City officials in San Antonio are so determined to keep Chick-fil-A out of their airport that they’ve been willing to part with over $300,000 of taxpayer cash in order to do so.
Last March, the city council voted to keep Chick-fil-A from opening up a location in the city’s airport due to the company’s alleged “legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior.” Since then, the city’s governing authorities have spent roughly $315,000 in legal fees to keep Chick-fil-A at bay.
The case has sparked retaliatory litigation battles, with Texas even passing a “Save Chick-fil-A” law, which aims to “prohibit government entities from taking ‘adverse actions’ against businesses or individuals because of their religious beliefs or moral convictions.”
State attorney general Ken Paxton has also opened his own investigation into the prospective religious discrimination being propagated by the San Antonio City Council as a result of its action against the restaurant chain.
“The Constitution’s protection of religious liberty is somehow even better than Chick-fil-A’s chicken,” Paxton wrote in a letter addressed to the council, according to The Blaze. “Unfortunately, I have serious concerns that both are under assault at the San Antonio airport.”
Last year, Chick-fil-A came under fire for cutting philanthropic funding to two organizations that advocate for Biblical marriage — The Salvation Army and The Fellowship of Christian Athletes — prompting outrage from many who believed the company was caving to the pro-LGBT agenda.
In a letter penned at the end of last year, Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy admitted to “inadvertently discrediting” the organizations.
“We understand how some thought we were abandoning our longstanding support of faith-based organizations,” he wrote in letter to Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association. “We inadvertently discredited several outstanding organizations that have effectively served communities for years.”
“The intent of our corporate giving has always been to have impact — not to make a statement or support a political or social agenda,” Cathy added. “Chick-fil-A will give to faith-based and other organizations that we believe to be highly effective in a particular area.”