Despite Mayo Bill de Blasio's call to New Yorkers to boycott Chick-fil-A restaurants over its opposition to same-sex marriage, the fast-food chain's two Manhattan locations have experienced tremendous success, with lines often stretching around the block.
As earlier reported, after the Christian-owned restaurant announced it was set to open a location at the Queens Center Mall, openly gay Councilman Danny Dromm, who represents the jurisdiction where the restaurant will be situated, called for an all-out boycott of the fast-food joint.
"I am deeply disturbed that Chick-fil-A continues to give 25 percent of their charitable contributions to anti-LGBT organizations, including over $1 million to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes," stated Dromm. "I hope that the Queens Center mall will reconsider giving a company so deeply involved in anti-gay discrimination a lease on their property. Believers in equality should boycott these purveyors of hate."
Mayor de Blasio also jumped on the bandwagon, urging citizens to refrain from eating at the Southern restaurant. "I'm certainly not going to patronize them and I wouldn't urge any other New Yorker to patronize them," the mayor told DNAInfo.com.
However, the New York Post reports that New Yorkers have all but ignored pleas of city officials; in fact, Chick-fil-A, known for being closed on Sunday to allow operators to attend church and spend time with their families, has been so successful in the city that it plans to open 12 new locations over the next year.
The Post notes that Chick-fil-A is also beating out rival fast-food chains McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's and Subway, with average sales per store of $3.15 million a year.
While de Blasio's call to avoid the restaurant was clearly ineffective, Chick-fil-A nevertheless issued a statement in response: "The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect - regardless of their beliefs, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. We are a restaurant company comprised of 80,000 individuals who represent different backgrounds and beliefs, and we are all focused on offering great food, service and hospitality."
The comments to which de Blasio referred were made by Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy in 2012, when he affirmed the company's stance in support of traditional marriage. "We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles," he said, according to Forbes.
He later added, "We are very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that."
At the time, many in the LGBT community called for a boycott of the fast-food chain, and civic leaders in Chicago and Boston said they would not welcome Chick-fil-A to their cities.
A Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day movement created in response to the boycott brought the company "record-setting" sales, bringing in 29.9 percent more sales and 367 more customers than on a typical day.
