McDonald's Denies U-Turn on Gay Rights Support

It looks like the American Family Association is again taking credit for a victory it didn't really achieve.

Back in March, the Christian-values lobbying group announced that it had successfully mau-maued Ford into cutting off its marketing efforts targeting the gay community. Ford said it had done no such thing.

Now AFA says it has ended a long-running boycott of McDonald's after the fast-food giant agreed "to no longer support political activity by homosexual activist organizations."

The cessation of the boycott was evidently triggered by the resignation of McDonald's vice president Richard Ellis from the board of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. "McDonald's also said that the company has no plans to renew their membership in NGLCC when it expires in December," claimed the group.

But a McDonald's spokeswoman disputed details of AFA's account. McDonald's, she said, was never a corporate "member" of NGLCC; its relationship with the organization consisted of Ellis's board seat and a sponsorship he arranged. "McDonald's sponsored a table at an event at an NGLCC gala fundraiser," said the spokeswoman. "That's what they're labeling a sponsorship. That was the extent of our involvement."

Ellis stepped down from the NGLCC board, she added, because he recently transferred to a post with McDonald's Canadian operation. "McDonald's has no plan to fill his seat [on the board] because it's not our seat to fill," she said.

As for AFA's claim that McDonald's has pledged to "remain neutral in the culture war regarding homosexual marriage," NGLCC notes for the record that gay marriage isn't even part of its lobbying agenda.

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