American fast-food chain Chick-fil-A is pulling its support for organizations accused of homophobia as its expansion into new markets such as Toronto continues to be met with vociferous protest by LGBTQ groups and allies.

The Atlanta-based company — whose first Toronto shop was mobbed upon opening on Sept. 6 by protestors upset with its history of donating to charities with dubious records on queer and transgender rights and carrying “Cluck Off” signs — announced in a statement Monday that its charitable arm, the Chick-fil-A Foundation, will take “a more focused giving approach” in the future honing in on the areas of education, homelessness and hunger that will “reassess” some of its previous, long-term philanthropic partnerships.

While the Chick-fil-A press release didn’t specifically name any of the partnerships that would be ending, president and CEO Tim Tassopoulos confirmed in an interview with Bisnow that the chain would no longer be providing financial support to the Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the Paul Anderson Youth Home or any of the other organizations it has dealt with in the past that have taken a public stance against homosexuality and/or gay marriage. Instead, Chick-fil-A will boost its support for the educational charity Junior Achievement USA and the youth-homelessness outreach organization Covenant House International, as well as donating $25,000 to a local food bank when a new location opens in any city.

“There’s no question we know that, as we go into new markets, we need to be clear about who we are,” Tassopoulos told the website. “There are lots of articles and newscasts about Chick-fil-A, and we thought we needed to be clear about our message.”

Chick-fil-A has had a bit of a rough ride in the press of late. In addition to the Toronto protest, airports in Buffalo, San Antonio and San Jose all announced earlier this year that they would not be renewing concession contracts with the company. And last month, threats of a boycott forced England’s first Chick-fil-A restaurant to leave a Reading shopping centre once the initial six-month lease was up.

“This decision was made to create more clarity and to better address three critical needs facing children across the communities we serve,” a Chick-fil-A spokesperson told the Star when asked if the decision had anything to do specifically with the protests in Toronto and abroad, deferring further questions to the “Chick-fil-A press room.” Followup emails to the press room were not immediately returned.

Soofia Mahmood of the Toronto LGBTQ support agency The 519 — one of the groups that organized the Sept. 6 protests at the Chick-fil-A at Yonge and Bloor streets — made it clear that while her organization considers this a small victory in the fight for equal rights in the eyes of the Chick-fil-A corporation, there’s still much more positive work that could be done.

“It is not the first time that Chick-fil-A has publicly distanced itself from investing in organizations that are explicitly homophobic and transphobic. In 2013 and again in 2016 Chick-fil-A publicly spoke to its philanthropic strategies claiming it did not support any specific social or political agenda. Despite this claim, the company continued to fund organizations that were explicitly anti-LGBTQ2S,” she said in a statement emailed on behalf of The 519, noting that there was definite value in continued public protest and pressure.

“There appears to be a direct correlation between negative publicity and loss of contracts and Chick-fil-A’s public relations around its charitable giving. It speaks volumes that Chick-fil-A has never spoken in favour of the rights of queer and trans people nor has it changed its internal policies to afford protections to its LGBTQ2S employees and their families.

“Chick-fil-A’s most recent revelation suggests that the pressure of protests and boycotts is having an effect. We need to continue our activism to ensure that changes in its philanthropic practices are followed by changes to its employment practices and an increased effort to demonstrate its commitment to LGBTQ2S human rights. Anything less is unacceptable.”

Chick-fil-A, founded by devout Southern Baptist Truett Cathy in 1946, has long stood behind a strict set of Christian values and still doesn’t open on Sundays. The chain attained international notoriety in 2012 when then president Dan Cathy proclaimed that “the founding fathers would be ashamed of our generation” when the U.S. Supreme Court approved gay marriages and that “those who have the audacity to define what marriage is about” were “inviting God’s judgment on our nation.”

Yet while the chain will continue to keep faith-based organizations in the mix when making charitable donations, Tassopoulos told Bisnow that it will steer clear of organizations that have taken anti-LGBTQ positions.