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Queer couple thrown out of Tim Hortons, claiming “Family Friendly Environment”..

Discussion in 'Current Events, World News, & LGBT News' started by Katelynn, Oct 20, 2011.

  1. Katelynn

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    Queer couple thrown out of Tim Hortons, claiming “Family Friendly Environment”..


    by Michelle Boyce on Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 11:06pm
    .



    Be careful where you hold hands in Blenheim when you’re Queer especially when the Rev. of Glad Tidings Church is present.

    I am getting a little sick of “family friendly” that excludes my family, your family and anyone else’s family that doesn’t fit someone else’s mold. Some Trans people were getting together at a friend’s house tonight and they asked me to come over. The topic of conversation rapidly moved to Riley and Patricia’s storey of being tossed out of a Tim Horton’s because it was a “family friendly place”. Echoes of Ed Kikett and the issues at Trails End resonated in my brain as I listened to these folks stories.

    Patricia and her gender queer partner Riley were sitting on the bench in front of Tim Horton’s with nine of their family members; which included mom, brother, cousin and various other relatives drinking coffee. Inside Tim Horton’s was the Rev. of Glad Tidings Church who felt in necessary to stare down the couple and their family. After speaking to the Rev., the manager of Tim Horton’s approached the couple and told them what they were doing was unacceptable and that Tim Horton’s was a “family friendly environment”. The couple looked at the manager with shock and hurt as they were there with their family. When asked what they had done to offend people, the Manager said they were touching, hand holding and making out – The later involved a single kiss the couple had shared in front of mom. The couple gave the standard response stating that heterosexual couples have done the same for all eternity, why was it wrong for this couple? To which the manager declared that the couple had five minutes to leave the property or else the Police would be called. To add insult to injury as the couple was leaving the Tim Horton’s parking lot the current reigning Rev. according to the Church website, Ken Powell chose that time to hold a prayer circle in the Tim Horton’s parking lot to pray for the couple’s souls. The Pastor was joined by 15+ citizens and the prayer circle was held in front of the couple’s family members.


    Personally, I think this is thoroughly repugnant. I'm also pretty sure that it would be illegal to have the cops actively participate in an act of discrimination. I can't even believe that someone would actually tell a family to leave just because they couldn't deal with someone else having a different lifestyle or family situation. I sincerely hope that someone holds the manager of this location accountable for this...
     
    #1 Katelynn, Oct 20, 2011
    Last edited: Oct 20, 2011
  2. Revan

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    This pisses me off quite a bit...
     
  3. Katelynn

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    I'm actually planning on bringing this up with my law professor later today. I'm fairly certain that section 15 of the Charter Of Human Rights & Freedoms specifically prohibits this kind of discrimination. Plus, the worst part is how the ignorant minister actually went out to the parking lot & had a 'prayer group' in front of the whole family as they were leaving. Talk about insult to injury...
     
  4. BradThePug

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    Wow... that is horrible..
    as if getting kicked out was not enough, they got religion shoved down their throats as well.
    some people need to learn how to be respectful...
     
  5. Revan

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    kiersten, can you post the link you found that in? I looked but can't find a thing.
     
  6. Chip

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    Major corporate backpedaling from Tim Hortons in 5...4...3.... :slight_smile:
     
  7. British Lad

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    This sickens me.
     
  8. Katelynn

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    Love to, but I couldn't find one either. I actually had to copy & paste from where I did find it, since this was actually posted on FB on one of the support group pages I have added, so posting a link would be a no-go under the T&C. It did just happen yesterday, so I imagine something should hopefully be in the news sooner rather than later. Then again, Blenheim is a small town, so I wouldn't be surprised if their newspaper never does a story on it...
     
  9. sokk

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    Wow.. Canada really is going to hell these days. Too bad the conservative freaks running the country has this large of an effect on the entire Canadian society. Once a very gay friendly and liberal country really is turning into an extremely conservative country, where "family values" are held high, and gays are practically second class citizens again. I blame Harper and his moronic government.
     
  10. Fintan

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    This is pretty sad. I am from small town Ontario -- not far from Blenheim actually -- and sadly I am not surprised at all by this story. However, I have never heard of this church either (assuming Evangelical?). My assumption would be that if this made bigger news, most Ontarians would be pretty upset with what happened. I also think Tim Hortons will do the right thing. Afterall it depends more on the manager of the individual store and the community that manager came from rather than the store itself.

    Give me a break. This would have happened no matter who was in power and will receive the same treatment at court. Small-town Ontario was never particularly 'gay friendly or liberal' on LGBT issues; I grew up there under a Liberal, New Democrat, and Conservative governments and it never was the case. Old habits die hard.
     
  11. Katelynn

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    Well, I live in Sarnia, which isn't too far from Blenheim, and it's pretty conservative here too. I brought this up with some of my friends in my criminal law class today, as well as my professor, & not only were all of them surprised, they were angry & upset about it as well.

    As for people's attitudes here in Sarnia, while it is pretty homophobic here, I came out to 4 people this week, two of them today, and everyone has been supportive & understanding so far. So not everybody is narrow-minded. It really depends on where you are I guess & who it is. It seems at the rate I'm going, I should be out to everyone in my college program before the end of this year & from all indications, no one seems to be bothered by my being trans or lesbian so far, so I'm encouraged that the whole journey I have ahead of me for the next couple years will be around people who are all supportive. Then again, we are all law students, so that may make a difference as well...
     
  12. Revan

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    Yup. When Harper took over he tried to get same-sex marriage revoked. Luckily the Supreme Court basically told him to fuck off because they were sick of the battling about it. Same time, we actually had an amazing potential leader when Jack Layton actually made NDP the opposing party for the first time in years...but then he unfortunately passed away to cancer....our country's had a lot of heart aches lately...
     
  13. Just Adam

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    I feel very bad for them :frowning2:

    Its not fair that buisnesses can get away with these acts of discrimination.
     
  14. Katelynn

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    I think that, had Jack lived longer, he would have had an excellent chance at being Prime Minister in the next election., Revan. It was such a sad loss for everyone, and even Jack's opponents respected him & what he tried to accomplish. Something I always did find confusing tho, was that the Conservatives are against same-sex marriage but they were the same party that ADDED sex-reassignment surgery for trans people so that it was covered under OHIP. Weird...

    As for this whole mess, yep, none of my classmates & especially my law professor were impressed with this. Pretty much everyone I told about this incident acted with disgust towards this Rev. person & the manager of the Timmies. So there are defitinely quite a few people in my life who aren't gay, but also don't tolerate this kind of crap either. Which is amazing to know, since I see all of them everyday & enjoy being friends with them!

    One of my friends said that this manager pretty much just lost his franchise because of this as well, since it will get back to corporate & they dont tolerate that sort of thing, or so he said anyway, I'm not sure how he knew all of that...
     
  15. starfish

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    Damn, I like Tim Hortons. It is one of the reasons I go to Canada.

    Though really this was just a jack ass manager.
     
  16. Kenko

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    I disagree. Canada has always had its share of homophobia, particularly in rural areas. What you are seeing now is that people are willing to speak up about it rather than sit in silence.

    Similar to how only now are people suddenly concerned about the "recent rash of gay teen suicides". Newsflash, qay teens have always been at a substantially higher risk of committing suicide than their straight counterparts. Only recently, usually due in part to social media, people are actually finding out about these suicides rather than them happening in silence.
     
  17. LostandFound

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    Harper held a vote against gay marriage five years ago. A single dickhead manager in very rural Ontario asked a gay couple to leave. Therefore, Harper must have caused this incident.

    Truth is, the Conservatives haven't really said anything "officially" (I've met Liberal MPs that are against gay marriage as well) about homosexuality in years. And to be honest, there isn't really any more rights that they can give us in Canada.
     
  18. Fintan

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    You're right on the money LostandFound. Just to add, Harper said in 2006 after the same-sex marriage vote that he wouldn't reopen the Same-sex marriage issue as long as he was in office... which looks like 9+ years total (2006 - 2015).

    And I'd agree; there isn't really any more rights that we can be given in Canada, but it will take time for attitudes in rural Canada to change. But I think only time will change that.
     
  19. Mystery

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    I'm from Chatham- Kent and have family in Blenheim (One of which happens to be a lesbian) and I know for a fact that that minister (and that whole church for that matter) are pricks about that. If memory serves me correctly, I'm pretty sure that that's the church my aunt was kicked out of when she met her partner.
    And Blenheim has never been particularly "gay-friendly" to begin with. Things have changed since I lived there but that's how I remember it.
     
    #19 Mystery, Oct 23, 2011
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2011
  20. RaeofLite

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    What I would have done? I would have honestly stayed there till the cops showed up and then claimed a hate crime against the manager/pastor.