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Read Menino's Memo To Chick-fil-A On Gay Marriage Stance

Last week, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino told Chick-fil-A it's not welcome in the city, due to the fast food chain's public anti-gay-marriage stance.

Now, the mayor's office has released the letter Menino sent to Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy. In it, the mayor cited Boston's "long history of expanding freedom" in his urging the company to locate elsewhere.

Here's the full text of the memo:

In recent days you said Chick-Fil-A opposes same-sex marriage and said that the generation that supports it has an “arrogant attitude.”

Now — incredibly — your company says you are backing out of the same-sex marriage debate. I urge you to back out of your plans to locate in Boston.

You called supporters of gay marriage “prideful.” Here in Boston, to borrow your own words, we are “guilty as charged.” We are mindful of pride for our support for 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.

I was angry to learn on the heels of your prejudiced statements about your search for a site to locate in Boston. There is no place for discrimination on Boston’s Freedom Trail and no place for your company alongside it. 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 here to be married. 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.


For more on this story, Greg Turner of the Boston Herald spoke to WBUR's Here & Now Wednesday: "Boston Mayor Says No To Chick-fil-A Over Gay Marriage"

This program aired on July 25, 2012. The audio for this program is not available.

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