The company gave $1.8 million to anti-LGBTQ groups in 2017, according to its most recent tax filings.

Uh oh, openly gay candidate for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination has waded into the great Christian chicken debate…

South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg has been gaining momentum out on the campaign trail, but he might have just picked the wrong fast food hill to die on, saying he is not in favor of boycotting Chick-fil-A, despite their practice of giving donations to anti-LGBTQ organizations.

John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

The candidate appeared on BuzzFeed News’ AM to DM where he took on a number of topics, including answering to his comment on The Breakfast Club that he was opposed to Chick-fil-A’s politics, but not necessarily their chicken, and suggesting perhaps he could broker peace between the two sides.

“I just want to make sure we don’t overrate ourselves in terms of our ability to be pure in this regard,” Buttigieg told AM to DM Wednesday.

“If you’re turned off, as I am, by the political behavior of Chick-fil-A, or their executives, if that leaves a bad taste in your mouth, so to speak, and you decide not to shop there, I’d certainly get it and I’d support that. But the reality is, we, I think, sometimes slip into a sort of virtue signaling in some cases where we’re not really being consistent.”

“I mean, what about all the other places we get our chicken from?” he continued. “Do we know; have we scrutinized the political contributions of the executives of other places that we get all of our food from?”

“I just want to make sure that we’re not too sanctimonious about this, because sometimes we put ourselves in this position of judgment that doesn’t really hold up under scrutiny,” he added. “My belief is that we should primarily deal with political issues in the political arena. And when somebody’s doing something wrong, for example, on LGBT rights in the political space, confront them, defeat them, and bring about a better policy.”

Full interview: 2020 presidential candidate @PeteButtigieg talks with #AM2DM about Mike Pence, LGBTQ issues, Chick-fil-A, his subpar gaydar, and more https://t.co/bLFGjMK43q — AM2DM by BuzzFeed News (@AM2DM) March 27, 2019

According to the most recent tax filings from the company, Chick-fil-A gave $1.8 million in 2017 to three groups with anti-LGBTQ records, despite previously claiming they would cease all such donations going forward.