The San Jose City Council has approved
hanging rainbow and transgender pride flags at or near a Chick-fil-A
at San Jose International Airport.
The council last year approved the
addition of several restaurants, including Chick-fil-A, at the
airport's food court.
The location is set to open in May.
Ken Yeager, the first openly gay
elected official in Santa Clara County, proposed the idea of placing
flags outside the restaurant.
“I made the suggestion to put the
flags next to the restaurant, and council members liked that idea but
also said that maybe put flags elsewhere, too, like outside,”
Yeager
told NBC News.
Chick-fil-A routinely donates to groups
opposed to LGBT rights, including marriage equality. The fast-food
chain's COO Dan Cathy has repeatedly stated his opposition to
same-sex marriage and said that it is company policy to support “the
family – the biblical definition of the family unit.”
A recent report from ThinkProgress
showed that Chick-fil-A gave $1.8 million in 2017 to groups opposed
to LGBT rights, including the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which
requires its employees to promise they will not engage in “homosexual
acts.”
(Related: Chick-fil-A
donated nearly $2 million to groups opposed to LGBT rights.)
News of the flags comes just weeks
after two other cities blocked Chick-fil-A from opening a location at
their airports over the chain's support for anti-LGBT organizations.
(Related: Chick-fil-A
blocked from Buffalo airport over support for groups opposed to LGBT
rights.)