Chick-Fil-A Sued for Gender Discrimination

Former Chick-Fil-A employee Brenda Honeycutt is suing Chick-Fil-A for wrongful termination based on gender discrimination. According to a lawsuit which is circulating today on Twitter, on June 27, 2011, owner and operator of Duluth, GA’s Chick-Fil-A restaurants Jeff Howard terminated Honeycutt, whose employee performance was satisfactory-to-above satisfactory, so that she could be a “stay home mother.”

Honeycutt was terminated by Howard after meetings with restaurant management (during which she was not present), and was replaced by a male employee. The lawsuit cites a pattern of discrimination against female employees, who, after being terminated, were also replaced by male employees in Northern Georgia’s Chick-Fil-A restaurants.

This comes after last week’s statements by Chick-Fil-A’s Chief of Operations, Dan Cathy, in which he openly declared that he does not support marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples – now the company has taken one further step of being out of touch with American values. In light of this statement, a number of individuals and groups have taken action against the company, notably the mayors of Chicago and Boston, a Philadelphia city councilmember, as well as youth from the Orange County, CA-based group Youth for Empowered Action (YETA), who are working with GLAAD. 

Chick-Fil-A's anti-LGBT donations have long been public knowledge. In 2010, the company donated $2 million dollars to anti-LGBT organizations, including Exodus International, the National Christian Foundation, the Family Research Council, and the Marriage and Family Foundation.