If you were hoping to grab some Chick-fil-A before a flight at the Kansas City airport, you’re going to be out of luck. While there were originally plans to include a Chick-fil-A location in the new wing at the Missouri airport, they were scrapped due to opposition from Kansas City’s LGBTQ commission, per Business Insider. As for the reason why the commission argued against the inclusion of Chick-fil-A in the new wing, they cited the fast-food chain’s links to groups that have opposed LGBTQ rights.
Kansas City’s aviation authority tasked Vantage Airport Group with running services at the airport’s upcoming terminal. Amid this controversy, Vantage Airport Group said that they removed Chick-fil-A from the list of proposed restaurants that would be featured in the new wing. A Vantage spokesperson told Fox News in a statement that they did so in order to “promote an inclusive environment.” They continued to express in their statement that they scrapped plans to include a Chick-fil-A after hearing the community’s concerns regarding the chain’s connections to groups that have opposed LGBTQ rights.
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“We heard and respect the strong community reaction to the proposed Chick-Fil-A participation in the program,” their statement read. “We have collectively made the decision to remove this brand from our concessions plan for the new terminal at KCI. Vantage strives to promote an inclusive environment at all our airports.” Both Vantage and Chick-fil-A were asked for comment on this report, but Business Insider did not hear back by the time of the article’s publication.
Chick-fil-A has long been under fire, particularly due to its history of donating to organizations that have anti-LGBTQ positions. According to Vox, the chain responded to that criticism in November 2019 by stating that they would be taking “a more focused giving approach.” They announced that they set $9 million for three initiatives — promoting youth education, combating youth homelessness, and fighting hunger. The biggest change to their philanthropic pursuits was that, as of 2020, Chick-fil-A will no longer donate to charities that have anti-LGTBQ stances. Chick-fil-A president and CEO Tim Tassopoulos stated about these changes, “There’s no question we know that, as we go into new markets, we need to be clear about who we are. There are lots of articles and newscasts about Chick-fil-A, and we thought we needed to be clear about our message.”
