coldfusion checkbox value from sql query

I found a post here on doing this, but now I can't find it. It was something like: (had to leave the <> off because I forgot how to format that here.)

cfinput type="checkbox" name="distlist" checked="cfif #phlst_DistList# EQ Y yes cfelse no /cfif"

(#phlst_DistList# gets it's value from a cfquery)

I don't get any CF errors, but the form where the query results appear is blank. If I change the cfinput type to text, everything works OK, and I get a Y in the text field.

Thinking it was a SQL problem, I changed the data type of the field from char(1) to bit and replaced the Y in that field with a 1, changed my input tag to:

cfinput type="checkbox" name="distlist" checked="cfif #phlst_DistList# EQ 1 yes cfelse no /cfif"

But I get the same result, a blank form.

What am I missing here?

Mahalo