Mayor Bill de Blasio Hopes New Yorkers Avoid Chick-fil-A

Southern fried chain Chick-fil-A arrived in New York with a bang last fall, and now the company plans to insert new locations all over the city. Both Midtown outposts are packed every day during lunch, but you won't find Mayor de Blasio there. At a press conference yesterday, de Blasio told reporters: "What the ownership of Chick-fil-A has said is wrong....I’m certainly not going to patronize them and I wouldn’t urge any other New Yorker to patronize them. But they do have a legal right."

The mayor is referring to Chick-fil-A president and COO Dan Cathy, who has been very vocal about his opposition to same-sex marriage, and the fact that in the past, a charitable endeavor affiliated with the restaurant donated millions to groups that aimed to thwart LGBT rights initiatives. When Chick-fil-A landed in New York last year, the company made it very clear that it did "not have an opinion as an organization" about same-sex marriage, even though the chain's head honcho has many opinions on the subject. LGBT rights activists and born-again Christians showed up on opening day to duke it out in front of the restaurant.

The chain recently announced plans to open an outpost in the Queens Center Mall, which prompted Councilman Danny Dromm to call for a boycott. The politician released a statement this week that notes: "This group imparts a strong anti-LGBT message by forcing their employees and volunteers to adhere to a policy that prohibits same-sex love. It is outrageous that Chick-fil-A is quietly spreading its message of hate by funding these types of organizations."

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