Top Mitt Romney surrogate and potential vice presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty came to Chick-fil-A’s defense during a Romney campaign event in Cary, North Carolina on Saturday, bragging to a small group of supporters that he ate lunch at the fast-food franchise, which refuses to offer any employment protections to LGBT employees and has donated millions of dollars to ex-gay ministries.

Activists and lawmakers from across the country are protesting the company after its president condemned homosexuality in a recent radio interview. Conservatives have responded to the backlash by holding “Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day” in support of the company. From the event:

Pawlenty has a complicated history on gay rights. In 1993, he Pawlenty voted to extend protection to gays and lesbians under the state Human Rights Act, effectively banning discrimination in housing and employment based on sexual orientation as well as race, religion, ethnicity and physical or mental disability, but later seemed to regret his vote. In July of 2011, Pawlenty claimed that the science is still “in dispute” over whether people are born gay.

Romney has previously said that he supports equal rights in employment, although he has publicly backed away from a federal law that would prohibit businesses from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Sarah Palin is joining a who’s-who of conservative activists — Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Rev. Billy Graham, The Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America — in supporting Chick-fil-A, the fast food chain that has donated millions of dollars to anti-gay organizations, including “reparative therapy” groups like Exodus International.

“Stopped by Chick-fil-A in The Woodlands to support a great business,” the former Alaska governor tweeted on Friday night and posted a picture of her and husband Todd giving a thumbs up to the restaurant:

Chick-fil-A is one of a very small number of major national companies that refuses to offer any employment protections to LGBT employees. In fact, the company received a 0 rating from the Human Rights Campaign and has a record of firing employees it believes engage in “sinful” behavior. Activists from across the country are protesting the company after its president condemned homosexuality in a recent radio interview.

The Palins, meanwhile, have long been accused of being hostile to gay and lesbian equality. During a recent episode of Bristol Palin’s Lifetime Show, Life’s a Tripp, her young son used the epithet “faggot” to deride his aunt. Asked about the incident in Los Angeles recently, Palin grew visibly upset and proclaimed, “I like gays. I’m not homphobic and I’m so sick of people saying that just becuase I’m for traditional marriage,” she said. Her parents’ very public enthusiasm for a company that donates millions to groups that try to “cure” people of being gay, however, may undermine her claim.

(HT: The New Civil Rights Movement)