After a two-year battle resulting in the passage of a statewide “religious freedom” law, Chick-fil-A has decided it doesn’t want to open a new location in the San Antonio airport after all.
The national chicken chain announced on Monday that it has no plans to move forward with a long-debated restaurant in the San Antonio International Airport, which services the country’s seventh largest metropolitan area. In 2019, six of San Antonio’s 10 council members voted against offering a spot in the municipal airport over the company’s “legacy of anti-[LGBTQ+] behavior,” which resulted in legislative action, a handful of lawsuits, and two separate investigations.
The San Antonio International Airport announced last week that it had struck a compromise with Chick-fil-A, effectively ending the litigation and any pending regulatory actions. Citing the restaurant’s stated “change-of-position on its charitable giving policy,” a spokesperson for San Antonio said the chain would be extended a contract that is “reasonable and consistent with customary business practices.”
But after parties were able to reach a mutual agreement, Chick-fil-A declined the invitation.
“We are always evaluating potential new locations in the hopes of serving existing and new customers great food with remarkable service,” a representative for Chick-fil-A said in a public statement. “While we are not pursuing a location in the San Antonio airport at this time, we are grateful for the opportunity to serve San Antonians in our 32 existing restaurants.”
It is hardly editorializing to say that the decision to forgo the location is frankly galling given the strife that Chick-fil-A put the local LGBTQ+ community through.
After the San Antonio City Council refused the restaurant’s bid, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched a probe into the city’s conduct, claiming it was discriminatory and a breach of federal law. He called on U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to do the same. While Chao’s office did not directly investigate, the Federal Aviation Administration did.
The fight also resulted in the enactment of a piece of legislation known colloquially as the “Save Chick-fil-A” bill. Senate Bill 1978, which was signed into law by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in June 2019, bars government authorities from taking any “adverse action” against businesses over their support for religious groups.
But what proponents of the legislation, which included Lieutenant Governor Ken Paxton, perhaps misunderstood was that the debate was never about Chick-fil-A’s faith beliefs. While Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy made waves in 2012 for expressing his support for “the biblical definition of a family unit,” the business has also donated millions of dollars to organizations that oppose homosexuality and same-sex marriage, including the Salvation Army.
Chick-fil-A announced last year that it will stop giving to anti-LGBTQ+ groups, with CNN reporting that its charitable giving will focus on “education, homelessness, and hunger” moving forward. However, the company has previously said it would stop giving to organizations that discriminate against LGBTQ+ people and did not follow through on that pledge.
But the push to pass SB 1978 was arguably never about Chick-fil-A to begin with, even despite its catchy nickname. A NBC News investigation revealed that it was part of a nationwide, right-wing effort to chip away at LGBTQ+ rights by passing “religious liberty” laws.
Unsurprisingly, opponents of LGBTQ+ equality are thrilled at the outcome. In a statement, Paxton called it a “win for religious liberty in Texas.”
“To exclude a respected vendor based on religious beliefs is the opposite of tolerance and is inconsistent with the Constitution, Texas law, and Texas values,” said the Texas attorney general, who believes it should be legal to fire workers for being LGBTQ+ and supports the right of adoption agencies to turn away same-sex couples.
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