Ted Cruz Denounces ‘Rabid Attacks’ Against Chick-fil-A After Texas City Bans Anti-Gay Restaurant

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz took to Twitter to defend anti-gay fast food restaurant chain Chick-fil-A, and to denounce what he describes as “rabid attacks” against it. Cruz, whose crusades against same-sex marriage and LGBT civil rights have earned him a spot among the religious right, denounced the City of San Antonio on Friday for banning the purveyor of what he called “delicious sandwiches.”

Citing its “legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior,” the San Antonio City Council on Thursday had banned Chick-fil-A from opening a restaurant in the San Antonio Airport.

That was too much for the Southern Baptist Senator whose father is reportedly his best friend, a top advisor, and a far right anti-gay Protestant preacher.

“The citizens of beautiful San Antonio deserve more delicious sandwiches, and fewer rabid attacks against companies because of their charitable giving to the community. Come on,” Cruz tweeted, pointing to an article about the ban.

For years Chick-fil-A has tried to improve its image after one of its top executives made grotesquely disparaging remarks about same-sex marriage. The privately-held family business has donated millions of dollars to anti-LGBT organizations, and even donated to at least one anti-gay hate group.

In recent years the company has promised it would no longer support hate, but a report out this week shows that to be false.

Chick-fil-A’s charitable giving foundation “gave $1.8 million to discriminatory groups in 2017, despite reportedly claiming it was winding down that practice last year,” ThinkProgress reports, citing “newly released tax filings.”

Conservatives and the religious right have worked hard to whitewash the anti-gay bigotry of Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy, and – as Cruz just did – mischaracterize the company’s support of bigotry and anti-LGBT hate as mere “charitable giving.”

Cathy has said “we support biblical families,” and if you support same-sex marriage you “are inviting God’s judgment on our nation.” He’s also said that we “shake our fist at Him” when we support marriage equality. He also said same-sex marriage is the result of a “deprived” mind and called it “twisted up kind of stuff.”

Through his foundation Cathy supports groups that advocate for harmful “conversion therapy,” depict gay people as pedophiles, want to make “gay behavior” illegal, and even say gay people should be “exported” out of America.

Cruz is no saint when it comes to equality, accusing gay people of waging “jihad” against Christians, whom he called “people of faith who respect the biblical teaching that marriage is the union of one man and one woman.”