San Jose City Council Pledges to Make New Airport Chick-fil-A The ‘Gayest’ in Country

San Jose’s mayor and city council dropped the ball 13 months ago when they approved a new Chick-fil-A as part of the contract for the concessionaire at Mineta San Jose International Airport. Now they’re doing their best to make up for it.

As the SF Business Times reports, the notoriously anti-LGBTQ fast food chain was listed in that contract among the new restaurants that Host International was bringing to Terminal B at the airport, but no alarm bells went off until this week’s agenda item. The item, which appears to have been inspired by openly gay former city councilman turned Santa Clara County supervisor Ken Yeager, recommended that the city mount rainbow and transgender pride flags next to the new Chick-fil-A “as a way to counter the bigotry of Chick-fil-A and to let people know that even though there’s that restaurant there, the city is showing its support for the LGBTQ community.”

As OUT reports, the council is also “advising” this Chick-fil-A branch to hire LGBTQ employees.

The council further voted not to renew the contract for Host unless Chick-fil-A agrees to be open seven days a week like every other restaurant — the Christian-owned chain notoriously stays closed on Sundays.

(Sidebar: Did everyone see the episode of The Good Place where Chidi says, in re: how living morally has become too complicated, “There’s this chicken sandwich that if you eat it, it means you hate gay people. And it’s delicious.”)

“I have to profess a certain amount of apology, I think, to the community,” said Mayor Sam Liccardo at a city council meeting Tuesday. “We knew it was there — I knew it was there — I simply didn’t think enough.”

The council vowed, as part of their resolution, to make this “gayest Chick-fil-A in the country” by way of those flags.