What's the latest on Chick fil a?

[ttt]

Last I heard they had stopped making donations to anti gay groups. Is this not not the case? And what's this about the KKK??

[iammalcolmx]

Oh shit. DON'T TAKE MY LEMONADE!!!!!

[pixy0stix]

The FRC is affiliated with the KKK - www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/family-research-council

[ttt]

Jul 29, 2014 13:36:27 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

The FRC is affiliated with the KKK - www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/family-research-council

Wait I am confused where does it say that??

[pixy0stix]

OH look, they haven't changed their charitable giving practices at all. I'm shocked.

thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2013/03/14/1722631/chick-fil-a-foundation-anti-lgbt-spending-nearly-doubled/

[pixy0stix]

Jul 29, 2014 13:38:16 GMT -5 ttt said:

Jul 29, 2014 13:36:27 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

The FRC is affiliated with the KKK - www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/family-research-council

Wait I am confused where does it say that??

Search CCC in the website.

[ttt]

Jul 29, 2014 13:39:46 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

OH look, they haven't changed their charitable giving practices at all. I'm shocked.

thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2013/03/14/1722631/chick-fil-a-foundation-anti-lgbt-spending-nearly-doubled/

That's 2011 though. Is there anything more recent?

[iammalcolmx]

Jul 29, 2014 13:44:59 GMT -5 ttt said:

Jul 29, 2014 13:39:46 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

OH look, they haven't changed their charitable giving practices at all. I'm shocked.

thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2013/03/14/1722631/chick-fil-a-foundation-anti-lgbt-spending-nearly-doubled/

That's 2011 though. Is there anything more recent?

THAT'S RIGHT!!! Don't let them take my Lemonade...

[pixy0stix]

Jul 29, 2014 13:44:59 GMT -5 ttt said:

Jul 29, 2014 13:39:46 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

OH look, they haven't changed their charitable giving practices at all. I'm shocked.

thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2013/03/14/1722631/chick-fil-a-foundation-anti-lgbt-spending-nearly-doubled/

That's 2011 though. Is there anything more recent?

No. The newest would be from 2012, and I can't find those. Regardless, does it really matter when a company has previously sponsored hate and groups that advocate burning gay men in the streets, whether or not they stopped doing so? 

[pixy0stix]

Seriously, people. If you're still eating at CFA, you really need to check yourselves.

Don't make Jermys post her picture in here.

[NitaX]

Jul 29, 2014 13:45:34 GMT -5 iammalcolmx said:

Jul 29, 2014 13:44:59 GMT -5 ttt said:

That's 2011 though. Is there anything more recent?

THAT'S RIGHT!!! Don't let them take my Lemonade...

[anonymous]

Jul 29, 2014 13:44:59 GMT -5 ttt said:

Jul 29, 2014 13:39:46 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

OH look, they haven't changed their charitable giving practices at all. I'm shocked.

thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2013/03/14/1722631/chick-fil-a-foundation-anti-lgbt-spending-nearly-doubled/

That's 2011 though. Is there anything more recent?

I could not find anything more recent.

[lyssbobiss, Command, B613]

Jul 29, 2014 13:45:42 GMT -5 asdfjkl said:

Jul 29, 2014 13:39:46 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

OH look, they haven't changed their charitable giving practices at all. I'm shocked.

thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2013/03/14/1722631/chick-fil-a-foundation-anti-lgbt-spending-nearly-doubled/

GODDAMNIT!  They have the best indoor playground in the fucking city.  I need them to stop doing this!!

YES!  This is my biggest problem.

[jlt19]

This did not end well on ML for the person that admitted to still going there...

[jillboston]

Since the anti-gay marriage laws are all crumbling - what are "anti-gay" groups going to oppose now? Never mind - I probably don't want to know.

[pixy0stix]

Even IF they happened to change their stripes (which I for one don't believe), they still have millions upon millions of dollars of hate to answer to. They sponsored the group that wants to rehabilitate gays. That wants them shipped out of the country. That advocates killing them. That spreads lies that the gays are child molesters. MILLIONS OF DOLLARS to this group, and yet when they say, "Oopsie, we'll let the gov. shape politics" people are all "YAY LEMONADE!" It wasn't politics they were shaping. They were ACTIVELY participating in funding a HATE organization that calls for wiping out every single homosexual.

For real? Y'all are willing to sacrifice your morals for lemonade? Because the company suddenly claims to have had a change of heart?

[msmerymac]

Jul 29, 2014 13:36:27 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

The FRC is affiliated with the KKK - www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/family-research-council

Isn't that the lobbyist Josh Duggar works for, or am I confusing my hate groups?

[anonymous]

Jul 29, 2014 13:55:11 GMT -5 asdfjkl said:

This is what I'm coming up with:

www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/04/07/chick-fil-a-fast-food-dan-cathy/7250871/

ATLANTA — Chick-fil-A is finally crossing the road.

The iconic chicken chain, as well-known for its conservative heritage as its savory eats, is recalibrating its moral and culinary compass. It wants to go from old school to almost cool. It wants to evolve from a place where gays once picketed to a place where they'll feel comfortable going to eat. It wants to broaden the brand as it expands nationally and plows into the Millennial-driven urban arena. Above all: it wants to be a serious player on fast-food's biggest stage.

USA TODAY was exclusively invited inside to visit the company's sprawling, wooded campus, get the first look at its new test kitchen, tour its store-of-the-future development facility and interview Chick-fil-A's controversial CEO Dan Cathy. Cathy, whose comments condemning gay marriage in 2012 set off store picketing and a social media firestorm, has now fully backed away from such public pronouncements that mix personal opinion on social issues with corporate policy.

"All of us become more wise as time goes by," he says, apologetically, in a rare, one-hour sit-down interview. "We sincerely care about all people."

CONTROVERSY: CEOs express anti-gay views at their peril

About two years ago, Cathy made headlines after conceding to being "guilty as charged," in confirming Chick-fil-A's support of the traditional family. Both ardent supporters and angry picketers showed up at stores. While Cathy's comments didn't hurt short-term business — and even helped it — Chick-fil-A executives recognize that the comments may have done longer-term damage to the brand's image at the very time it was eyeing major growth outside its friendly Southern market.

The national growth is about to go into overdrive — and it has a huge, new product platform behind it. Its biggest-ever new product roll-out will be announced Tuesday: a Millennial-targeting grilled chicken line for which the company has spent the past 12 years testing more than 1,000 grilled chicken recipes and developing such super-secret grilling equipment that executives won't let it be photographed.

Chick-fil-A's food, long-regarded as extra savory but nutritionally naughty, is going through an industry unprecedented "cleaning" cycle, with an ultimate aim of improving its brand image with trend-setting Millennials. Last month, it announced plans to sell only antibiotic-free chicken within five years. It's testing the removal of high fructose corn syrup from all dressings and sauces and artificial ingredients from its bun. Designers are trying to figure out how to remove fast-food's tell-tale plastic from Chick-fil-A stores — even from its serving trays.

The once-tiny, regional chain just surpassed giant KFC to become the nation's largest chicken chain in domestic sales. But along with this sales and geographical growth comes a new social consciousness. That's not by accident, says Christopher Muller, professor of hospitality at Boston University. "The politics of their Southern Baptist values will not transcend their core markets," he says.

Chick-fil-A's socially conservative agenda, which formally led the company to donate millions to charitable groups opposed to gay marriage, has been tempered. This, just as the company aims to quickly expand into Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. Southern hospitality must give way to urban reality as the 1,800 store chain moves to compete with big city success stories like McDonald's, Panera Bread and Chipotle.

If nothing else, Cathy has listened. In 2012, Cathy not only heard from some unhappy consumers about his comments against gay marriage, but also from some store operators and employees. Now, he says, "I'm going to leave it to politicians and others to discuss social issues."

That's precisely what experts are advising. "He should put this as far behind him as fast as he possibly can," says Gary Stibel, CEO of New England Consulting Group.

One past critic has even become an unlikely fan. "Dan and I have an ongoing friendship," says Shane Windmeyer, executive director of the gay rights advocacy group Campus Pride. "I am appreciative for the common ground we have established in treating all people with dignity and respect — including LGBT people."

Which means Chick-fil-A can focus on what matters most: the food and growth. The privately-held company, whose sales last year reached $5.1 billion — up 9.3%, reports the research firm Technomic — may rank among the most intriguing growth stories in fast food. Imagine this: A typical Chick-fil-A racked up annual sales of about $3.3 million last year, while a typical McDonald's posted sales of about $2.5 million. Never mind that Chick-fil-A is closed Sundays.

"The next big thing is urbanization," says Cathy, 61, who tools around on his Harley-Davidson in his spare time. "That's where the future is heading."

So, the company that has spent 68 years building its stores inside suburban malls and near big-box retailers is mostly tossing out those plans. Now it wants to focus on big cities and big-city dwellers.

It's working. There were lines out the door when it first entered the Chicago market about three years ago, and business is still strong, says Bob Goldin, executive vice president at Technomic. "They have a cult following no matter where they go," he says. Sure, big city real estate is more expensive and the competition will leave battle wounds, "but Chick-fil-A is a proven winner."

AND:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick-fil-A_same-sex_marriage_controversy

Especially:

Chick-fil-A released a statement in July 2012 stating, "Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena."[1] In March 2014, tax filings for 2012 showed the group stopped funding all but one organization which had been previously criticized.[2]

[source for footnote 2]  goqnotes.com/27860/new-chick-fil-a-filings-show-decrease-in-anti-lgbt-funding/ 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — New filings with the IRS show Chick-fil-A has dramatically decreased its non-profit funding for anti-LGBT groups and causes, more than a year after a Charlotte-based LGBT advocate ended his organization’s boycott against the group.

Federal tax filings for 2012 for Chick-fil-A’s primary corporate foundation, the WinShape Foundation, show the group has shifted its focus to its own programs — marriage retreats, camps and other services, as well as a scholarship fund at Berry College in Georgia and Lars WinShape, a home for needy children in Brazil.

Separate filings for a newly-established foundation, the Chick-fil-A Foundation, show the group has ceased all funding to some of the more controversial and extremist groups it has funded in the past. From 2010-2011, Chick-fil-A came under fire for giving as much as $3.6 million in support to groups like the Marriage & Family Foundation, the National Christian Foundation, Family Research Council and Exodus International — groups with specifically-stated anti-LGBT political and social agendas. The Family Research Council had also been named an anti-LGBT hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Those groups are no longer supported by the new Chick-fil-A Foundation or WinShape, holding true to a statement released by Chick-fil-A last January.

“While we evaluate individual donations on an annual basis, our giving is focused on three key areas: youth and education, leadership and family enrichment and serving the local communities in which we operate,” the company said at the time. “Our intent is to not support political or social agendas. This has been the case for more than 60 years. The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect and to serve great food with genuine hospitality.”

The new foundation shows grants to groups like Habitat for Humanity, the United Negro Scholarship Fund and two groups that work with homeless and at-risk youth in Atlanta. Only one arguably anti-LGBT group remains, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which holds some anti-LGBT leadership policies and religious doctrines. But, that group received just $25,390 in 2012, down from nearly a half-million dollars in funds it received in 2010.

Charlotte-based advocate Shane Windmeyer, of the national group Campus Pride, had once sought to boycott Chick-fil-A, later backing off in September 2012 after developing a personal relationship with company COO Dan Cathy — a relationship he wrote about for Huffington Post last year.

Windmeyer was also the one who announced last year that Chick-fil-A would be shifting its focus. He now says the new financial documents prove his personal dialogue with Cathy helped to move the conversation forward.

“I still wouldn’t call Chick-fil-A a gay-friendly company, but I would say that our dialogues and conversation that Campus Pride has had has been a positive one. There is some, albeit small, progress there,” Windmeyer tells qnotes.

[Ed. Note — This writer worked briefly as a communications manager for Campus Pride in the spring of 2012.]

Windmeyer had come under fire from some activists and bloggers for his relationship with Cathy, with some commentators asking tough questions of the leader and asking for proof of Chick-fil-A’s change of heart.

Windmeyer has defended his conversations with Cathy, calling them “a lesson to learn for the future of our movement.”

“It’s not always about winning or losing,” Windmeyer said. “It’s about having tough conversations we need to have with people who disagree with us but doing so in a way that creates understanding and creates care for each other.”

He added, “It’s my purpose to role model that you can come together and talk to someone with opposite views and you don’t have to have opposing voices. You can sit down and have conversations. One can decide to boycott, but as long as that person is willing to do work heading toward common ground, then I don’t want to shut off the dialogue.”

Common ground is exactly what Windmeyer says Chick-fil-A’s Cathy wants. And, indeed, the company’s Hollywood store was a sponsor just in the past two weeks of Level Ground, a Los Angeles festival that ran Feb. 20-March 2 that “uses art to create safe space for dialogue about faith, gender, and sexuality.”

Though Windmeyer believes Cathy and Chick-fil-A are making progress, there remains much more work to do. The company, for example, does not offer non-discrimination protections for LGBT employees and it does not offer benefits for LGBT employees’ partners. Additionally, some critics will have continued concerns over Cathy’s personal religious views or the Chick-fil-A Foundation’s continued funding of groups like the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Even so, Windmeyer intends to continue his dialogue.

“We sometimes forget that we may achieve equality when it comes to marriage in the near future,” he says, “but ultimately there will still be people who disagree with us. How can we have conversations and engage those individuals?”

Thanks for posting, this SBP.  It does make me reconsider going tonight-I don't want to knowingly say things that are no longer true.  On the other hand, it's not like they have not done these things in the past and I'm not sure I actually believe they have changed.

[pixy0stix]

Jul 29, 2014 14:02:50 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

Jul 29, 2014 13:36:27 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

The FRC is affiliated with the KKK - www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/family-research-council

Isn't that the lobbyist Josh Duggar works for, or am I confusing my hate groups?

Yes, one and the same. Which is why I also side-eye the Duggar love.

[NitaX]

Jul 29, 2014 13:56:53 GMT -5 jlt19 said:

This did not end well on ML for the person that admitted to still going there...

Welp. It might not end well for me either because I go there because the salads are much better than that shit they try to pass off as a salad at Wendy's and McDonalds. Wendy's screwed up a perfectly good Strawberry Fields salad by putting bacon on it. Just nasty. 

[gpw]

Seriously, pixy0stix is going to be seriously disappointed in all of you.

If some of us can give up The Gap, AT, Loft, etc, people can give up CFA. YOU CAN DO IT!

[msmerymac]

Jul 29, 2014 14:03:27 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Jul 29, 2014 14:02:50 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

Isn't that the lobbyist Josh Duggar works for, or am I confusing my hate groups?

Yes, one and the same. Which is why I also side-eye the Duggar love.

Oh, there are many reasons for that. Many.

[anonymous]

Jul 29, 2014 14:02:50 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

Jul 29, 2014 13:36:27 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

The FRC is affiliated with the KKK - www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/family-research-council

Isn't that the lobbyist Josh Duggar works for, or am I confusing my hate groups?

that's the same one

[anonymous]

Jul 29, 2014 14:04:29 GMT -5 gpw said:

Seriously, pixy0stix is going to be seriously disappointed in all of you.

If some of us can give up The Gap, AT, Loft, etc, people can give up CFA. YOU CAN DO IT!

these too?  and banana republic i assume.

[NitaX]

Jul 29, 2014 14:04:29 GMT -5 gpw said:

Seriously, pixy0stix is going to be seriously disappointed in all of you.

If some of us can give up The Gap, AT, Loft, etc, people can give up CFA. YOU CAN DO IT!

Note: I ain't giving up LOFT or AT either. 

[gpw]

Jul 29, 2014 14:05:31 GMT -5 anonymous said:

Jul 29, 2014 14:04:29 GMT -5 gpw said:

Seriously, pixy0stix is going to be seriously disappointed in all of you.

If some of us can give up The Gap, AT, Loft, etc, people can give up CFA. YOU CAN DO IT!

these too?  and banana republic i assume.

not sure, but I ASSume.  Pixy knows.  It's difficult to find clothes, yo!  

[iammalcolmx]

It isn't just the Lemonade the people who work there are THE MOST polite people ever. I too like the Salads and it's one of the only places near my job that will cater and deliver. So some of you guys are going to be mad and disappointed.

[NitaX]

Jul 29, 2014 14:07:15 GMT -5 gpw said:

Jul 29, 2014 14:05:31 GMT -5 anonymous said:

these too?  and banana republic i assume.

not sure, but I ASSume.  Pixy knows.  It's difficult to find clothes, yo!  

BR is a GAP brand. Which, I don't shop there anyway because their clothes don't fit me well at.all. Even ON is hit or miss with me. So, for office suiting I rely on AT, LOFT and The Limited. I hate shopping at Macy's because I don't want to traverse a giant ass store. Let me walk in, see if I find something that suits my fancy and walk out. I hate wandering all over stores for stuff. 

[frlcb]

Jul 29, 2014 14:07:45 GMT -5 iammalcolmx said:

It isn't just the Lemonade the people who work there are THE MOST polite people ever. I too like the Salads and it's one of the only places near my job that will cater and deliver. So some of you guys are going to be mad and disappointed.

They really are. And some of our good friends/neighbors are owner/operators of one of the busiest ones in ATL and they are the furthest thing from Dan Cathy. The wife is Jewish, first of all (gasp in the Christian world of CFA) and they were horrified when all of this went down. 

[gpw]

It's gonna be Keurig all over again up in here.