LGBTQ Activists Upset Trump Served Chick-fil-A at White House to Champion Sports Team
LGBTQ advocates denounced President Donald Trump serving Chick-fil-A to championship college football team at the White House on Monday.
Just as he did in January when Trump honored the NCAA division 1 champion Clemson Tigers football team, he served fast food, including McDonald’s Big Macs and Chick-fil-A sandwiches, to the FCS champion North Dakota State football squad.
The Bison have the most titles in the NCAA’s Football Championship Subdivision, The Associated Press reported.
IN PHOTOS: Trump treats the North Dakota State Bison football team, the 2018 FCS champions, to a meal of Chick-Fil-A sandwiches and Big Macs at the White House pic.twitter.com/2OsBHYJhW4
— TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) March 4, 2019
When meeting with the team, Trump noted that he could have served up a buffet dinner cooked by the White House staff but said the fast food had gone over well with the Tigers.
“We weren’t going to do this,” the president said, pointing to tables filled with fast food, “because I’ve never that done before Clemson, but we were (having that event) during a government shutdown.”
“‘Let’s just go get some McDonald’s, Wendy’s …” Trump recalled saying at the time. “We have a couple of others Burger King … Chick-fil-A, as they say.”
The Advocate’s Tracy Gilchrist and LGBTQ Nation’s Bill Browning denounced Trump’s inclusion of Chick-fil-A for the Bison’s celebration as a direct affront against the gay community.
“For the second time this year, Donald Trump has invited an athletic team to the White House and boasted about serving them fast food,” Gilchrist wrote.
“But this time, chicken sandwiches from the virulently anti-LGBTQ company Chick-fil-A were arranged on silver platters for champions on the North Dakota State Bison football team Monday.”
Likewise, Browning said, “This time, the President who has attacked the LGBTQ community the most, served up Chick-fil-A, a company known for opposing LGBTQ rights.”
Chick-fil-A has been in the crosshairs of many LGBTQ advocates after CEO Dan Cathy came out in support of traditional marriage in 2012.
“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,'” Cathy said at the time.
“I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about.”
In July 2012, as the controversy regarding Chick-fil-A was reaching a crescendo, the company announced, “Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.”
“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,” the statement added.
Last March, The New Yorker’s Dan Piepenbring labeled Chick-fil-A “creepy” and lamented that the days of large-scale, Mayor Bill de Blasio-led boycotts of the restaurant chain in the Big Apple had come and gone.
Chick-fil-A had opened its largest location in the world in Lower Manhattan that same month.
In 2018 for the third year in a row, Chick-fil-A won the top spot in a customer satisfaction survey ranking fast-food chains and other restaurants.
The company’s corporate purpose is: “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive influence on all who come into contact with Chick-fil-A.”
The Atlanta-based chain’s founder, the late S. Truett Cathy said, “We should be about more than just selling chicken. We should be a part of our customers’ lives and the communities in which we serve.”
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