On Wednesday, mobs of gay-marriage opponents swarmed Chick-fil-A restaurants around the country to show their support for the company’s anti-gay CEO and also because that was the perfect excuse to gorge themselves on fast-food chicken sandwiches without feeling like a fat-ass. But not in New York, where the state’s only Chick-fil-A, located in NYU’s Weinstein food court is closed for the summer.
The NYU Chick-fil-A hasn’t been immune to the controversy, of course. Christine Quinn recently called on the school to give the chicken-peddlers the boot.
The chicken chain did receive support from one unexpected ally on Friday. Mayor Bloomberg is a noted fast-food foe and proponent of marriage equality, but he defended Chick-fil-A’s right to its political opinions, especially as mayors in Chicago and Boston flirted with the idea of banning the restaurant.
“It isn’t the right thing to do and it isn’t what America stands for,” Bloomberg said on his weekly WOR radio show. “What’s for sure is that government cannot in the United States, in America, under the Constitution, be run where you have a litmus test for the personal views of somebody when they want something in the commercial world.”
Despite the outlet being closed for the summer, the debate will arrive at the NYU Chick-fil-A’s doorstep when gay-rights advocates lock lips there as part of a nationwide kiss-in counter-protest:
“It is just a nice nonviolent demonstration of LGBT love,” said Rome Frost, who is organizing a kiss-in outside of New York City’s only Chick-fil-A location, at New York University. “It’s to show how much support that we do have and how we can solve these kinds of problems in a very nonviolent and romantic way.”
Frost said he expects between 150 and 200 people — both gay and straight — to show up for the New York City kiss-in, which starts at 8 P.M. ET.
In a way, it’s almost better that the Chick-fil-A will be closed. No temptation.
