McDonald’s Boycott Over, Christians Try to Supersize Win

AFA Boycott ends with major exec leaving gay board

The American Family Association ended its five-month long boycott of McDonald’s in October after an executive for the fast food behemoth stepped down from the board of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

Robert Ellis, former vice president of U.S. communications for McDonald’s, left the board of the American Gay and Lesbian Business Association when he moved to an executive position with McDonald’s in Canada. The company said it has no plans to replace him on the board, and that his decision to be a board member had been a personal one.

According to AFA, McDonald’s also told the conservative Christian group that it would not renew its soon-to-expire membership in the chamber.
But Jack Daly, global chief communications officer for McDonald’s, said the company is not a member of the chamber, according to the Chicago Tribune. He said that its association had consisted of providing $20,000 to be a corporate sponsor of the chamber’s fundraising gala, and that there were no similar plans for the year ahead.

Although McDonald’s sales remained brisk throughout the term of the boycott, the AFA declared their action a victory.

“The fact of the matter is they’ve done what we’ve asked them to do,” said Tim Wildmon, the group’s president.


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