Rush Limbaugh has come to the aide of Chick-Fil-A, defending the chicken restaurant from criticism expressed by Mayors Thomas Menino of Boston and Rahm Emanuel of Chicago.

After Chick-Fil-A President Dan Cathy conceded that his company is opposed to gay marriage and supports groups opposed to the institution (donating $5 million between 2003 and 2010), Menino wrote a scathing letter to Cathy in which he said that his fast-food chain was not welcome in Boston.

Emanuel piled on, saying: “Chick-Fil-A's values are not Chicago values.”

“I personally am in stunned disbelief over the reaction to this,” Limbaugh told his radio listeners. “We have two mayors who are essentially Stalinists. We have had no problem whatsoever … with going before the microphones and telling an American business, 'You are not welcome here and if you come here you will be penalized.' All because the guy who owns the outfit happens to be a publicly professed Christian who believes that marriage has a specific definition.”

“This is a classic example of a government destroying an institution that has promoted the kind of society we have had in the past and the kind of society we've always wanted.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page. Visit our video library for more videos.)

(Related: Rick Santorum supports Mike Huckabee's “Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day.”)