Chick-fil-A have confirmed to much excitement that they will be opening their first restaurants in the United Kingdom. The plan was first announced in September 2023 when they reported that they would be expanding beyond the United States with UK operations in 2025, Europe and Aida the following year, and then more locations by 2030.

However, despite the claim that they are the “first U.K. restaurant locations,” the corporation has been notably quiet about that fact that these aren’t actually the first restaurants that they have had in the UK. In 2018, Chick-fil-A opened a stores in Edinburgh and in 2019 they opened locations in Reading and Aviemore. By mid-2020 those restaurants were closed.

Why did Chick-fil-A leave the British shores? That depends on who you ask. Chick-fil-A claimed at the time that the stores (that they don’t mention in their press releases about new restaurants) had always been intended to be “temporary” and that they were “pop-up restaurants.” Even at the time that raised some eyebrows. When the Chick-fil-A restaurants first opened they were met with criticism from the offset because the US-based company had a long history of donating to anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups. The months that the restaurants were open in the UK were filled with protests, boycotts, and petitions for their closures.

While Chick-fil-A claim that it wasn’t the protests that led them to close their UK locations before and take several years to return, they have made some changes. In 2019, Chick-fil-A made a statement that they would no longer be donating to anti-LGBTQ+ organizations, including the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). This was a big change from their 2018 donations which saw $1.65 million go to the FCA. This was met with skepticism from some, because they said a very similar thing back in 2012 before then being revealed to still be donating to hate groups. To their credit, it seems that since 2019 Chick-fil-A as a company has ceased donating to anti-LGBTQ+ groups.

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Sadly, that’s all misdirection and sleight of hand. While the company itself has ceased that funding, purchases at the restaurant chain will still see your money be funneled towards hate groups. Chick-fil-A’s chairman, Dan Cathy is active in the political landscape and donates heavily to the National Christian Foundation (NCF). The group is behind pushes to stop the Equality Act from passing, ban trans youth from competing in sports or receiving healthcare, and funds the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and Heritage Foundation, both organization which work hard to take away LGBTQ+ rights.

Last year, Chick-fil-A claimed to be making big diversity, equity and inclusion changes, but there’s no evidence that anything really changed. The people behind Chick-fil-A are going to keep taking your money and using it to fund hate. Now they’re going to do it on a global scale. They’d just like to hide it enough that you will eat your waffle fries and milkshake and not think to hard about where that money goes.

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