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Menino v. Chick-fil-A

Carol Rose,
Executive Director,
老澳门开奖结果 of Massachusetts
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July 27, 2012

Originally posted on 鈥檚 .

Nothing else explains the Mayor鈥檚 decision to issue a and 鈥渦rging鈥 the homophobic fried-food honcho to 鈥渂ack out of your plans to locate in Boston.鈥

鈥淭here is no place for discrimination on Boston鈥檚 Freedom Trial and no place for your company alongside it,鈥 the Mayor wrote.

鈥淲e are indeed full of pride for our support of same sex marriage and our work to expand freedom to all people,鈥 he added. 鈥淲e are proud that our state and our city have led the way for the country on equal marriage rights.鈥

Huzzah!

But, you may ask, what about Dan Cathy鈥檚 rights?

Everybody has a right to spout off about same-sex marriage and equal rights. Mr. Cathy and those who share his views can have their shout, even if their views are bigoted. Likewise, the Mayor and others who reject Mr. Cathy鈥檚 backwards views on marriage equality have a right publicly to denounce prejudice. That鈥檚 the American way.

Of course, there are limits. Chick-fil-A and other restaurants must abide by Massachusetts nondiscrimination laws in employment and public accommodations. Similarly, government officials who engage in state action 鈥 such as refusing a permit 鈥 based on viewpoint discrimination are subject to strict scrutiny by the Courts for potentially violating the First Amendment.

Looks like that鈥檚 what happened in Chicago, where a local alderman threatened to use his 鈥渁ldermanic privilege鈥 to actually deny Chick-fil-A a building permit. There, Mr. Cathy may have a pretty strong claim under the First Amendment that he is a victim of viewpoint discrimination by a government official.

But here in Boston, the facts as reported suggest this is little more than a war of words 鈥 which is protected by the First Amendment as core speech.

Personally, I think this whole spat may be good for equal marriage rights in the long run. Did you see that politicians Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee are now trying to rally all homophobes to eat at Chick-fil-A?

I鈥檓 thrilled. In fact, I encourage all bigots to load up on transfats and carbohydrates. Go ahead 鈥 eat your heart out on the 鈥! Mmmm.

Given that polls consistently show that support for equality under the law grows stronger with each new generation of Americans, this might just might be turn out to be a happy meal for defenders of equality after all.

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