The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating Texas’ San Antonio International Airport and New York’s Buffalo Niagara International Airport over allegations of religious discrimination following the exclusion of fast-food chain Chick-fil-A from their premises, according to a new report.
“The Department of Transportation has received complaints alleging discrimination by two airport operators against a private company due to the expression of the owner’s religious beliefs,” the agency’s statement to Fox News read.
Chick-fil-A has faced nationwide backlash and calls for boycott because of its continued charitable donations to faith-based groups such as the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Salvation Army, which has outraged pro-LGBT groups. Chick-fil-A gave $1,653,416 to the fellowship and $150,000 to the Salvation Army in 2017, per tax filings released earlier this year.
San Antonio’s city council attributed its decision to what it said was the restaurant’s “legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior,” and the decision to exclude the popular eatery from Buffalo Niagara followed a Democratic lawmaker’s statement condemning the potential placement over the chain’s “anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.”
The FAA noted that “federal requirements prohibit airport operators from excluding persons on the basis of religious creed from participating in airport activities that receive or benefit from FAA grant funding.”
Rodney Bullard, executive director of the Chick-fil-A Foundation, said earlier this month that the organization’s mission is to help the community — a “higher calling” that outweighs “any political or cultural war that’s being waged.”
He said the donations were “really about an authentic problem that is on the ground, that is present and ever present in the lives of many children who can’t help themselves.” While the organization has been open about not supporting gay marriage, executives say its donations sponsor youth camps and outreach to low-income youths.
Chick-fil-A has also faced calls for bans on college campuses, most recently from students and faculty at Trinity University and California Polytechnic State University. Officials at both schools refused the calls, with Cal Poly’s administration labeling the demand to do so a “form of censorship.”
