USL Championship side Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC announced Saturday that they would discontinue their Chick-Fil-A promotion after originally announcing the partnership with the fast-food chain back on July 14.
The decision came after fans voiced their disapproval with their club aligning themselves with a company that has a documented history of bigotry toward the LGBTQ community.
Props to the Steel Army and the rest of the PRSC supporters who held their club to account for attempting to align themselves with a company in Chick-Fil-A that helps prop up not only hateful, anti-LGBTQ charities, but anti women’s rights and anti-science groups as well like the Family Research Council. In fact, in 2010, the Family Research Council who also advocates against abortion and stem cell research was classified as an anti-LGBT hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center who accuses the FRC of “false claims about the LGBT community based on discredited research and junk science”.
Undeniably these recent developments and the speed at which everything happened further highlights the complicity of other supporters groups out there who choose to sit on their hands and bury their heads in the sand when their own clubs decide to sign on to toxic sponsorship deals.
In essence, it’s never enough to be a non-bigot if you’re truly looking to end discrimination within your community. You must actively be anti-bigotry and take the necessary steps to help end any and all toxic actions that help create unsafe and unwelcoming environments for your friends, neighbors, and family.