8 THE QUEENS COURIER • MARCH 4, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Local advocates condemn Chick-fi l-A’s ‘history
of discrimination’ against LGBTQ community
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
aacevedo@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
A small group of community members
on Th ursday, Feb. 25, gathered outside
of the newly opened Chick-fi l-A in
Elmhurst, which will also serve nearby
Jackson Heights, to condemn the chain
restaurant’s history of supporting anti-
LGBTQ groups.
Daniel Puerto, a community activist
and co-founder of Love Wins Food
Pantry, said it was important to shed
light on Chick-fi l-A’s “history of discrimination”
against the LGBTQ community,
given their new location at 40-27 82nd
St., which opened a day earlier on Feb. 24.
“We are in Jackson Heights, home to
a large number of LGBTQ communities
and home to a large number of
trans and gender non-conforming people,
and today we are here to not only question
how was Chick-fi l-A welcomed to
our community, but to also remind our
neighbors about businesses like these so
that we can be an informed consumers,”
Puerto said.
LGBTQ advocacy groups have long
fought the Atlanta-based chain restaurant
for not only donating millions to
organizations with a history of anti-
LGBTQ practices, like Salvation Army
and Fellowship of Christian Athletes, but
also for its CEO Dan Cathy’s comments
opposing same-sex marriage.
In 2019, Chick-fi l-A — a multibilliondollar
chain popular for its fried chicken
sandwiches and customer service —
announced a shift in their donations following
growing protests from advocates
and customers. But they did not explicitly
promise to stop donating to anti-LGBTQ
groups.
“Businesses like Chick-fi l-A
support groups that push
LGBTQ youth to suicide,
groups supported by businesses
like Chick-fil-A
fi ght to make sure that
LGBTQ communities continue
living below poverty
rate lines, groups supported
by business
like Chick-fil-A
ensure that our
communit i e s
keep living in
the shadows
and that
they keep
b e i n g
denied the
dignity to
exist in the
community that
welcomes them and
loves them,” Puerto
said.
Puerto, a member
of the LGBTQ community,
added that he
was recently on a call with someone
who said that every time they walk by
a Chick-fi l-A, they get “post-traumatic
stress because they supported the group
that was going to convert” them.
“People have lost their lives. People
have been killed. People have been
denied access to quality of life because of
groups like this and these are repercussions
that are going to impact someone’s
life forever,” Puerto said.
Organizers also worried about the
impact that more chains will have on the
neighborhood, where businesses are predominantly
mom-and-pops.
Shrima Pandey, an organizer with
Queens Neighborhoods United, said
that what they need is support for their
communities and less of a focus on big
corporations.
“Th is was never a block that should
have welcomed any corporation like
Chick-fi l-A, and yet in partnership
with the 82nd Street Partnership and
the Business Improvement District
here, companies like Chick-fi l-A, like
Starbucks and Target are
now on this block,” Pandey said. “We
know these corporations do not have
our community’s best interests at heart
and we will continue to keep a watchful
eye on their activities and the way
that they treat our people, because we
have not seen, we have not had proof in
other neighborhoods and in other places
that they will treat our communities with
kindness and with respect. We will continue
to fi ght against these corporations
as they continue to extract and leach off
of our neighborhoods.”
Th ew new Elmhurst location is the
fi rst stand-alone Chick-fi l-A to open in
Queens (a previously opened stand is
located at the Queens Center Mall’s food
court). As a franchise, the new location
is independently owned by Aman
Mekonen, an immigrant and Queens
resident.
Puerto said the business owner and
the BID “have a responsibility to the
community” to listen their concerns.
Th e demonstration was short and
small with less than a dozen attendees,
including City Council candidates Shekar
Krishnan, Carolyn Tran and Talea Wufk a.
Chick-fi l-A appeared fairly busy during
the lunch rush hour.
Before the demonstration began, the
NYPD’s 110th Precinct placed barricades
on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant.
Th ere were about 10 NYPD offi cers
standing nearby, as well as two vans and
one car parked in front of the restaurant.
Puerto and other attendees were visibly
confused to see such a police presence for
what was a small demonstration.
“Th ere’s no reason why there were barricades
in our demonstration. Th ere’s no
reason why we have about 10 cops in a
small response action that was not a protest,
that was just a demonstration to support
our neighbors. Th at’s violence to
me,” Puerto said. “Th e fact that this business
feels we need police surveillance, as
victims of police violence, is concerning
and this is where our communities
need to understand the multiple layers of
oppression that we face and how we can’t
just ignore it and say, ‘Well, it’s not happening
now.’ Seeing cops go into Chickfi
l-A continues echoing that message that
they are supporting each other’s hate
towards people like me and my LGBTQ
brothers and sisters.”
A Chick-fi l-A spokesperson did not
respond to a request for comment
regarding the demonstration.
NYPD vans were parked outside Chick-Fil-A during
a small protest in Jackson Heights.
Photos by Gabriele Holtermann
A community members speaks at a protest
against Chick-Fil-A’s anti-LGBTQ history in
Jackson Heights.
Daniel Puerto speaks at a
protest against Chick-Fil-A’s
anti-LGBTQ history in Jackson
Heights.
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