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04/19/2007


As Chicago Chick-fil-A Owner Requests Emanuel Meeting, Teens Protest Chain In California: VIDEO

YETA2

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's announcement that "Chick-fil-A values are not Chicago values" and opposition to the fast food franchise's expansion there because of CEO Dan Cathy's anti-gay politics really ruffled some feathers.

Lauren Silich, the owner of Chicago's sole Chick-fil-A, is asking Emanuel to have a sit down to iron things out.

The Chicago Tribune reports:

[Silich] invited Emanuel to meet her, her husband and management staff at her restaurant. The mayor's office had no immediate response.

In an interview today, Silich addressed Emanuel's comments. "I get it," Silich said in an interview. "I’m from here as well."

"I just want people to know there’s a local face to this controversy," she added. "We’re not a corporate face. We love our city."

In a letter sent to the media, Silich also said that she and her staff are committed "serving all of our guests with honor, dignity and respect." She went on to highlight Chick-fil-A's immediate economic impact: "We alone created 97 jobs this past year and our passion is building leaders for future generations, regardless of sexual orientation or beliefs."

Will Emanuel meet with Silich or will he be a scaredy cat. (What, did you think I'd go with chicken?)

In other Chick-fil-A news, a group of teen activists from Youth Empowered to Act joined forced with GLAAD to protest the grand opening of a new location in Laguna Hills, California. Watch an NBC report on the protest and see some other images AFTER THE JUMP.

Continue reading "As Chicago Chick-fil-A Owner Requests Emanuel Meeting, Teens Protest Chain In California: VIDEO" »


Philly Councilman Tells Chick-Fil-A CEO To 'Take A Hike,' HRC Protests Franchise's Food Truck In D.C.

KenneyJimPhiladelphia Councilman Jim Kenney isn't having any of Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy's homophobia. In a letter sent to the conservative executive, Kenney told him to "take a hike and take your intolerance with you."

"As an American you are legally entitled to your opinion, regardless of how insensitive and intolerant it may be, but as a fellow American and an elected member of Philadelphia City Council; I am entitled to express my opinion as well," the incensed letter reads. "So please – take a hike and take your intolerance with you. There is no place for this type of hate in our great City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection.”

Kenney also said he'll introduce a resolution officially condemning both Cathy and Chick-fil-A.

Kenney's comments come after Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel backed a plan to block a new Chick-fil-A outpost from opening in the Windy City and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino vowed to stop the franchise's expansion there.

DrudgeEmanuelMeanwhile, there's a change.org petition trying to boot Chick-fil-A from the University of Kansas campus. Also, with regard to Emanuel's aforementioned opposition to Cathy and Chick-fil-A, conservative aggregator Matt Drudge currently has the following image and headlines at the top of his influential page.

The pairing implicitly suggests that Emanuel's pro-equality politics are somehow associated with the anti-semitic and racist rhetoric that comes out of Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam, which, by the way, is also homophobic. The two stories - one of which is about how NOI activists are joining a campaign to end gun violence - are unrelated, though Drudge would like readers to think otherwise.

Finally, Human Rights Campaign and its allies today picketed outside a Chick-fil-A food truck in Washington D.C. Here's an image from the protest. More on that later.

HRCChick


Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Backs Alderman's Plan to Block Anti-Gay Chick-Fil-A from Opening Restaurant

Chicago Alderman Proco "Joe" Moreno says he won't allow Chick-Fil-A to open a restaurant in his Northwest Side ward because of the company's anti-gay worldview, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel is offering his support, the Chicago Tribune reports:

Moreno"If you are discriminating against a segment of the community, I don't want you in the 1st Ward," Moreno told the Tribune on Tuesday.

Moreno stated his position in strong terms, referring to Cathy's "bigoted, homophobic comments" in a proposed opinion page piece that an aide also sent to Tribune reporters. "Because of this man's ignorance, I will now be denying Chick-fil-A's permit to open a restaurant in the 1st Ward."

The alderman has the ideological support of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

"Chick-fil-A values are not Chicago values," the mayor said in a statement when asked about Moreno's decision. "They disrespect our fellow neighbors and residents. This would be a bad investment, since it would be empty."

The proposed restaurant, in the Logan Square neighborhood, would be the second to open in the Windy City.

Note: Michelangelo Signorile is having Moreno on his show at 4:30 pm ET.


NEWS: Retroactive Retirement, Celeste Holm, And Heckles (VIDEO)

Gillespie

Towleroad-roadicon Senior Romney advisor explains discrepancy over Romney's Bain retirement dates: He didn't leave 'til 2002, but he retired retroactively to 1999. Watch AFTER THE JUMP ...

Towleroad-roadicon Rahm to Romney: Stop whining

Towleroad-roadicon Obama's humblebrag, and the ill health of campaign discourse:

when Charlie Rose showed up at the White House asking the president what he thought his big mistake was, all that remained a mystery was how Obama would evade the question.

President Obama chose the humblebrag: "The mistake of my first term—couple of years—was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right. And that's important. But the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism, especially during tough times." 

... The president was essentially saying that he was working so hard trying to help the American people, he forgot to tell them about it.

Towleroad-roadicon This was the gayest Comic-Con ever:

“Queer fandom is absolutely galvanized by seeing more accurate representations of ourselves,” [says Justin Hall, author of the just-released “No Straight Lines,” a retrospective of LGBT comics.] “There’s a snowball effect.”

“It’s always been going on under the surface, but now there’s a real queer presence,” adds Love Ablan, a self-described pop culture nerd who’s bisexual. “Even among non-queer fans. My super-straight guy friend is totally into this comic about queer bears.”

Towleroad-roadicon Aretha Franklin would like to be the new J-Lo.

Towleroad-roadicon Actress Celeste Holm has died. She was 95. 

Celeste-holm-02 Towleroad-roadicon Here's a very sad, very compelling story written about Ms. Holm last year, detailing the conflict between her children and young husband about the disbursement of her ravaged fortune:

To its various players, this story is about a young husband coveting his elderly wife’s fortune, or jealous sons guarding their inheritance or an independent-minded woman trying to maintain control of her finances even as her faculties decline. It is a cautionary tale for families trying to manage one of our age’s emblematic conflicts, between elderly parents who want to live autonomously and adult children who want to protect them, made more vivid by the presence of the Broadway and screen actress at its center. From all sides, it is a story of loss. 

Towleroad-roadicon Father arrested in Iran for son's contributions to Imam-mocking Facebook page:

The Facebook page, dubbed the "Campaign to Remind Shias about Imam Naqi," features a robed man, presumably Naqi, with a face like Charles Manson's, flanked by a camel wearing sunglasses and the donkey from "Shrek." It also shows a picture of a Shiite tomb that has been pooped on by a flock of pigeons.

With more than 21,000 likes, the page explains, "Our goal is to use satire to take out the superstition from religion."

... On May 23, Khameneh got a call from his father, Abbas Khameneh, in Iran.

"He said, 'some people from the intelligence service had come (to our house), and they want you to cooperate,' " Khameneh recalled. "My father said, 'they want your passwords to your Facebook, web blog and e-mail ... '"

Towleroad-roadicon Madonna sued for comparing Marine Le Pen to Hitler. 

Towleroad-roadicon Olympic shooter complains that gay couples get to cohabitate in Olympic village, while he and his wife do not. 

Towleroad-roadicon Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heckled in Egypt with cries of "Monica! Monica!"

Continue reading "NEWS: Retroactive Retirement, Celeste Holm, And Heckles (VIDEO)" »


Gary Bauer: Gays Cause Murder

GaryBauerBlackandWhiteOmnipresent anti-gay noisemaker Gary Bauer explained this week on his podcast exactly why there's so much violent crime in Chicago's poorer African American communities. The culprits? Poverty, hopelessness, and ineffective public education.

Just kidding. The culprits are Democrats and gays. RightWingWatch has helpfully transcribed the relevant bits (while kindly tidying up Mr. Bauer's grammar):

I'd like to go to Chicago for a second. I about fell out of my chair watching a recent CBS interview with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. He was lamenting the values, or lack of values, of Chicago's gang culture, as nearly three hundred people have been killed in Chicago this year, many of them little kids. That's higher casualties than we're suffering in Afghanistan. Here's what Mayor Rahm Emanuel said:

"It is about values. As I said then [referring to when a 7-year-old girl was shot and killed last month], who raised you? How were you raised? And I don't buy this case where people say they don't have values. They do have values. They have the wrong values. Don't come near the kids -- don't touch them."

Well, thanks for speaking up Mr. Mayor, you're asking the right questions, but sadly you can't come up with the right answers. Certainly these kids aren't getting their values from their fathers because they don't have fathers in their households. For the past fifty years, Rahm Emanuel's party, the Democratic Party, has made it comfortable for many women to not have husbands in the home. Now Obama and the Democrats have embraced the radical idea of men marrying other men! How is that going to help the black family?

(It could help many black families -- LGBT ones -- by publicly honoring their commitments. And it might make black mothers and fathers less worried about their LGBT kids. And it might make black kids less worried about their LGBT parents. And so on. But never mind.)

Mr. Bauer also took the opportunity to ridicule Mayor Rahm Emanuel for serving in the Clinton White House during the Lewinsky affair -- and so, although it is old news, it may be worth remembering that Mr. Bauer's own presidential campaign, in 1999, was partially derailed by the departure from Mr. Bauer's service of several staffers disgusted over their (married) candidate's apparent improprieties with a young, blond female staffer. 


NEWS: China Cracks Down, Republicans Crack Up, Literature Gets Fun

BoXilai

Towleroad-roadicon China cracks down on media as CP drama mounts:

Chinese police have arrested six people and shut 16 websites after rumours were spread that military vehicles were on the streets of Beijing, officials say.

The web posts were picked up last week by media outlets around the world, amid uncertainty caused by the ouster of top political leader Bo Xilai ...

Two popular microblogs have temporarily stopped users from posting comments ...

China's top leaders are grappling with the biggest political crisis they have faced for years, the BBC's Michael Bristow reports from Beijing.

The country will begin a once-in-a-decade leadership change later this year. But one of the main contenders for promotion - Bo Xilai - has just been sacked, suggesting a fierce fight behind the scenes for control of the ruling Communist Party.

Towleroad-roadicon Good to remember: Many people of faith support marriage equality in NC.

Towleroad-roadicon The White Plains police didn't need to kill Kenneth Chamberlain, Sr.

Towleroad-roadicon Rahm Emanuel wants to keep LGBT Chicagoans healthy.

Towleroad-roadicon The modern family: Two women mother a brood of quadruplets who were born two weeks apart.

Towleroad-roadicon He was an illegal immigrant. He was kicked out of the United States after running a red light. Now, that criminal record prevents him from re-entering the country to go to his son's funeral:

“Fidel” Merlos-Lopez is trying to attend the funeral services for his 10-year-old son Damien Lopez on Monday after the boy, along with his cousin, aunt and 7-month-old half-brother, died in a fire last week in the town of Shenandoah.

But U.S. Customs and Border Protection have denied Fidel Lopez entrance into the country after he was asked by immigration authorities to leave the country voluntarily in 2007 after running a red light.

Towleroad-roadicon Republicans, under the impression that kids in school "can't talk about God," rally against make-believe war on religious freedom:

Tumblr_llak0ehEAF1qbl75h“This type of faith and values politicking has very, very little broad support amongst Americans,” said Jacques Berlinerblau, a Georgetown University professor and author of the upcoming book “How to be Secular: a Call to Arms for Religious Freedom.”

“The problem is a core constituency of the Republican party will only engage as Republicans if that product is sold and this is where they’re stuck.”

Towleroad-roadicon At the Large Hadron Collider, it's sometimes difficult to distinguish evidence from error.

Towleroad-roadicon Another case of teachers abusing disabled kids.

Towleroad-roadicon The screams recorded on that telephone call were probably not George Zimmerman's.

Towleroad-roadicon Are we all excited about The Sugar Frosted Nutsack?





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