the controversy carriage in efforts to court clicks with headlines such as, &#8220;<a href="https://www.blogto.com/eat_drink/2019/09/chick-fil-a-protest-toronto/">There&#8217;s a huge protest planned for the Chic-fil-A opening in Toronto</a>&#8221; (it wasn&#8217;t huge) and &#8220;<a href="https://www.blogto.com/eat_drink/2019/09/chick-fil-a-toronto-counter-protest-christians/">Christian group plans counter-protest in support of Toronto Chick-fil-A</a>&#8221; (there was no counter-protest group).
Chick-fil-A first became controversial – or to use the contemporary term, &#8220;canceled&#8221; – in 2012, when the firm&#8217;s Chairman and CEO Dan Cathy voiced his opposition to same-sex marriage. At the same time, it was revealed that Dan Cathy&#8217;s father, and original founder of Chick-fil-A, Samuel Truett Cathy, was the philanthropist behind the WinShape Foundation. Through its charitable endeavors, the WinShape Foundation provides scholarships, foster homes, camping programs, and retreats for thousands of children. The crux of the issue was WinShape Foundation&#8217;s donations to a slew of Christian organizations, such as Focus on the Family, which lobby against same-sex marriage.
Following the uproar, in 2012, Chick-fil-A issued a statement, jettisoning any publicly held political positions, &#8220;Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.&#8221; Moreover, as <a href="http://goqnotes.com/27860/new-chick-fil-a-filings-show-decrease-in-anti-lgbt-funding/">tax filings confirm</a>, the WinShape foundation also abandoned hitherto held charitable ties to all Christian organizations, with the exception of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (a sports organization) and the Salvation Army.
But nonetheless, left-leaning protestors in Canada are aggressively toiling to push Chick-fil-A out, back across the border. Chick-fil-A might be the first foreigner not welcome with open arms into Canada.
Despite the fact that Chick-fil-A has eschewed its political proclivities, redemption is incompatible with the Cancel Culture ethos. It&#8217;s the same reason Kevin Hart, after apologizing for 8-year-old tweets, was still deemed unsuited for the Oscars.
Therein lies the problem with Cancel Culture: once you buy into it, there is no winning, only an endless cycle of apologies, and shifting of the goal posts. In 2012, it was problematic for the firm&#8217;s CEO to wade into the marriage equality debate from the religious Right. If he now personally apologizes and attempts to reconcile, the protestors will invariably demand his resignation.
Refusing to play into this charade, Chick-fil-A doesn&#8217;t desperately seek redemption from organizations wreathed in wokeness. The company hasn&#8217;t made any attempts to demur with the braying accusations levied against them from the Left. Other than the aforementioned statement in 2012, the fried chicken conglomerate has since stayed mum on political issues. They&#8217;ve instead focused their efforts on indelible deeds, such as working overtime in the wake of the 2016 LGBT Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Florida to <a href="https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_576016fbe4b053d433064c87/amp">serve free food</a> to blood donors; working overtime to feed embattled North Carolinians in the <a href="https://amp.businessinsider.com/chick-fil-a-opens-on-sunday-during-hurricane-florence-2018-9">aftermath of Hurricane Florence</a>.
Though they&#8217;ve since cut ties with traditional marriage lobby groups, you wouldn&#8217;t know it if it wasn&#8217;t for their tax filings. Opposed to validating absurd, polemic accusations of homophobia by trying to explain why they aren&#8217;t homophobic, Chick-fil-A instead opted to bask in controversy.
Controversy has been good for business. Aside from sending intrigued Torontonians flocking to their doors, Chick-fil-A&#8217;s overall sales rose 12 percent following the barrage of boycotts leftist organizations launched against them. According to a report from <a href="https://amp.businessinsider.com/chick-fil-a-third-largest-restaurant-chain-in-america-2019-6">Business Insider</a>, in 2018, Chick-fil-A flourished, rising to the rank of America&#8217;s third-largest fast-food chain; on a per unit basis, Chick-fil-A is the most profitable chain in America.
Sure, they could attempt to assuage their puerile protestors&#8217; qualms; but why bother? Their protestors are selling their chicken sandwiches for them.
Follow Harry Khachatrian on <a href="http://twitter.com/harry1t6">Twitter</a>.

KHACHATRIAN: Cancel Culture Comes For Chicken Sandwiches

Canada

Conservatism

Progressivism

Fast food chain Chick-fil-A opened the doors of its first location in Toronto, Canada on Friday and the grand opening was met with protests from a variety of left-wing activists.
Liberation TO, a Toronto-based organization dedicated to achieving &#8220;total nonhuman and human animal liberation&#8221; organized the demonstration in partnership with The 519, a local LGBTQ2 advocacy group.
&#8220;Chick-fil-A has a history of being anti-LGBTQ2 and donating money to oppressive organizations. They are also speciesist and use chickens for profit,&#8221; Liberation TO <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/702390146901948/">wrote on Facebook</a>. &#8220;We are here to put a stop to that. We are here to end all oppression.&#8221;
The organization also requested that people donate to LGBTQ2 charities or animal sanctuaries as a form of protest, in addition to attending the event and boycotting the grand opening.
&#8220;Chick-fil-A has given millions of dollars to anti-LGBTQ2 organizations, including known hate groups and proponents of conversion therapy, and continue to do so every year,&#8221; <a href="http://www.the519.org/news/cluck-off-queer-miracle">The 519</a> wrote on their website.
&#8220;Many U.S. cities, campuses, and retail outlets have refused to allow Chick-fil-A to locate within their spaces, and/or have been vocal opponents of the corporation&#8217;s hateful values,&#8221; the statement continued. &#8220;Toronto and the rest of Canada need to be next in line.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">We’re still here, protesting at 1 Bloor Street East. Come down, come down, wherever you are and join us in asking hate, discrimination, and Chick-fil-A to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CluckOff?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CluckOff</a>. <a href="https://t.co/qY4jaiahYy">pic.twitter.com/qY4jaiahYy</a>
— The 519 (@The519) <a href="https://twitter.com/The519/status/1169991431634739202?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Demonstrators held signs, dressed in drag, and laid on the ground to stage a die-in outside the restaurant as hundreds of customers waited in long lines to get their meals.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Protesters are staging a die-in at the entrance of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Toronto?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Toronto</a>&#8216;s first Chick-fil-A location &#8211; <a href="https://twitter.com/RonaldJayQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RonaldJayQ</a> <a href="https://t.co/Cus1U6uYBw">pic.twitter.com/Cus1U6uYBw</a>
— blogTO (@blogTO) <a href="https://twitter.com/blogTO/status/1169998472742940672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
The 519 handed out signs that said &#8220;Cluck off&#8221; and other homemade signs read &#8220;dead body with a side of homophobia&#8221; and &#8220;not in our city, unite against hate.&#8221;
Customers began lining up as early as 6:30 a.m., four hours before the doors opened, to be served at the chicken chain&#8217;s newest location, reported <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/protesters-crash-grand-opening-of-toronto-s-first-chick-fil-a-1.4580893">CTV News Toronto</a>.
As customers exited the restaurant, protesters chanted &#8220;shame, shame, shame.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">I have made it inside and to my shocking, astonished bewildering surprise, they do not arrest and lock up gay people in here. Very friendly staff <a href="https://t.co/GKAE67PlzU">pic.twitter.com/GKAE67PlzU</a>
— Harry Khachatrian (@Harry1T6) <a href="https://twitter.com/Harry1T6/status/1170003675349233664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Charles McVety, a Canadian Christian evangelical leader, urged the individuals who are attending Saturday’s pre-planned &#8220;Jesus in the City&#8221; parade to show support for Chick-fil-A during the event.
&#8220;It&#8217;s upsetting that people want to stop a business simply because it adheres to Christian values. The business is only about chicken. It should only be about chicken,&#8221; McVety told CTV News. &#8220;It should not happen in Canada, if you just want to get chicken, you shouldn&#8217;t be shamed.&#8221;
&#8220;We have sympathy for the gay community, we love the gay community, bu we would never commend anyone for shouting people down,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;This is school yard bullying tactics and we are against bullying.&#8221;
Chick-fil-A donated <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/chick-fil-a-anti-lgbtq-donations-tax-filings-62ca15281f17/">nearly $2 million</a> in 2017 to the christian organizations Salvation Army, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and the Paul Anderson Youth Home. And while Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy revealed his belief in the &#8220;biblical definition of a family unit,&#8221; the restaurant does not discriminate against any customer based on religious or sexual beliefs.
&#8220;We&#8217;re excited to see many guests already in line this morning in anticipation of opening our doors,&#8221; a spokesperson for Chick-fil-A told CTV News. &#8220;We respect people&#8217;s rights to share their opinions and want all Torontonians to know they are welcome … Our focus is on offering a welcoming and respectful environment for our guests and team members and we encourage people to give us a try.&#8221;

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