Mike Huckabee: Chick-fil-A has not ‘capitulated’ to supporters of same-sex marriage
Chick-Fil-A president Dan Cathy shared his thoughts that family should only be made up of man, woman and child.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee insisted that Chick-fil-A has not changed its stance on same-sex marriage, as earlier reports suggested.
Huckabee wrote on Facebook, "I talked earlier today personally with Dan Cathy, CEO of Chick fil-A about the new reports that Chick fil-A had capitulated to demands of the supporters of same sex marriage." He said, "This is not true," according to Slate magazine.
Huckabee posted a statement given by Cathy on his website, which said, "Chick-fil-A made no such concessions, and we remain true to who we are and who we have been. There continues to be erroneous implications in the media that Chick-fil-A changed our practices and priorities in order to obtain permission for a new restaurant in Chicago. That is incorrect," according to ABC News.
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Chicago Alderman Joe Moreno said last week that Chick-fil-A had stopped making donations to anti-gay groups, according to CNN. He said the concessions came after 10 months of negotiations with Chick-fil-A executives over whether he would support a restaurant in his ward.
In a statement on Wednesday, Chick-fil-A said, "the Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect –regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender," adding that "going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena," according to Politico.
Moreno asked Chick-fil-A to clarify its stance on Sunday, saying that Cathy's statement "at the least, muddied the progress we had made with Chick-fil-A and, at the worst, contradicted the documents and promises Chick-fil-A made to me and the community earlier this month," according to CNN.
ABC News noted that while the company's memo released last week does have some language that Moreno quoted, it also says, "Chick-fil-A supports programs and marriage retreats to help strengthen and enrich marriages. More than 4,000 couples benefit annually from these programs, including military personnel and sports coaches that received scholarships."
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