As the controversy surrounding Chick-fil-A continues to swirl on Elon University’s campus, Shane Windmeyer, the executive director of Campus Pride, an LGBTQ advocacy group in Charlotte, recently developed a friendship with Chick-fil-A COO Dan Cathy.
Chick-fil-A’s past donations to several anti-gay organizations, including Exodus International and Focus on the Family, have incensed many members of the LGBTQ community. Last semester, Spectrum, Elon’s queer-straight alliance, argued Chick-fil-A does not align with the university’s non-discrimination policy and asked its administration to consider partnering with a different vendor. The matter is now under consideration by a vendor policy study committee appointed for the occasion.
Windmeyer published an op-ed piece detailing his “coming out” as Cathy’s friend in the Huffington Post last month. The announcement followed the Sept. 2012 suspension of Campus Pride’s “5 Simple Facts about Chick-fil-A” campaign, which sought to raise public awareness about the supposedly anti-gay groups Chik-fil-A was donating to at the time.
The campaign will remain suspended while he and Cathy discuss their respective perceptions of the LGBTQ community. Windmeyer rebuffed the idea that he and Campus Pride support the values of Chick-fil-A.
“Everyone seems to think that it’s for supporting Dan Cathy or endorsing Chick-fil-A,” he said. “The article acknowledges that two sides have come together and sat down and developed common ground.”
Despite the progression of the conversation, Windmeyer said the question of whether Chick-fil-A should remain at Elon and other universities is a choice for each institution to make of its own accord.
“We have always said that this is a campus decision that should be informed by the LGBT students and their perception,” he said.
Senior Lauren Clapp, an advocacy and education chair for Spectrum, said Chick-fil-A’s presence on campus has become a matter of student safety. She cited several incidents of homophobic speech and intimidating activity reported this year. Chick-fil-A shares a portion of the blame, Clapp said.
“When it’s an issue of student well-being and safety, I think that it becomes a responsibility of the university,” she said. “I think that Chick-fil-A became a symbol on campus of anti-LGBTQ feelings.”
Windmeyer said the Chick-fil-A and campus safety issue is a reflection of campus values and culture. As a whole, Elon has expressed a commitment to diversity, he said, which influences how the issue is perceived in the community.
“I think that if Elon is going to go in the direction it says it’s going in terms of valuing diversity, then maybe this is an unpopular decision, but it’s a way to demonstrate that they stand by what they say,” he said.
Windmeyer reiterated that while he has formed a personal relationship with Cathy, the two are still deeply divided on many LGBTQIA issues, but that hasn’t stopped them from being able to sit down and talk.
“Because we have worked so closely on this controversy doesn’t mean we agree on everything,” he said. “It does mean is that when there’s an issue or a problem, Dan knows there is someone he can call to tell him exactly what it means to be LGBTQ.”