Watch Ald. Proco Joe Moreno Talk Chick-Fil-A Ban On CNN’s Erin Burnett: Outfront
By jongraef at July 27, 2012 | 11:02 am | Print
First Ward Ald. Proco Joe Moreno appeared on CNN’s Erin Burnett: Outfront program Thursday to discuss his using of aldermanic privilege to halt the construction of a Chick-Fil-A restaurant, because of recent comments made by the Georgia-based fast food chain’s president confirming his stance against same-sex couples marrying.
Moreno’s decision has prompted strange bedfellows between both Christian organizations, who argue Moreno is practicing intolerance himself by refusing to let the Chick-Fil-A restaurant operate because of its self-identified religious values and civil libertarians, who argue Moreno was stifling free speech by essentially robbing Chicago citizens of the opportunity to boycott Chick-Fil-A if they so choose.
Moreno says his decision was the result of a breakdown in communication with the restaurant’s representatives.
“In every meeting I had with Chick-fil-A people over the last 9 months they told me they didn’t support anti-gay causes,” Moreno wrote. “Last week, the comments from the CEO of the company made it clear that they were lying to my face in every one of those meetings.”
Watch Ald. Moreno on CNN here.
Moreno also cited unresolved traffic congestion issues as a motivator for his decision. Mayor Rahm Emanuel praised Moreno, saying Chick-Fil-A’s anti-same sex marriage views were antithetical to “Chicago values.” Emanuel currently has an uneasy relationship with the Nation of Islam, who volunteered to help solve and mediate crime in Chicago’s most blighted communities, and their leader Louis Farrakhan, who has made several disparaging remarks about Jewish people. Emanuel himself is Chicago’s first Jewish mayor.
-Jon Graef
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