Mayor Vince Gray Opposes Chick-fil-A's 'Hate Chicken' But Won't Ban It

On Friday afternoon, Mayor Vince Gray joined American mayors from Boston to San Francisco who have denounced Chick-fil-A yet probably cannot — and, in Gray's case, will not — legally do anything about keeping it out of their cities. Amid the backlash that has erupted nationwide in recent weeks, including a protest at DC's Chick-fil-A food truck last week, Gray tweeted on Friday: "Given my longstanding strong support for LGBT rights & marriage equality, I would not support #hatechicken."

That said, the mayor's spokesman Pedro Ribeiro tells the Examiner that while Gray disagrees with Chick-fil-A's anti-gay politics, the DC government "cannot legally go out of our way to deny them a permit" and therefore will not try to derail any potential future Chick-fil-A locations. That said, Ribeiro added, "We're certainly not going to go out of our way to help them." The mayor then spent much of the weekend on Twitter arguing with Chick-fil-A fans, telling one that "This is about more than their CEO's personal opinions. They also give hundreds of thousands of dollars to anti-gay groups."

· @MayorVinceGray [Twitter]
· Gray won't back Chick-fil-A in D.C. [The Examiner]
· All Previous Chick-fil-A Coverage [-EDC-]