Chick-fil-A, the Georgia-based fast-food chain whose chief operating officer Dan Cathy has donated millions of dollars to anti-marriage equality organizations through the company’s charitable foundation, may be opening a branch in Boston soon.
These contributions have included $994,199 to the Marriage and Family Foundation in 2009 and $1,188,380 in 2010. Contributions also went to the Family Research Council, listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, in 2010, with hundreds of thousands more pouring into groups that support anti-LGBT discrimination as recently as 2016.
Cathy’s contributions launched a nationwide boycott, prompting Boston’s former Mayor Thomas Menino to do all he legally could to ban the chain from opening a restaurant in Boston in 2012.
“Mayor Menino’s rebuke of Chick-fil-A sends a strong messages that their habit of supporting hateful organizations that demonize LGBT Americans are out-of-step with not just Bostonians, but the majority of fair-minded Americans,” wrote HRC Vice President of Communications and Marketing Fred Sainz at the time.
“Chick-fil-A is on the wrong side of history, and we look forward to seeing more and more elected officials and businesses speak out against their discriminatory practices,” Sainz wrote.
Since then, Cathy has made some major public relations efforts to demonstrate he’s backed off making such donations. But Chick-fil-A remains the darling of radical Christian anti-marriage-equality groups, and Cathy has publicly stated that he remains in staunch support of these groups.
According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle, in 2016 the chain’s foundation donated $1.8 million to groups that promote discrimination against LGBT people.
The chain points out its $9.25 million in its charitable contributions from 2016 largely went to “programs that support a diverse array of youth and education programs nationwide,” according to the Chronicle, which proves true—but it is also true that a substantial portion of these groups actively promote anti-LGBT discriminatory policies.
Boston’s current mayor, Marty Walsh, told reporters in mid-November that he’s paying close attention but that he understands the restaurant chain has changed its philosophy.
The controversial chain’s most recent store in Massachusetts, its 12th in the state, opened in Methuen last late month.
And now, according to a recently released Chick-fil-A, Inc. statement, a spokesperson from the chain says, “While we are still early in the approval process, we can confirm that we are pursuing a location at 569 Boylston St.”
According to the Boston Globe:
The potential new outpost is currently occupied by one of nine locations of Boston-based fast-casual restaurant Boloco. Chick-fil-A did not provide a potential opening date, and Boloco did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meg Mainzer-Cohen, president of the Back Bay Association, said Chick-fil-A first contacted her over the summer.
“They said that they wanted to move to Back Bay and were interested in a site on Boylston Street,” she said. “When I realized the [exact] spot, I felt like it was the ideal location for it. There are other similar fast food places [in the area]. Burger King, Wendy’s is there, and it’s right across the street from Copley Square.”
Mainzer-Cohen stressed that it could take up to a year before Chick-fil-A opens in the neighborhood, as they still need to obtain licensing and meet with the city and the Back Bay Architectural Commission.
Back in Methuen, “politics didn’t play a factor” in the city’s decision to welcome the opening of the store, the mayor’s chief of staff told the Boston Herald. “Economic development is one of [the mayor’s] top priorities, particularly in the commercial and retail markets,” he said, adding that “Boston should do whatever Boston wants to do.”
Methuen local Nick Angelini, however, told the Herald, “I don’t endorse companies that aren’t LGBT because they are against my way of life. Keep in mind you’re supporting an anti-LGBT company.”
