Chick-Fil-A Voted Out By Elon University Students
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Booted From Other Campuses In North Carolina
The Huffington Post | By Tyler Kingkade
Students at North Carolina's Elon University this week became the latest to push back against Chick-fil-A and its anti-gay stance. The student government voted 35-11 to ask the school's food vendor, Aramark, to find another restaurant to take the fast food chicken chain's place, the Times-News reports.
Chick-fil-A was at the center of a very public controversy this summer after its president and COO, Dan Cathy, openly declared his opposition to LGBT rights – saying legalizing same-sex marriage was like "shaking a fist" at God -- and stood by the company's millions of dollars in donations to anti-gay groups. In the wake of the controversy, Cathy reportedly held a "diversity" meeting with campus leaders in Atlanta back in August.
While broader attention to Chick-fil-A seems to have subsided, college students have continued a push on several college campuses to give Chick-fil-A the boot. Two other colleges in North Carolina have ended their relationship with the company (even after North Carolina voters approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage earlier this year).
St. Mary's College in Maryland ended its relationship with Chick-fil-A over a year ago. And Davidson College decided to refrain from serving Chick-fil-A at a school sponsored event after students started a petition.
Yet despite the national outcry and dozens of petitions calling for the removal of Chick-fil-A restaurants from college campuses, very few schools have taken any action to kick out the chicken joints.
In July, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn wrote a letter to New York University President John Sexton requesting Chick-fil-A be removed from the school's campus in Manhattan. And even though NYU students have been speaking out against Chick-fil-A for some time, student leaders so far have resisted booting New York City's only Chick-fil-A location.
Duke University's on-campus location is closing in 2013, but due to campus renovations rather than student protests. Rick Johnson, associate vice president of housing and dining, told the Duke Chronicle he received some emails over the summer calling for the university to cut ties with Chick-fil-A. "I told them it’s a moot point because their contract is up at the end of the year," Johnson said. "That seemed to satisfy them."
At Elon, a private college, the school president and other senior administrators will have the final say on whether Chick-fil-A stays on campus.
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Chick-Fil-A Ad Proclaims 'Only A Fruitcake Wouldn't Love Our Party Trays'
We don't want to make too many assumptions based on Chick-fil-A's notorious anti-gay history, but does anyone else find this advertisement for the restaurant chain – which proclaims, "Only a fruitcake wouldn't love our party trays!" -- a little suspect?
Update at 6:03pm ET on October 16: Chick-fil-A offered the following statement to the Advocate today: "This is an advertisement that a locally owned and operated restaurant has been using for the past five years to promote Chick-fil-A's catering options during the holidays. It was simply a play on words referring to the traditional holiday food, and the restaurant had no intention of offending anyone whatsoever. We regret the flyer may haven been taken out of context."
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Aziz Ansari Blasts Chick-Fil-A, Compares Being Anti-Gay To Being Anti-Interracial Dating
Aziz Ansari is a South Carolina native – and he's very pro-gay marriage -- but he's also very pro-delicious chicken sandwich. So what's is a conscientious foodie comedian from the South to do?
On Monday night's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," Ansari sat down with Kimmel to talk about the ongoing Chick-Fil-A anti-gay marriage controversy and how the fast food chain's popular food is partially to blame ("No one would be talking about this if it were Long John Silver's").
The "Parks And Recreation" star also blasted people who are anti-gay in general, wondering how anyone couldn't see that they are on the wrong side of history at this point. He went on to compare it with being opposed to interracial dating:
"These are the same people that didn't want women to vote, that didn't want black guys to play football... What was the last thing they were opposed to, interracial relationships? Look, if you're opposed to interracial relationships, guess what: I'm f***ing white girls, and there's nothing you can do about it!"
Watch Aziz's interview above to hear more about his politically-charged sex life, plus his theory on how the gay struggle with equality might just be parallel to their struggle to find delicious fast food.
Video @ hXXp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/16/aziz-ansari-chick-fil-a-gay-marriage-interracial-relationships_n_1971184.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay%20Voices
