Students at UT protested Chick-fil-A because of its support for anti-gay groups. | Adam Kuban/Flickr.com
Last Wednesday morning, on March 21, COO and president of Chick-fil-A Dan Cathy came to speak at UT on the topic of “Building Effective Leaders.” At the same time, UT’s GLTSBA (Gay Lesbian Transexual Straight Bisexual Alliance), with help from The Sociology Club, held a protest against his company.
In early 2011, it was revealed to the public, after close investigation of the company’s IRS forms, that Chick-fil-A had donated money to anti-equality organizations. From 2003 to 2008, WinShape, which is the foundation through which Chick-fil-A donates, donated $1,142,450 in total to organizations that support hate groups, such as Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council. In late 2011, newer IRS 990 forms revealed that the company had donated $1,733,699 to anti-gay groups in 2009 alone. Furthermore, the company scores zero out of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, which is a tool that rates American businesses on their treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers, and investors. The HRC explains that the CEI “has become a roadmap and benchmarking tool for U.S. businesses in the evolving field of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in the workplace” (www.hrc.org).
On March 20, the eve of the protest, protestors met in Plant Hall lobby to make posters. The next morning, they gathered in front of Plant Hall at 6:45 a.m. From there, they walked to West Kennedy Boulevard with their signs, where they remained until about 9 a.m.
The protest at UT was driven by the knowledge of Chick-fil-A’s donations to hate groups.
“I believe [the protest] went very well,” said UT sophomore and GLTSBA member Timothy Bourn. “There was much support from the public…There were some unsupportive opinions from individuals, but primarily, the general public was very supportive of the protest.”
Mr. Cathy himself was said to have been aware of the protest.
“When we got the OK from the school to protest, they told us that [Cathy] knew of us,” explained President of GLTSBA and Sociology Club member Chelsea Bender.
The Wednesday morning protest helped to spread awareness of the situation, which was the main goal of GLTSBA and the Sociology Club.
To further promote awareness, GLTSBA set up a table after the protest in the Vaughn lobby with flyers and signs addressing Chick-fil-A’s anti-gay tendencies.
“We got a lot of interest from people in passing cars as well as from students when we tabled in Vaughn lobby… I feel that we brought the issue into the public awareness,” said Bender, commenting on the success of the day’s events.
GLTSBA hopes that change will come as awareness spreads.
“By continuing to protest and by continuing to hold demonstrations, we can create more awareness and hopefully gain further support from the student body as a whole when we are aware that a corporation is not serving the best interests of the community abroad,” explained Bourn.
Bourn believes that “the majority of people on campus do not feel affected by the issue, therefore they are less inclined to do something about it,” but that “if people are aware of your presence, then you have made the first critical step towards a positive change.”
Bender says that GLTSBA is “hoping to continue with events [regarding this issue] next semester.”
Annabella Palopoli can be reached at annabella.palopoli@spartans.ut.edu.
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