Plans For Chick-fil-A In Redwood City Leads To Fight

First Chick-fil-A store in Manhattan, one day before opening for business Oct.2, 2015
Photo credit Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images
REDWOOD CITY — Chick-fil-A's plan to hatch a new location of its fast-food restaurant in Redwood City has run afoul of a San Mateo politician who dislikes the company's anti-LGBTQ politics. 

The Georgia-based chain wants to bring its famous chicken sandwiches to Whipple Road where it would replace a McDonald's restaurant, which means the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors doesn't have much authority to halt its opening. 

But Supervisor David Canepa was shocked about Chick-fil-A's intentions and has vowed to fight back, because of donations made to anti-LGBTQ groups by the company's charitable wing and its opposition to same-sex marriage. 

"In 2012, the CEO had made comments about marriage just being between a man and a woman," Canepa pointed out. "In addition, he's funded organizations that are anti-LGBTQ. The [Chick-fil-A> logo might as well just say we hate LGBTQ people."

Canepa has written a letter to ask CEO Dan Cathy to think again about coming to Redwood City, and he's also planning to stage protests if Chick-fil-A does show up. 

Some Redwood City residents think Canepa is on the right track, but others told KCBS Radio that they expect Chick-fil-A to succeed despite the conservative views of its executives. 

"I would never go into a restaurant that espouses the values they do," Canepa said. 

There was a serious outcry when Chick-fil-A opened up a branch at Mineta San Jose International Airport. In response, officials there tried to make the best of things by turning it into "the gayest Chick-fil-A on Earth."

But Canepa doesn't think that's necessarily the right approach.  

"You can't put lipstick on a pig and make that pig look beautiful," he said. 

For its part, Chick-fil-A insists it always tries to be a good neighbor.