A member of the Denver city council said he received violent and racist threats after voting to delay the approval of new Chick-fil-A franchisee at the Denver International Airport.
Councilman Paul D. López is part of a group of lawmakers who recently voted to delay consideration of Chick-fil-A’s proposed Denver Airport lease for two weeks, citing opposition to the popular chicken chain’s former charitable contributions to anti-gay groups. However, López also said the main reason the contract was delayed was because Chick-fil-A — a company run by staunch Christians — is not open on Sundays, which could present problems for an airport location. (Sunday closures have also become an issue at other airport locations.)
Still, López and others did voice concern with Chick-fil-A’s previous charitable giving, and its current stance against same-sex marriage, when the vote to delay was taken. And those comments — followed by what he called “misleading” stories from some Christian and conservative websites — have garnered him some serious email backlash.
He posted a few of the milder ones on Facebook:
Posted by Councilman Paul D. López, City & County of Denver District 3 on Tuesday, August 25, 2015
“They say, ‘You are attacking Christian people, and you’re anti-Christian,’” López, who is Catholic, told ThinkProgress. “They say, ‘It’s the Bible that you have to obey.’ And then they go on using expletives, and threatening violence.” López said he and his staff were taking violent threats seriously and that “authorities have been notified.”
López said he began receiving hateful messages after some media outlets falsely portrayed that the Denver council had actually voted to block the Chick-fil-A for its religious stance against same-sex marriage. The New York Daily News’ story says Denver “blocked” the franchise and the conservative Daily Signal declared the Denver council’s decision a “war on Chick-fil-A.” The Christian website World Magazine said that the council was “discriminat[ing] against Chick-fil-A over CEO’s marriage beliefs.”
Those headlines, López believes, sparked emails like this one:
Posted by Councilman Paul D. López, City & County of Denver District 3 on Tuesday, August 25, 2015
López stressed that the contract hadn’t actually been voted on, and that in reality, he and his colleagues mainly delayed the contract vote because of the company’s six-day work week, which is not currently allowed under airport requirements. But López also readily admitted that he wanted to raise the issue of the company’s stance against marriage equality, due to the high number of LGBT taxpayers in Denver.
“It is [Chick-fil-A’s] First Amendment right to say whatever they want to say [about same-sex marriage]. And we’re not going to deny a contract based on that,” he said. “But our criticism and discussion is a First Amendment right, too. When there are headlines saying we’re denying or persecuting a company because it’s Christian, that’s false.”
“They want to do business with a public entity that includes members of the LGBT community,” he continued. “And although it does bother me that this billion dollar corporation has actively and financially opposed the community and undermined the community’s equal rights, that’s not the basis for questioning the [contract] itself.”
Compared to other cities, Denver is particularly gay-friendly. Last year, The Human Rights Campaign gave the city a near-perfect score on its laws and policies related to the LGBT community.
Because of that, López said most of the in-state responses he has been getting have been positive. The vitriolic, sometimes violent comments have been anonymous and mostly out-of-state, he said.
The intense backlash, however, will likely be unwarranted in the end. Since the council voted to delay Chick-fil-A’s lease on Tuesday, López said he had heard the airport would grant the company a waiver from its usual policy requiring businesses be open seven days a week. Because of that, he said the contract will probably soon be approved.
“At the end of the day, Chick-fil-A will probably be in [Denver International Airport],” he said.