keane, exactly what vision of this blithering nitwit former bagman of a mayor are you talking about? theres a big diff between standing on principle and out and out pandering which is what this gasbag is all about. this ain't a matter of NO GUTS NO GLORY as rather a matter of simply NO GUTS which stand right besides NO VISION, NO ACCOUNTABILITY, NO RESPONSIBILITY, NO LEADERSHIP which all add up to how ya spell MENINO. all the above and we ain't even broached the facts about his playing politics and meddling for close to 20 years with the boston public school system which is gonna cost the young people, their families and residents of this formerly proud and once great city PLENTY. keane, your nore than entitled to write whatever ya want but as the globes great dan shaughnessy gave the city, the state and the world RED SOX NATION,this tyrannical wit(dim, nit and half)of a mayor gave this city STAGNATION. ma

If Menino doesn't agree with your views, your out... he is nothing but a hypocrite, typical liberal. Seems he didn't feel this way about the Mosque...

Menino is missing the irony here. He is wants to highlight the INCLUSIVENESS of the city by EXCLUDING a business who has a different view than he. He is trying to put a religious litmus test on a privately owned business. Cathy has never discriminated against anyone in the people who work for his company or the people it serves. Cathy was just answering a question about his own beliefs. God help him, as he has been attacked by the radical, left wing, thought police.

Their food is neither local nor special and they won't open on Sunday. Not a great choice for a city that wants tourists. Still, the law won't stop them, but I like the Mayor for trying to.

We get it: you don't like Mayor Menino, but brother, you are boring.

The fact that you think the issues are even comparable pretty much says it all.

Diversionary tactics were used by that brilliant WWII General, George Patton. The "Chitty" of Boston is a mere smudge pot on the national political scene. While the shells fall exploding in the faces of America's unemployed and gasoline prices increase 85% since 2008 since guess who was elected, we are entertained by talk of homosexual marriage and chicken sandwiches. Truth be told, like today's Red Sox, the liberal Washington team is in last place in the American League. True, America's survival is not a baseball game. It is, however, a battlefield. The "Maya's" linguistic awkwardness belies his political sense that Boston's outrage against Chick-fil-A will divert the wrath of the poor and enrich his political pot of gold at the end of his all inclusive rainbow.

I don't get the impression that you actually read the piece, or if you did, you don't seem to have understood its point. In any case, it's a local matter that Bostonians can respond to as they see fit. For my part, the Cathy family can practice their religion and do anything they want with their profits as long as its legal, but I'm glad the mayor illuminated their POLITICAL agenda, because I will not support any business that funnels its proceeds into activism aimed at removing basic human rights from my gay friends and neighbors. Thats my right.

As a proud son of Boston, I take exception to your slur on my city and its unique accent. As all Bostonians know, we come from the Hub of the Universe. But coming from an outside "commentator" who proudly identifies with the most reactionary "news" operation in history, I shouldn't expect anything better. "Well I love that dirty water Oh, Boston you're my home"

Cathy has to decide whether he is in the sandwich business or politics. If I patronize his restaurant,(which is not going to happen now) I don't want to feel like I'm making some sort of political statement.

Cathy has to decide whether he's selling sandwiches or engaging in politics. I don't want to feel like I'm making a political statement if I patronize his business(which I won't now.)

"Chikins" are only political in Boston and Chicago , but, you should really try their lemon pie! The rest of the country just enjoys good food, free speech, religious freedom. Feel free not to make a political statement by eating "chikin", but doesn't America still allow Christians to express their opinions and still earn a living?

While I agree with Mayor Menino's sentiment, I believe that Chick-fil-A, along with any other anti-gay business should be allowed to set up shop anywhere they want. Let the will of would-be customers determine its success. I for one, will now not ever patronize this sandwich shop, just as I won't give my business to the Hyatt in Boston, or Wal-Mart, because of the corporate positions on social issues. On another note, I love these religious zealots and their reliance on the bible to justify their hatred towards gays...yet they seem to ignore other tenets of the Bible, such as adultery, premarital sex, etc. I wonder if Chick-fil-A requires prospective employees to take a morality test and an oath of purity. "Prolly not".

I don't think it's particularly good politics to blatantly threaten to block them opening on the basis of what the COO said, which would be a clear violation of the First Amendment. Menino could have grandstanded while staying short of that. Let them open and let them get protested, if that's what happens. Speech vs. speech.

Amen!!!-go Menino. Chick-fil-a has a legal right to open but to associate Christianity with fast food and "Stewardship"? is proposterous. By no stretch of the imagination can the fast food industry be considered stewards of the animals,the environment or of the human body,certainly not of Jesus' precepts. Actually,there are much better sandwich places in Boston Incidently,Christianity has no monopoly on virtue to begin with but to sell products with the "we are virtuous" branding is beyond the pale.

I travel the length and breadth on this great nation for business, the big cities and the boonies, meeting with a wide swath of our economy, and the fact is, many see the world differently than we in New England. // Despite what you feel, America, as envisioned since it's inception, is not a "Battlfield", it is a conversation, and it is not represented any single version of events. It is a place where each is entitled to their views, and no one can impose their beliefs on anyone else. Those values are enshrined in our Constitution. You may be angry and bitter about it, but we in Boston are proud that your right to be what you are (even pathetic)is something we have fought for since 1775. Too bad many others in America don't understand that's what being an American really means.

Tom, I'll skip what you call "legal niceties" (i.e., the Constitution) and go straight to this: Truett did not invent the chicken sandwich. There have been chicken sandwiches as long as there has been bread and chicken.