Add D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray to the roster of politicians who are disavowing Chick-fil-A as the firestorm surrounding the company’s Southern Baptist values — and position on same-sex marriage — continues to rage.
Gray posted Friday afternoon on Twitter that because of his “longstanding support” for marriage equality, he would not endorse the Atlanta-based restaurant expanding its presence in the District.
But Gray spokesman Pedro Ribeiro said the mayor would not use the D.C. bureaucracy to derail any efforts to build a location in the city.
“We cannot legally go out of our way to deny them a permit,” Ribeiro said. “We would fully comply with the laws of the District of Columbia.”
But he added, “We’re certainly not going to go out of our way to help them.”
Chick-fil-A has been the subject of a national controversy in recent days after its president detailed his opposition to same-sex marriage.
“I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,'” Dan Cathy said in a radio interview. In a separate, earlier interview, Cathy, the son of Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy, had said the company supports “the biblical definition of a family.”
Cathy’s remarks provoked a widespread outcry and organized boycotts of the restaurant, which has long been known for refusing to open its doors on Sundays.
Gray is not the first big-city mayor to criticize Chick-fil-A in the aftermath of Cathy’s remarks. The leaders of Boston, Chicago and San Francisco all said the company would not be welcome in their cities.
Chick-fil-A has been slowly expanding in the D.C. area. Earlier this month, the company debuted a food truck, which was the site of a Thursday protest.
Chick-fil-A also has a single permanent location in the District — on the campus of Catholic University. Throughout Maryland and Virginia, the privately held company has 163 restaurants. The chain’s holdings include 1,615 locations in 39 states.
