LGBTQ organization protests bowl game

http://www.cavalierdaily.com/2012/01/19/lgbtq-organization-protests-bowl-game/

Gay rights groups express concern about team’s participation in Chick-fil-A-sponsored event
By Sara Guaglione, Associate Editor on January 19, 2012


The Serpentine Society, the LGBTQ alumni organization at the University, sent an open letter to President Teresa A. Sullivan Dec. 30 to express dismay with the Virginia football team’s decision to participate in the Chick-fil-A Bowl the next day. The group maintains that the fast food chain supports anti-LGBTQ organizations.

Sean Kennedy, co-chair of The Serpentine Society and author of the letter, wrote that he understood that a bowl invitation is “hard to turn down,” and asked the University to make a donation to LGBTQ studies at the University.

In an interview, Kennedy said the group was frustrated with Chick-fil-A’s highly visibile anti-LGBTQ agenda in mainstream media.

In the letter, Kennedy referenced a January 2011 article in The New York Times which indicated that the company’s operators, its WinShape Foundation and its founding family have given “millions of dollars” to a “variety of causes and programs,” including “groups working to defeat same-sex marriage initiatives.”