Burrito purveyor Chipotle has backed out of its sponsorship of a planned Boy Scouts of America fundraising event in Utah over the group’s longstanding though controversial ban on gay Scouts and leaders.
The Tex-Mex franchise got some serious flack after it was announced that Chipotle would supply food for the Utah Scout-O-Rama, which seemed in direct violation of its own non-discrimination policy.
That policy explicitly states that “Chipotle will not support organizations that discriminate against a person or a group on the basis of age, political affiliation, race, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual orientation or religious belief.”
The chain initially stood behind its decision to sponsor the event, while acknowledging that it was “not consistent with our own values.” Then on Tuesday Chipotle did an about-face, telling ThinkProgress:
We believed that terminating the sponsorship and remaining consistent with our policy was the right thing to do, and we have reinforced our policy with the team that makes these decisions to try to prevent similar issues in the future.
Chipotle is just the latest casualty for the Scouts after Train and Carly Rae Jepsen both backed out of performing at an event this summer. The BSA is currently in the process of reviewing a possible repeal of its gay ban, but until then, at least there’s Chick-fil-A.
Cam
No, what happened was that the stores in Utah in heavily Mormon areas were pushing the company to let them sponsor it. Then the company started getting flak nationwide and realized that they were in danger of becoming the next “Chik Fil Et” and decided to pull the sponsorship.
hyhybt
I’m not even sure they have Chick-fil-A in Utah. And in those foil wrappers, the sandwiches would get nasty if transported too far.