Grace Slick LGBT

Grace Slick Uses Cash from Chick-fil-A Licensing Deal to Donate to LGBT Causes

Grace Slick LGBT

Starship singer donates ad money to LGBT group after Chick-fil-A licenses her song.

Grace Slick, the voice behind the groups Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship came out to reveal that she allowed a fast food chain to use her music in an advertisement and used the payment to aid in causes which the food chain management is opposed. This information came to light in a Forbes op-ed written by Slick.

Grace Slick Uses Cash from Chick-fil-A Licensing Deal to Donate to LGBT Causes[/tweetthis]

“Chick-fil-A pisses me off. The Georgia-based company has a well-documented history of funding organizations that are against … gay marriage," she wrote. "I firmly believe that men should be able to marry men and women women. I am passionately against anyone who would try to suppress this basic human right. So my first thought when ‘Chick-fil-A’ came to me was, ‘F**k no’ but then I decided, ‘F**k yes,’” she further commented.

The singer went on to criticize Chick-fil-A’s Christian philanthropic foundation, WinShape, and its CEO, Dan T. Cathy, who have for years been against gay rights supporters. The organization had previously claimed gay rights supporters do not have the audacity to define marriage and the LGBTQ community was inviting God's judgment upon the nation. Speaking in a television interview, Dan Cathy was quick to state his belief, "I think we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage.’” He went on to say his beliefs extended to the company. “We are very much supportive of the family – the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen families. We are very much committed to that,” he added.

“Admittedly it is not the millions that WinShape has given to organizations that define marriage as heterosexual,” Slick commented. “But instead of them replacing my song with someone else's and losing this opportunity to strike back at anti-LGBTQ forces, I decided to spend the cash in direct opposition to Chick-fil-A’s causes and to make a public example of them too. We are going to take some of their money, and pay it back,” she added.

The songbird said she hoped her gesture would "set an example" to other people in the industry when it came to licensing their songs and other pieces of work for use by companies whose social and political stances they don't agree. "We can use our gifts to help stop the forces of bigotry. I come from a time when artists didn't just sell their soul to the highest bidder, when musicians took a stand, when the message of songs was ‘feed your head’ not ‘feed your wallet,’” she remarked.

Grace reportedly donated all the money she received from the advert to Lambda Legal, a civil rights organization that offers legal help to LGBTQ people and those who are living with HIV/AIDS.

Resources

Follow the Conversation on Twitter