Yes, Chick-fil-A. It's not out of the news.
Back in December, after the 2012 firestorm of protest against Chick-fil-A's funding of anti-gay hate, Emory University made brief headlines when its Student Government Association passed a resolution supporting the LGBT community and urging the university to reconsider having Chick-fil-A on campus as one of its vendors. In response, the university had this to say among its "principles and conclusions" on the issue:
Emory University will not ask Sodexo to exclude or retain Chick-fil-A on the basis of Dan Cathy’s public positions.
Members of the community are free to express their opposition to Dan Cathy’s public positions in numerous ways, including not patronizing Chick-fil-A.
To the best of our knowledge, Chick-fil-A does not engage in discriminatory practices against its customers or employees.
Any decision by Sodexo to renew or not renew the contract with Chick-fil-A, or any other vendor, must be part of a dining vision to advance the purposes for which Emory has contracted with Sodexo.
Opposing views must be acknowledged, recognizing that some differences are truly irreconcilable.
Concerned Emory students
vowed to continue to fight, and it looks like
it paid off.
The Emory Wheel broke on Twitter a few days ago that Chick-fil-A will not be returning to campus. Instead, it will have to leave to make way for other establishments as a part of the new food court layout.
There is no word on exactly why Chick-fil-A was booted from campus, but if we take Emory's earlier statement seriously, it's possible that sales went down after the 2012 controversy. Emory's earlier statement did include the following:
Typical brand selection and replacement considerations include, but are not limited to, preferential surveys, strategic planning processes, campus master planning, sales trends, contract requirements, and brand re-imaging.
But we don't know details, at least not yet.
Regardless, this is a major victory for LGBT Emory students (and for all students' arteries).