Boston Mayor Tells Chick-Fil-A President.,'I Urge You To Back Out Of Your Plans To Locate In Boston' [FULL TEXT]

Chick-fil-A should "back out" of Boston, Mayor Thomas Menino told fast-food chain president Dan Cathy in a letter posted by Reddit user highstakesjenga Wednesday.

The mayor of the capital of Massachusetts, the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, wrote: "We are indeed full of pride for our support of same-sex marriage and our work to expand freedom to all people."

In an interview with the Baptist Press last week, Cathy stated, "We are very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit." Since the Chick-fil-A president's comments were published, the company has faced a wave of protest.

"I personally stood on City Hall Plaza to greet same-sex couples coming here to be married," wrote Menino in his letter. "It would be an insult to them and to our city's long history of expanding freedom to have a Chick-fil-A across the street from that spot."

Boston isn't the only city trying to keep Chick-fil-A from building new restaurants after Cathy's anti-gay remarks. Chicago Alderman Proco "Joe" Moreno wants to stop the company from setting up its second location in the city, according to the Chicago Tribune.

"If you are discriminating against a segment of the community, I don't want you in the 1st Ward," Moreno said, reported the Chicago Tribune. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has given Moreno his "ideological support."

Chick-fil-A has also lost the support of their former partner, the Jim Henson Co., the company behind The Muppets. Jim Henson Co. was working with the fast food chain to develop a series of build-your-own puppets from Jim Henson's Creature Shop, but has ended the deal in response to the anti-gay remarks of the Chick-fil-A president, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Not all of the reactions to Cathy's interview have been negative. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has given the company support on his Facebook page, posting a picture quoting himself saying, "The Mayor of Boston says he won't allow Chick-fil-A in Boston. Amazing that a mayor has the power to stop commerce because he personally disagree with the PERSONAL views of the CEO of a company."

Huckabee also created a Facebook event called "Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day" next Wednesday. The event asks people to "affirm a business that operates on Christian principles and whose executives are willing to take a stand for the Godly values we espouse by simply showing up and eating at Chick Fil-A," on Aug. 1.

The group has more than 128,000 people saying they'll take part as of Wednesday.