The mayors of Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. have all expressed they don’t want Chick-Fil-A to expand in their cities.  There’s not many of those restaurants in those cities as the chicken place is more of a Southern thing.

Though the mayors said their cities are progressive and Chick-Fil-A’s discriminatory outlook doesn’t represent their cities, none of the mayors have threatened to keep Chick-Fil-A out.  Not at all.  They can’t.  One Alderman in Chicago said he would use the government to deny them a business license, but that guy must be stupid.

Here’s the rub:  I don’t care if the owner of Chick-Fil-A is against gay marriage.  I have friends who are against gay marriage.  I’ll sit down and eat with them and even buy them a drink.  I don’t care about different opinions.  I do care that the guy gives money to an organization that equates homosexuality with pedophilia and they work to deny equal rights to a segment of our population.  I will not be eating at Chick-Fil-A because of actions, not his opinion.

That said, he has every right to run a business.  You have to tolerate other viewpoints.  You can’t run someone out of town because he’s a Republican, Democrat, pro-choice, NRA member, pro gay marriage and listens to too much Steely Dan.  If there’s no record of the company discriminating in hiring, promoting or serving, then there’s nothing to prevent them from operating a business.

I like freedom of speech as much as I like equal rights.  I support them evenwhen they don’t benefit my viewpoint.