California Student Equates Chick-fil-A to Pornography, Calls to Ban Restaurant from University
A California University board has voted to get rid of their on-campus Chick-fil-A outlet because they believe that the restaurant’s charity foundation “violates their values.”
A faculty group from California Polytechnic University has demanded that the popular outlet be axed due to its support of various faith-based organizations.
Cal Poly professor and Academic Senate Vice Chair Thomas Gutierrez explained that Chick-fil-A’s donations to “anti-LGBTQ” groups was enough to warrant its removal from university grounds. However, the fast-food chain has continued to repudiate claims that it supports anti-LGBTQ groups, noting that it donates to the Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and Paul Anderson Youth Home.
“The work of the Foundation is committed to youth and education,” the company noted in a statement on its website, adding that they are committed to helping young people with “economic mobility” and focus on “homelessness, poverty, education and community revitalization.”
Chick-fil-A added that their charitable work 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,” the company noted.
Still, the Cal Poly Academic Senate is adamant that the restaurant must go, even making shocking and bizarre comparisons to pornography and the controversial restaurant chain, “Hooters.”
“We don’t sell pornography in the bookstore and we don’t have a Hooters on campus — we already pre-select those kinds of things based on our existing values,” Gutierrez explained, according to Mustang News.
“This is a similar thing, the difference is we’re actually profiting from this. So our money, every dollar a student is spending at Chick-fil-A, is going to these causes that are in violation of our values”, Gutierrez added, noting that “if you have a mission statement that indicates that you value inclusivity and diversity, then you should be making your business decisions based on that.”
In a rather bland statement on the issue, university spokesman Matt Lazier simply said that it is “the right of each campus member to make their own decisions about supporting – or not supporting – a given business at Cal Poly.”
There is some good news, however. In comments made to KCBX, Lazier qualified that the “university administration’s disagreement with the political views of a given business owner does not give the university license to effectively censor that business and prohibit it from continuing to operate at the university.” Lazier also noted that he would be surprised if the decision was taken to remove such a profitable on-campus business.
Hopefully, that means that the restaurant chain won’t be going anywhere after all!
Photo courtesy: Getty Images/Tom Pennington/Stringer
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