New York City has declared war on purveyors of delicious fried chicken (served with a side of waffle fries and deep-fried homophobic hate rings), Chick-fil-A.
The Georgia-headquartered chicken chain has announced that it will be opening its third New York City restaurant in Queens Center Mall, and this week NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio made it clear that while Chick-fil-A has "a legal right" to open in the city, it wasn't necessarily welcome.
"What the ownership of Chick-fil-A has said is wrong," said De Blasio. "I'm certainly not going to patronize them and I wouldn't urge any other New Yorker to patronize them."
What "Chick-fil-A has said" is a reference to various on-the-nose statements made by company big wigs, as well as where the company has been putting its money (millions of it into the anti same-sex marriage movement).
For a sample of how Chick-fil-A top brass feels about the issue, see CEO Dan T. Cathy, who in 2012 declared that same-sex marriage advocates were "inviting God's judgment on our nation."
Repeat after me: Ass—hole. But we digress.
De Blasio is not the only New York leader to speak out against Chick-fil-A; Councilman Daniel Dromm said the chain was spreading a "message of hate" across the country.
And New York is not the only city to say "aw hell no" to the quickly swelling chicken chain. Around the time that Cathy made his most inflammatory statements, the mayors of Boston, San Francisco and Chicago responded with some sweet slap-backs.
Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel was perhaps the most direct in his criticism: "Chick-fil-A values are not Chicago values," the mayor said in a statement supporting a local alderman blocking the chain building a second store in the city.
As critics of De Blasio have noted, a company can spend its money how it wants—opening up where it wants, investing in whatever causes it wants—and its leaders can say what they want. But equally, people and politicians have a right to make a stand.
We won't make one here. It's not our place. But here's a list of all the best fried chicken restaurants we think you should go to in New York. Did we miss anyone?