Over the weekend, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, NYC's first gay City Council Speaker, fired off a letter to NYU President John Sexton urging him to "sever your relationship with the Chick-fil-A establishment that exists on your campus." As you no doubt know, the popular fast food franchise donates money to anti-gay Christian groups, and the family that owns it has been very forthright about their opposition to same-sex marriage. Quinn insisted yesterday that her message to NYU was "solely my own opinion," but the letter was drafted on official City Council letterhead.
Today the NY Times and the NY Post have found themselves in agreement over Quinn's Chick-fil-Activism. "As a powerful city leader and a leading candidate for mayor, she and others in city governments should take care not to be seen muscling aside businesses whose owners don’t agree with their views," the Times opines. "That won’t work, especially in a city as big, diverse and opinionated as New York." The Post, of course, is virulent:
Once upon a time, she seemed to be the only non-runt in the wannabe-mayor litter. But Quinn has truly been on a pander tear of late — aimed principally at ingratiating herself with unions but defining her credibility way down in the process. The fact that she needs remedial instruction on something so basic as the First Amendment at this stage of the game suggests that there was little more than vapor there in the first place.
The Post also argues that Quinn's letter to NYU "could reasonably be seen as extortionate" because NYU's expansion plan needs City Council approval... but that expansion plan already secured near-unanimous Council approval. If there's anything cynical to see here, it's probably Quinn trying to distance herself a little bit from NYU to curry favor with outraged Greenwich Village residents.
Also milking the Chick-fil-A outrage teet: Schnippers Quality Kitchen. Throughout the month of August, both Schnippers locations are donating $1.00 from every purchase of a Schnipper’s Chicken Filet Sandwich to Marriage Equality USA. Owner Andrew Schnipper declares, "A truly good Chicken Filet Sandwich would always be in favor of Marriage Equality. Ours is the best you’ll ever have since its made from fresh chicken breasts and hand dipped to order in our seasoned corn flour blend and buttermilk. It’s super crispy and it’s gluten free!" Damn, that DOES look tasty. We'd support marriage equality two times with that!
