Report: Chick-fil-A still raising funds for anti-LGBT groups

Just two days after Chick-fil-A was thought to have promised to stop fundraising for LGBT rights opponents, a report in The Advocate says it is still supporting one such organization, founded by the brother of the restaurant chain's CEO, Dan Cathy.

On Tuesday, the report said, Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy tweeted a picture from a motorcycle ride organized by WinShape, the company's nonprofit arm, with donors instructed to send contributions directly to the Marriage and Family Foundation, a Christian group with the same address as Chick-fil-A headquarters founded by Donald "Bubba" Cathy, the company's senior vice-president.

But that same day, a press release from The Civil Rights Agenda (TCRA) said the company had confirmed to Chicago Alderman Proco "Joe" Moreno that it would no longer donate to groups opposing same sex marriages through WinShape. In response, Moreno said he would stop fighting Chick-fil-A's efforts to open a restaurant in Chicago's Northwest Side.

In a statement released Thursday, however, the company said its stance had been mischaracterized.

"Chick-fil-A and its charitable-giving arm, the WinShape Foundation, did not agree to stop making donations to groups that support the biblical definition of marriage in exchange for being allowed to open a franchise in Chicago," the statement said.

And according to NBC News, Dan Cathy gave a similar statement to former Arkansas governor and Fox News host Mike Huckabee.

"There continues to be erroneous implications in the media that Chick-fil-A changed our practices and priorities in order to obtain permission for a new restaurant in Chicago," Cathy said. "That is incorrect. Chick-fil-A made no such concessions, and we remain true to who we are and who we have been."

TCRA senior policy advisor Rick Garcia said he was "angry and disgusted" at the company's latest statements.

"Chick-fil-A lied to us and lied to the alderman so that they could open their store in Chicago," Garcia said.

[Image via Alaina Browne on Flickr, Creative Commons licensed.]