Journalist for Life Michael Coren

Another story from the most important community in the history of the world, and one that should teach us a great deal about how truth is manipulated by the consensus media. The story is about – yes, you guessed it – gay people of course. In October, in a small town in Ontario, a lesbian couple were allegedly asked to leave a Tim Hortons because there were complaints by a Christian pastor that they were acting in a way that was offensive to the families who were present. Offending gay people in Canada, or pretty much anywhere in the western world in any way is, obviously, a crime for which there is no punishment suitably nasty, so the media went into direct action. There was also a Facebook site established, calls to protest the Tim Hortons, and threatening phone calls made. The usual garbage really.

I watched some of the news coverage of the issue. On Global television in Toronto, for example, it was the lead item. Forget people dying in Turkey, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraqf, and Syria; forget people losing their jobs; forget the daily suffering of working men and women in this economy. Forget it all because two lesbians in Blenheim, Ont., were slightly offended. Now if you’ve seen these two women, you will probably think, like me – and I mean no disrespect or rudeness – that there are any number of issues and problems here, that go far beyond sexuality. But leaving that aside, leaving the ridiculous obsessions of the media aside, leaving aside the love that does not speak its name that now won’t shut the hell up, leaving the reality of “most of us just don’t care, live your life and move on please” aside, there is more to this story than we were led to believe.

The lesbian couple complained – and boy did they complain – that it was a church minister who saw them, who complained to the manager about a mere holding of a hand and a gentle and harmless kiss on the cheek, and that the complaining minister’s church youth group then prayed for their lesbian souls after they had left. Sounds fun and all that, but is it true? Apparently not.

Members of the local gay community say that the minister and the church are what is known as gay-friendly (one wonders what this means, but let’s move on) and that the minister is being abused and his children are being frightened, and that this is all horribly unfair and unjust.

What was alleged after the initial hysteria was that the odd couple were in fact – please forgive the image – locking tongues and straddling each other, and putting their hands down each other’s pants, and that this is was why they were told to leave. The so-called Christian youth group praying for their souls were, we’re now told, a group of local parents and coffee-drinkers merely discussing what had happened.

So who is telling the truth? Well, call me unfair and all that, but I opt for the local gay leaders and the staff at Tim Horton’s for any number of reasons.

But you and I know that this is entirely typical. The rush to judgement, the immediate condemnation, the neurotic fantasy of if it’s gay it’s good, if it’s good it’s gay. Nice, kind people have once again been persecuted – and no, I don’t mean these troubled lesbians, I mean the people who work at Tim Horton’s for minimum wage, and the local people who just want to drink their coffee. The fact is that most of us believe in equality, tolerance, and good manners, but a lot of us are also becoming sick and tired of single-issue obsessives moaning on and on about their contrived complaints.

This was one case, but there are more and there are worse. Lies are told about the number of gay teenagers who attempt suicide, and if we question the figures we are condemned as being hateful. Propaganda is given out concerning bullying of gays at school, and if we dare to doubt the standard wisdom we are suddenly homophobic. No we’re not. We simply believe that sexuality has boundaries and orthodoxies, and that there is a culture war being waged. As for complaining gay radicals, move on, grow up, shut up, and bring me a Tim’s – no, not double double, just, well, just straight.

Michael Coren’s latest book is Why Catholics Are Right (McClelland & Stewart). He is host of The Arena, nightly on Sun TV, and can be booked for speeches at www.michaelcoren.com.