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NYU students to protest campus Chick-Fil-A for ‘anti-gay’ donations – Metro US

NYU students to protest campus Chick-Fil-A for ‘anti-gay’ donations

A group of NYU students is planning to rally outside the campus’ Chick-Fil-A restaurant Thursday in protest of the chain’s donations to what they call anti-gay organizations.

Freshman Hillary Dworkoski launched a petition on Change.org about a month ago after it was reported that Chick-Fil-A donated almost $2 million in 2009 to organizations like Focus On The Family, Exodus International and the Family Research Council. Critics of those organizations say the groups have anti-gay motives.

“NYU prides itself on being a diverse, open and inclusive campus community. That’s one of the major reasons why I enrolled at NYU as a freshman last fall,” Dworkoski said on the petition website. “Unfortunately, maintaining a contract with an anti-gay vendor like Chick-fil-A undermines what makes this university so great.”

The petition, which has garnered nearly 11,000 signatures, calls on NYU to remove Chick-Fil-A from its campus. For students who are on the fence about supporting the chain’s removal, Dworkoski poses this choice: waffle fries or human rights?

“She wants students to know they have to make that choice and live by those values and not just talk about them,” said Mark Anthony Dingbaum, a campaign manager with Change.org.

On Thursday, supporters of the petition plan to rally outside NYU’s Weinstein Residence Hall, which houses Chick-Fil-A.

Though campaign members admitted they have not been in touch with Chick-Fil-A, a company official did comment about the donations in an recent interview, calling the report about them “folklore.”

“We’re not anti-anybody,” said Chick-Fil-A President Dan Cathy to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Our mission is to create raving fans.”