This article was re-posted from the invaluable NYU Local.
The latest in the Chick-fil-A saga is a petition that has surfaced online, written by Gallatin freshman Hillary Dworkoski. In the past we’ve brought you news of the conservative chain, and how to avoid eating their homophobic chicken. Now Dworkoski is hoping to change the Chick-fil-A, housed in Upstein, from an avoided eatery to a nonexistent one.
Hosted by change.org, her petition reads:
While Chick-fil-A denies having an “agenda against anyone,” an investigation by Equality Matters revealed that Chick-fil-A’s charitable arm, WinShape, donated nearly $2 million to anti-gay groups in 2009 alone. That $2 million supported groups such as Focus On The Family, Exodus International, and the Family Research Council. And New York City’s only Chick-fil-A is located in a cafeteria in a New York University dorm. NYU prides itself on being a diverse, open and inclusive campus community. Unfortunately, maintaining a contract with an anti-gay vendor like Chick-fil-A undermines what makes this university so great. While the NYU Student Senators Council recently voted not to remove vendors for political reasons, they did allow that the school could remove vendors that violate human or labor rights. As Secretary Clinton recently announced, “gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.” As such, I respectfully request that NYU remove Chick-fil-A from campus.
Posted on January 20th, the petition has already obtained 758 signatures.
Dworkoski felt compelled to take action because she saw a disconnect between the ideals of NYU and Chick-fil-A.
“The main reason I decided to go to NYU out of the many schools I applied to was because NYU is the only place I felt like I could truly fit in and the student body is incredibly diverse and accepting. This was really important to me in choosing schools and I expected that NYU would be completely accepting of all types of students.
“When I first heard that Chick-fil-A was anti-gay, I was really surprised that it had remained for so long despite the large number of LGBT students at NYU, so I decided to try and do something about it. That’s when I made the petition,” said Dworkoski.
“The reason I chose to do it on change.org is because it allows people from all around the world to sign, and they have. I haven’t created a physical petition, but many other students have been sharing the link on facebook, which has really helped get the word around,” said Dworkoski.
Dworkoski has encountered some frustrations. She said, “Some students disagree merely because they love the food at Chick-fil-A. This has been very hard.”
But Dworkoski is determined. “I hope to gain as many signatures as possible in order to put pressure on the university to remove Chick-fil-A. They need to take responsibility for their actions,” said Dworkoski. She is optimistic that within a few weeks the petition will reach 5,000 signatures.
