thats all this blithering nitwit bagman mayor does is PANDER.it's not about his beliefs about any and all subjects as the only belief this embarrassment has is of keeping his squalid oversized butt in office and to accomplish this he has made a combo of pandering and silence an art for unequalled by very few if any. it's got nothing to do with the people as it's everything to do with the voters and the special interests.ma

This column was a reasonable piece until the last paragraph, when Barro declared that Dan Cathy was a "bully". So much for a left wing piece that is reasonable. I do not know Mr. Cathy, and I doubt that Barro does either. But I do know that his restaurants are fun, clean, and hospitable. I also know that Cathy has never sought to bring attention to his views. He simply walks the walk as a devout Christian. He does NOT force his views on anyone, and his restaurants welcome all without exception. The real bullies in this story are the extreme mayors, who cannot tolerate disagreement with them. It is sad that an otherwise good column would end with such a gratuitous, and snarky remark.

Dan Cathy believes in traditional marriage of "one man and one woman" He is not anti gay! There is a difference you know. Anyone, strait or gay who has a religious affiliation knows that is the definition of a marriage. And this will not change just because you want it to.

Since menino has threatened to use government to impose lifestyle decision on the public I we think can do the same for him. We oppose his dietary habits. He is overweight and not an good example of how to live ones' life and bad as an example to our city's youth on healthy lifestyle. Let's see he is true to true to his cause and remove himself from office.

Observers from outer space might conclude that married homosexuals are neither happy nor gay. Passing laws to forbid dissing our unhappy friends whose rights need promotion is like forcing people to like big noses or small feet. It may be a little like passing a law forcing all right handed people to buy left handed golf clubs. We don't want those "lefties" feeling unnatural. I'd rather watch another TV commercial than read about our unhappy friends whose rights are as fragile as my 100,000 mile tires. Perhaps "The Maya" should pass a city ordinance requiring all homosexual marriage applicants purchase warranty insurance to guarantee their fragile rights won't wear out prematurely. I wonder at all those nasty nicknames my buddies in the service threw around that added color to our friendships. So, here it is - loud and clear! Sound the klaxon - shrill your siren. I believe that homosexuals should choose another name for the things they imitate that heterosexuals do. Gay means happy and filled with joy. Obviously, it just ain't so!

Menino did bring the issue to the public's attention, which to some extent shrinks the pool of possible customers. AsI disagree with the way Cathy spends his profits, I can now stay away from Chick fil-A. If I agreed with him, I'd still go, but apart from the one appreciation day, won't go any more often.. Nobody's free speech has been impacted yet that I can see.

Barro undermines his own point by calling Dan Cathy a "bully." As far as I know Cathy has done nothing more than express an opinion. In particular, there is no evidence that he ever threatened or physically assaulted a gay person. When having the audacity to express an opinion on a controversial social issue becomes "bullying," then any hope for reasoned discourse is over.

I'm for gay federal rights. However, our government has no right to take away our business if we have different views.

Mr Cathy has directed his company to donate a portion of its profits to organizations that exist to attack the rights of gays and lesbians. In other words, they take care of the threats and harm so that Mr. Kathy doesn't have to.

Has anyone ever attempted to force Mr. Kathy to participate in or approve of a marriage that is not "one man and one woman"? No, I didn't think so.

One of the recipients of Mr. Kathy's corporate largesse is the Family Research Council, which is one of several organizations that urged Uganda to pass a law making homosexuality a capital crime. That is beyond bullying.

Given all the caterwauling from the right and from the pearl clutching "centrists", it would be very difficult to guess that Menino rather meekly walked back his desire to bar the bad-spelling-low-quality chicking chain within a couple days after expressing it. The author is giving far too much credit both to Menino and to the bigots who answered Mike Huckabee's call. People who feel threatened by same sex marriage don't have to look far for points of outrage; that's how paranoia works.

Menino championed himself as speaking from a "bully pulpit", suggesting that bullying is ok in some instances...it isn't. Cathy made the mistake of answering a question honestly, that he opposes gay marriage...he hasn't bullied anyone. The groups he supports also help fund adoptions, because they are against abortions and wish to help women be able to put kids up for adoption. These groups perform more than one task....google, I did. To deny Cathy his rights is to potentially deny your own rights. His personal belief is as protected as those who believe that all gays should be allowed to marry. Because we are in America and can respectfully disagree.

Chick-fil-a, by all accounts, serves good food at reasonable prices with great service to all customers.... Dan Cathy's personal beliefs are just that. This episode has shown us who the racists and bullies are..... But the moon bats don't like seeming themselves in the mirror. Yes, liberals, hate speech and discrimination, when performed by a pc liberal ... IS STiil hate speech and discrimination. I stopped by the Burlington mall on friday and had some for lunch. Tasty.... Only negative was a moon bat there videotaping customers trying to intimidate them....but security chased it away.

How is Mr. Cathy a bully? Deflection much? The only bully I've seen so far is that guy Adam Smith in Tucson who gave that Chick Fil-A take-out employee a hard time in that video. Also, the jerk who painted the hate message on the wall of a CFA. There's also a lot of hate speech emanating from the liberal chattering classes in newspaper columns like this one, and on blogs across the Internet. I believe the whole controversy has been good for CFA's business, has illuminated some of the shadier practices by the Left to impose their agenda on centrists and conservatives, and has given a lot of erstwhile social moderates and progressives pause for thought. Personally, I have always favored legal recognition of same-sex partnerships, especially as regards estate law and hospital visitation rights, but I'm turned off by these attacks from the Left which are intended to snuff out people's freedom to express themselves and to spend their money as they please.

Menino and Rahm (Chicago values) Emanuel represent the common malady of liberal statist overreach. They have deigned themselves qualified to impose their ideology upon others, much like a 21st century Torquemada. Only one thing stopping them, however: the US Constitution. In the political realm, they have galvanized social conservatives with this colossal unforced error. The Globe has a right to be annoyed at people like Menino, given the backlash that will be felt at polls in November. Face it, if they're willing to stand in line for hours to purchase fast (ironic) food, to defend Dan Cathy's free speech rights, how long do you think they will wait to vote against the first President to endorse Gay Marriage? (BTW, will Bill Clinton, author of Don't Ask Don't Tell and signer of the Defense of Marriage Act, have any pithy remarks about same sex marriage at Obama's convention?)

Does marriage exist simply to affirm the love between people? Didn't liberals once claim (in the seventies) that such thinking was antiquated? That marriage was a "social construct" which was utterly unnecessary? Now liberals insist that the affirmation of any two people's love via marriage is THE essential "civil right" issue of the day. Weren't people who opposed "shacking up" the "bigots", "paranoids" and "bullies" back in that period of enlightened, liberal, thought? What a change. One day marriage is (to liberals) utterly unnecessary, the next day it is so critical an institution to individual adults that it must be available as as "civil right" for any couple. Given the history of such liberal thinking certainly the "social construct" of merely two individuals having their civil rights restricted by antiquated, paranoid, bigoted views of marriage is ludicrous. After all, three people who love each other certainly deserve "civil rights" do they not? Each is an individual and each can certainly "love" (in whatever manner) other persons. Who are we to prevent them from attaining the personal affirmation of their version of love via some kind of "marriage"? Aren't those who insist polygamy is an "impossible", natural, conclusion of the redefinition of marriage blind or merely bigoted? Can anyone explain how polygamy is not the natural extension of "civil rights" for each individual who wants to "marry" many instead of the "antiquated" one?

His approach was heavy-handed, but the Mayor was on the right side of the issue. It's silly to declare that Menino hurt gay marriage.

Your editorial seems to have emboldened a large number of anti-gay bigots to chime in.

Personally, I am not anti-"gay" and strive not to be a bigot. However, I tried to make the case that I and apparently others, are suffering from issue fatigue. Can't we just move on to some other more interesting subjects. It's like I keep seeing glare from headlights as I drive at night. What is wrong with some people believing differently from others and being allowed to say so? Free speech that expresses your religious belief does not disallow others to choose differently and also express their beliefs. It is O.K. for you to believe that two men are "married". It is also O.K. for me to believe that a man and woman are married, but it's like renaming a dog and calling it a tiger if everyone has always believed the thing that wags its tail is a "dog". I realize this all sounds really crude, but most of us wish homosexuals happy lives without persecution for their preferences. Lastly, "Gay" really still means happy and filled with joy.