About a month ago, That Gay Group President Steven Haneveld heard about a petition circulating around campus to rid Wichita State of its Chick-fil-A restaurant.

Although he did not see the petition himself, he heard that it listed the LBGT (Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender) group on campus as supporting the petition. With TGG being the only LBGT organization on campus, this was not the case.

It was mid-July when news outlets nationwide broke the story of Chick-fil-A’s stance on gay marriage after President Dan Cathy released a public statement against the issue.

Since then, students on campus have voiced their opinions for or against having the restaurant in the Rhatigan Student Center. Now, Haneveld is coming forward to take That Gay Group’s name off the petition.

“I don’t care if members within the group are part of the petition, but those members do not speak for TGG as a whole,” Haneveld said.

If TGG were to start or support a petition like the one that has been circulating, Haneveld said it would be brought up during a meeting, discussed, and put to a vote. Because no formal action was taken to put this petition to action, Haneveld wants it to no longer claim that the LBGT campus group supports it.

“From what I’m hearing, we’re being viewed in a negative light,” Haneveld said. “We’re going to have TGG stay back from that. Obviously, yes, we don’t like the stances that Chick-fil-A has put out there. However, they have not portrayed any discrimination against us individually or to the group.”

Until the campus’s restaurant shows TGG and LBGT students any sort of discrimination, Haneveld feels that any action to get rid of Chick-fil-A is not necessary. He does, however, encourage students to contact him by email ([email protected]) if any issues like this do come up.

“I do ask that whoever it is stand up for themselves and don’t volunteer other groups for them,” Haneveld said. “I’m sure that person had good intentions, however, they should have spoken to myself … and the team before putting ‘LBGT group’ on the petition.”