The now infamous Tim Hortons incident, in which the Canadian coffee monolith kicked a same-sex couple off the restaurant’s property because they were kissing while enjoying their Tim Horton’s coffee outside, is not going well for the 3600-chain corporation — and it’s entirely their fault.
Tim Hortons PR is handling this incident the exact same way they handled the anti-gay incident they faced just two years ago — by sticking their heads in the sand and refusing to accept responsibility or even acknowledge any wrong doing. And, just as poorly for their brand, refusing to respond to reporters. This reporter has now called Tim Hortons three times, including the manager of public affairs at Tim Hortons, Alexandra Cygal, and no response has ever been received.
Cygal offered an amazingly tone-deaf non-apology, which The New Civil Rights Movement published yesterday, along with essentially a handbook as to why it was an unacceptable apology — including that Tim Hortons didn’t offer the apology directly to the lesbian couple, nor did they acknowledge any wrong doing, rather, classified the actions of their franchisee who reportedly threatened to call the police and have arrested the two women who say they kissed once or twice, casually, outside the restaurant, a “misunderstanding.”
For the record, kissing, by men and women, and by men and men, and by women and women is not only not illegal, it is the very essence of human expression, and some caffeine-crazed Pentecostal Preacher has about as much right to stop it and get a family kicked out of a restaurant as I have to stop him from preaching the gospel. I may not like his actions and he may not like mine, but they’re both legal.
It’s time for Tim Hortons to pick up the phone and apologize to Riley Duckworth and her partner, Patricia Pattenden, and to make certain that this kind anti-gay attack never happens again at Tim Hortons.