Chick-fil-A has a distaste for queer people. The religiously conservative fast food company’s former CEO has given millions of dollars to groups that oppose and actively fight against gay rights year after year making the company’s homophobia no secret, yet Long Beach City College brought the discriminatory company onto campus as a treat to the students.
For this year’s Friendsgiving, the college provided free food from multiple vendors for the students, one being Chick-fil-A. The gesture came from a place of gratitude, but the decision was an ignorant one considering Long Beach has one of the highest populations of queer residents.
Long Beach is one of two cities in California to have a perfect score in the 2019 Municipal Equality Index from the nonprofit Human Rights Campaign, which identifies the most LGBTQ friendly cities based on local government. The school itself is headed by an openly gay man, Superintendent President Mike Munoz.
For a college that stresses the importance of inclusivity and diversity, it should practice what it preaches by not giving its dollars to companies that have openly tried to suppress the demographic in question. It sends mixed signals as to what the college is supposed to represent and comes across as disingenuous.
It is not breaking news that Chick-fil-A has had anti-LGBTQ sentiment for some time now. The first account was in 2010 after it was revealed Chick-fil-A’s CEO Dave Cathy donated $5 million to anti-gay groups between 2003-2010.
Yahoo Life reported Cathy’s son then doubled down on the companies actions in 2012 in a radio interview where the founder’s son said, “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,’” referring to the legalization of gay marriage in the United States.
In 2019, the company issued a statement announcing that it would stop donating to anti-LGBTQ groups after its bad publicity, but it has yet to ensure a LGBTQ friendly workplace practices, or acknowledge their past actions and branding as negative.
Chick-fil-A has claimed to no longer donate to anti-LGBTQ groups since 2019, but Cathy still donates thousands of dollars out of his own pocket to groups that oppose the Equality Act like the National Christian Charitable Foundation (NCF).
Cathy has since stepped down as CEO of the company as of late 2021, but still serves as VP and the chairman of the company’s board.
The college needs to boycott the company from now on if it wants to claim to be a safe space for LGBTQ members. This is not a hard ask, considering it has been attempted before at other colleges like NYU, NorthEastern University, Notre Dame and even the entire city of New York.
The student and staff population of Notre Dame University attempted to keep the fast food chain away from their campus in 2021, claiming “bringing Chick-fil-A to campus would run contrary to Notre Dame’s commitment to inclusion and desire to create good in the world,” reported the South Bend Tribune.
Although their attempts were unsuccessful, they tried to fight the company’s influence instead of actively welcoming it, which is still a noble attempt worth acknowledgment.
Colleges should be at the forefront of change and revolution. Here students should be able to envision a society we want to build and live in and the college should act as a breeding ground for that.
There is no excuse as to why we had to have Chick-fil-A at LBCC when the company does not promote a society we would be proud of and would be welcomed in. If the school would like to bring fried chicken sandwiches onto campus, there are several surrounding businesses that cater to that such as Jay Birds, Cluck & Blaze, Jack in the Box, and McDonalds.
With all these businesses that haven’t notoriously promoted hate and homophobia, LBCC has no excuse for choosing food from a company that has. Chick-fil-A’s views may be misguided but at least they stand by their beliefs and branding, as should the college.