Publix remains one of the most popular and beloved retail chains in the entire South, despite the fact that the Fortune 100 corporation has been repeatedly accused of mistreating its LGBTQ workers. The chain has been fighting anti-gay accusations for years — and scored a zero rating from Human Rights Campaign on their Equality Index — but instead of working to rid itself of bad PR, the chain keeps finding new ways to upset the community.
This might be due to the fact that the corporation's politics lean to the right in general — its board members donate money to conservatives, the daughter of the company's founder spent a bunch of money trying to keep medical marijuana illegal in Florida, and the chain refuses to sign a pact that would help protect its farmworkers from at-work sexual abuse.
But yet another anti-gay scandal bubbled up this week after workers accused the chain of refusing to provide preventative HIV medicine to gay men. Rather than finally offer some sort of mea culpa, the chain appears to be doubling down on its stance, so here's a full history of Publix's longstanding issues with the gay community.