By Kristin Martin

Chick-fil-A is facing criticism after its company president, Dan Cathy,  commented recently about his support of the traditional form of marriage.

In an interview with the that was published on July 16, Cathy said, “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 give God thanks for that.”

He said, “We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles.”

Following that interview, on July 19 the official Chick-fil-A Facebook page stated the following:

“The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect – regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. We will continue this tradition in the over 1,600 Restaurants run by independent Owner/Operators. Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.”

Now, people from universities around the country, including the University of Florida and New York University, have started petitions online at Change.org  in an attempt to get Chick-fil-A closed on their campuses.

According to the The Boston Globe, the student government at Northeastern University in February voted against plans for a Chick-fil-A opening in its student center after reports that Chick-fil-A supported anti-gay organizations.

Despite the national controversy, Allie Huddleston isn’t getting her feathers too ruffled. She is the co-director of OUTsource, which is an organization on UK’s campus that supports GLBTQA students and campus diversity. She said she’s a vegetarian and hasn’t eaten at Chick-fil-A in a while.

“Once I heard about the restaurant’s anti-marriage equality funding a few months ago, I stopped for good,” she said. “It is a personal decision for me.”

Huddleston said she isn’t planning to organize a group to boycott the Chick-fil-A on campus. She said that legally Chick-fil-A should be allowed to operate on campus and can support anything it desires with its money, but she doesn’t agree with what the company represents.

“Nevertheless, this is a situation that is up to the consumer. If enough students want to remove Chick-fil-A from our campus, it can be done,” she said. “If we can put aside our desire for tasty chicken for the sake of our ideals – for the sake of having no opposition to love in all its beautiful forms – it will be done.”

However, UK spokesman Jay Blanton said that the campus Chick-fil-A is currently under a five-year contract with the university.

“At the conclusion of that contract in 2016 – as other contracts are reviewed upon expiration – a decision will be made about how to move forward,” he said in an e-mail.

When asked if the political stance that a company takes will be considered when the university decides whether or not to develop a contract with a particular business, Blanton said, “I don’t think it would be appropriate to speculate regarding hypothetical situations.”

He said, “Our goal is to make decisions on all contracts with vendors, ultimately, based on what is in the best interests of the university and the students we serve.”

Earlier this year, Hands On Originals, a former UK vendor, was accused of discriminating against the gay community  because it refused to print t-shirts for an event. At that time, its contract with UK had expired and the university was reviewing the case to decide whether to use Hands On Originals in the future. Blanton said UK has not established another contract with the company.

“The university already has two other vendors who supply those services,” he said. “If the university determines that an additional vendor is needed, we will move forward accordingly at that time”

According to a Lexington Herald-Leader report, the University of Louisville is looking to take a little stronger approach.

University of Louisville President Jim Ramsey and Provost Shirley Willihngamz have publicly declared that they will no longer eat at the restaurant in a university statement:

This university has been consistently supportive of our LGBT community, and like them, we find the statement made by Chik-fil-A’s president to be offensive and unnecessary. Those statements violate every stand that we have taken to protect the rights and affirm the value of every person. Those comments explicitly work against the efforts we have made, and will continue to make, to ensure that this is a welcoming and tolerant campus.

We are currently in conversation with our food vendor service, Sodexo, to understand the contractual arrangements Sodexo has with Chik-fil-A as well as the larger implications of any actions. We will inform you of decisions once we have weighed all of the facts and our potential courses of action. But, in the meantime, the president and the provost will not be eating at Chik-fil-A anytime soon.

Huddleston said she is pleased with the support UK shows to the LGBT community overall through the many programs, like OUTsource, offered on campus. She said, however, that the individuals on campus could be more supportive.

“I have witnessed a lot of behavior among students highlighting anti-LGBT beliefs, namely in the form of comments during fiery class discussions. Moreover, my roommate, who is in a distinguished sorority on campus, once told me that while her sorority technically does not discriminate against anyone, if a sister actually came out as gay she would be ostracized,” she said. “In this way, UK is not always a place where people are equally accepted.”