Neighbors come to the defense of a gay couple

[WillParkinson]

Withers: Neighbors come to the defense of a gay couple

Even our cousins up north, polite Canada, have religious kooks. Nine people from the Highfield Road Gospel Hall decided to spread their message in a Toronto neighborhood. Cool. Freedom of religion; however, they chose to evangelize in front of a gay couple’s home.

The couple’s neighbors didn’t like any of this and asked the Christian soldiers to take their missives elsewhere.

“Talking with my neighbours, I learned that a lesbian couple left the area because of this group,” said Geoffrey Skelding, a resident of the block. “They do come to the area and knock on doors and tell people they are sinners.”

http://www.365gay.com/blog/082510-neighbors-come-to-the-defense-of-a-gay-couple/

[meegbear]

1. See the video here ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x498501

[ejpoeta]

2. i have a question? do they have a right to stand in the street blocking traffic?

don't they need a permit? this is ridiculous.

[grantcart]

3. Gay couple is quoted defending parishoners, saying that there was a misunderstanding

From today's Toronto Star is a long article that questions most of the facts of the story.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/852019--viral-video-in-leslieville-is-not-what-it-seems?bn=1


“I don’t like how the whole issue is being distorted,” said Blair Chiasson, a civil servant who lives with his partner, Paul Collins. “Nothing happened. Nothing happened.”

He added: “I just want this to stop. Stop discussing it. Stop talking about it. It’s really kind of spiralling out of control.”

The dispute, during which a neighbour called police, involved parishioners from Highfield Road Gospel Hall, a nondenominational church of about 30.

. . .



To Chiasson, however, they are the unthreatening “church people” — and they did not do anything wrong.

Chiasson, 45, said he believes Highfield parishioners only choose to read the Bible from a spot near their house because a fire hydrant prevents cars from parking there.

He said the parishioners preached on the street long before he and Collins, 47, arrived 13 years ago. Moreover, he said, he and Collins have never felt personally targeted by the parishioners, have never heard them say anything homophobic, and have not even been present for three years on the summer Sundays when the infrequent sermons occur.

He said the parishioners are “a part of the neighbourhood” with the right to speak freely. The neighbours who confronted them, he said, “overreacted.”

“We don’t even know the people that started this,” he said. “So the people who are apparently our defenders, we don’t even know who they are.”

Prominent among them was Geoffrey Skelding, 29. Skelding, who is also gay, filmed the confrontation and uploaded it to YouTube with the title “Neighbourhood comes together and kicks out religious haters.”

Skelding, who moved to the street in January, said he did not personally hear any of the parishioners’ words and did not know whether they had said anything homophobic.





It seems like Toronto is still the tolerant and reasonable city that it has a reputation for.

[Mimosa]

4. Odd

Grant, I watched the video and heard nothing anti-gay. The church people looked diverse, sort of humble. If Mssrs Chiasson and Collins say everything's OK, I suppose it is.It sounds like the younger man just hates Christians praying in public and inferred it was something it wasn't.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHpiXmPWPwk

[grantcart]

5. When it first came out I read all of the comments on the Youtube thread

There was a comment by someone claiming to be one of the Gay residents and stating that it was all a misunderstanding.


When I returned to the thread there were numerous comments by homophobes saying that the other side was sowing its ignorance because the report had been debunked in the Toronto Star.

It seems that a fairly new resident heard a rumor about a lesbian couple getting harassed and then jumped to the conclusion that this group was doing something similar.

I have always heard that Toronto is a very tolerant city, some people think it the most livable city in North America. I would like to think that there is one city that has really grasped tolerance in many dimensions. The Gay couples response to this shows that not only were they not harassed but that they are tolerant of the Church goers.