How is this not an illegal abuse of the city’s license power?
Boston mayor Thomas Menino is not about to have “Chick-fil-A or whatever the hell the name is, on our Freedom Trail.” Menino has promised to block the fried chicken chain from opening in Boston after Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathyadmitted he was “guilty as charged” in having an anti-homosexual stance. “If they need licenses in the city,” Menino told The Boston Herald, “it will be very difficult — unless they open up their policies.”
Business licenses aren’t supposed to be subject to politics. Menino’s declaration is little different from a mob boss demanding protection money, only in his case it’s backed by the authority of the local government.
Chick-fil-A has been looking at opening in a Boston building near many landmarks, and Menino says anti-homosexual businesses don’t belong on the so-called Freedom Trail: “You can’t have a business in the city of Boston that discriminates against a population. We’re an open city, we’re a city that’s at the forefront of inclusion.”
Unless you disagree with Tom Menino, in which case you will be publicly excluded from his entire city.
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