Chick-fil-A faces another boycott over plans to return to UK

Controversial fast food chain Chick-fil-A is facing mass boycotts for funding anti-LGBTQ+ organisations as it prepares to return to the UK.

Protestors have said they plan to stage demonstrations outside the chain’s London branch upon its opening on Thursday (5 March) over its historical funding of organisations attacking LGBTQ+ rights in the US.

In 2023, the chain announced plans to open sites in Belfast, Leeds, Liverpool, and London as part of a long-term investment commitment to Britain.

Chick-fil-A previously attempted to establish a foothold in Britain in 2019, but was forced to end its lease after six months due to the lack of customers.

Much of the backlash came over reports from 2011 which revealed that the Chick-fil-A Foundation had donated almost $3 million to campaign groups opposing marriage equality. Two years later, reports revealed that the chain’s anti-LGBTQ+ donations had doubled.

While the organisation said it would refrain from donating to anti-LGBTQ+ organisations in 2021, reports said it had in fact continued to do so, including a sizeable sum to the National Christian Charitable Foundation, which publicly calls for the derailment of equality laws in the US.

A source close to the company said at the time that the lack of interest also stemmed from the chain’s refusal to open on Sundays for religious reasons.

Its second attempt to invest in the UK market has been met with similar waves of backlash from members of the public, many of whom have vowed to boycott the chain.

Among them is activist Peter Tatchell, who said in a statement that he would join protestors outside Chick-fil-A’s branch at 90 Eden Street, Kingston upon Thames, London, to voice his opposition to the chain’s presence in the UK.

“We have been unable to secure assurances that Chick-fil-A will not in future fund homophobic organisations that campaign against LGBT+ human rights. Every letter and request for a meeting has been ignored,” he said. “Our protest calls on Chick-fil-A to publicly commit to ending all financial support for organisations promoting discrimination. Until we have that commitment, consumers should boycott Chick-fil-A.”

To mark the openings, the chicken-sandwich chain said it plans to donate £25,000 to one local non-profit per restaurant. While it already has 3,000 outlets across the US, Puerto Rico, and Canada, its UK branches will be the first outside North America.

Talking to the Financial Times, food-sector analyst Peter Backman said in 2019 that the branch failed its first time because of a refusal to budge on its “very strong, religious ethos”.

“Successful restaurants, being very personal businesses, try to align their culture as much as possible with that of the customers they serve,” he said, adding that it would be a “challenge” to do so when so few Britons identify as Christians.

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