Boston Mayor Sharp Letter To Chick fil-a Dan Cathy
In a sharply worded letter that has gone viral, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino chided Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy for his “prejudiced statements” against same-sex marriage and said that having a branch of the fast food chain across from City Hall “would be an insult.”
“I was angry to learn on the heels of your prejudiced statements about your search for a site to locate in Boston,” the letter reads. “There is no place for discrimination on Boston’s Freedom Trail and no place for your company alongside it.”
“I was angry to learn on the heels of your prejudiced statements about your search for a site to locate in Boston,” the letter reads. “There is no place for discrimination on Boston’s Freedom Trail and no place for your company alongside it.”
The letter, which was posted on the Boston community page on Facebook Wednesday afternoon, had nearly 60,000 likes, more than 20,000 shares and some 4,500 comments just before 5:30 p.m.
Menino first expressed his opposition to the restaurant last Thursday, when The Boston Herald reported that Chick-fil-A was scouting locations including across from City Hall and in Faneuil Hall — both along the Freedom Trail. (The letter was dated Friday, but only went viral on Wednesday.)
Cathy has been under fire ever since telling Baptist Press that Chick-fil-A is “guilty as charged” in support of “the biblical definition of the family unit,” and later saying on the “The Ken Coleman Show” that he prays “God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about.”
“We are indeed full of pride,” Menino wrote in his letter, “for our support of same sex marriage and our work to expand freedom to all people. We are proud that our state and our city have led the way for the country on equal marriage rights.”
“When Massachusetts became the first state in the country to recognize equal marriage rights, I personally stood on City Hall Plaza to greet same sex couples coming her to be married,” he added. “It would be an insult to them and to our city’s long history of expanding freedom to have a Chick-fil-A across the street from that spot.”
The reaction on Facebook was predictably mixed.
“This man is abusing his public office in order to force his personal opinion on an entire populace,” Cody Crawford wrote in the comments.
“Just because the mayor is promoting equality doesn’t mean it’s any less important. I say GOOD JOB for him,” Amanda Pedevillano said.
Meanwhile in Atlanta:
The Baptist family that owns Chick-fil-A, a fast-food chain based in Atlanta, has for years given millions of dollars to organizations fighting same-sex marriage and supporting heterosexual ones.
Small protests against its position have swelled and receded over the past couple of years, but recently the battle has spilled into the halls of city governments and the presidential campaign. Even the Muppets are involved.
The latest uproar began this month when Dan T. Cathy, whose deeply religious father, S. Truett Cathy, started the company in 1967, told a Christian news organization that Chick-fil-A supported “the biblical definition of the family unit.”
Mr. Cathy, the company’s president and chief operating officer, said later in a radio interview, “As it relates to society in general, I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage.’ “
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