As part of a campaign by anti-abortion organization The Tenth Mark, protests descended upon Seattle on September 28th in Fremont’s Lenin Statue, a public school, and various other locales.
The organization announced the protests via fliers reading “You are not safe,” urging readers to visit kickily-named website All Gods Must Die, which leads to The Tenth Mark’s website.
Here’s a video explaining their ghoulish intentions:
After spending a hard day protesting abortion, members of AbolishHumanAbortion and The Tenth Mark decided to pop ’round to Seattle’s Bedlam Cafe to get their caffeine buzz on.
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As you can see in the Facebook vid below, that didn’t go terribly well for them:
“I’m gay,” announces Bedlam’s owner, Ben Borgman. “You have to leave!”
He produces one of their pamphlets, featuring a rainbow flag, a fist, and the demonstrably asinine motto, “Love Hasn’t Won Yet.”
The pamphlet includes a short essay titled, “We Are A Prideful Culture Full of Hatred, Bigotry, Intolerance, and Oppression,” which features photos of rainbow-hued, bloodied hands, and an image of an aborted fetus.
Borgman once again emphasizes the protestors aren’t welcome, but they refuse to leave.
As the situation escalates, Borgman casually asks if they’d tolerate him getting his “boyfriend and fucking him in the ass right here.”
The protestors robustly suggest they wouldn’t really want to see that.
“Well then, I don’t have to fucking tolerate this!” Borgman shouts.
And that’s about that, really.
Related: Gay Baker Jesse Bartholomew Says Leave Antigay Bakers Alone
DCguy
Good for him. Funny, they hate lgbts, and fight for the right of businesses to not serve them but want to stay in a business owned by one if it means they can get coffee when they want it.
jetrocky
Slippery slope. We sue bakers who won’t do our wedding cakes but toss those we don’t like from our businesses. It was an obviously very emotional issue for the coffee shop owner, and good for him for taking a stand. I went to a college full of this type of stuff, and I know these types of people. But I wonder how differently things would have gone if he simply would have walked around to each person and thanked them for putting their good Christian money into a nice gay business, and let it sink in.
Stache
This isn’t baking a cake where you’re not part of it. This was a protest being held at his business thus making him a part of it.
Heywood Jablowme
ummm… how about just taking their money and spitting in their coffee? That’s not an option? 🙂
PinkoOfTheGange
Political affiliation is not a protected suspect class in the Fed or WA’s Public Accommodation statutes.
Sexual orientation is where the cases are from.
Doug
I have to agree with jetrocky. The owner did exactly what Christians claim they should be able to do to us. The cafe owner also probably isn’t going to get much support when he’s making statements like “I want to f*ck Jesus Christ in the ass,” and “Are you willing to watch my lover and I buttf*ck?” on video, lol. The group wasn’t protesting in the establishment, they just came in for a cup of coffee.
HenryCameron
So Queerty now champions the right of a business owner to refuse service to people because their actions and beliefs offend him? Spin all you like, this video is bad. These people weren’t protesting in his business. They just went in for coffee. His comments to them were not casual. He completely intended to shock and offend them as much as possible. All he accomplished was to confirm every negative stereotype these people already believe about gay people, and they recorded it and posted it as proof. If the positions were reversed, he would be suing a Christian coffee shop owner out of business, and Queerty would be cheering him on.
Aside: I often wonder how the liberal gay activist community will react if and when gay genetic markers are discovered, and women start aborting gay babies. Unfettered abortion might not seem like such a great thing then.
mhoffman953
@HenryCameron
I agree. The business owner in this video seemed like a nut when he talked about having sex with his boyfriend in front of everyone (that wouldn’t be ok regardless of who was having coffee there) and then when he said he wanted to have sex with Christ.
If the people were protesting inside the business, violating business policies, or disturbing other customers then he’d have a reason to kick them out, but simply because he heard they did some political protest earlier in the day at a different location doesn’t give him the right to not serve them. A business owner should serve the public.
As far as abortion, I’m not sure how I feel on the issue as I understand both sides of the argument. I couldn’t imagine why any woman, who wasn’t at a serious health risk of her or the baby, would want to abort her child she conceived with her partner.
DCguy
Oh look, a new screename saying that “WE” shouldn’t do this.
Sorry but gender, race, sexual orientation are protected from discmination. Bigots aren’t a protected group, so actually it isn’t a slippery slope, any more than a woman kicking out a man with a shirt calling for the legalization of sexual abuse would be.
But nice try.
mhoffman953
@DCguy
But these people weren’t wearing a shirt calling for the legalization of sexual abuse (not sure which group actually calls for that since you seem to reference that as an example a lot). These people were anti-abortion protesters and weren’t doing anything inside the establishment to yield removal from the establishment.
Many of the things which the business owner said were uncalled for and came across as disgusting. You can’t kick people out of an establishment because you learn of their stances on issues and you disagree with their religious beliefs regarding abortion. Religion is also protected by discrimination or as you call it “discmination”
The problem dividing this country lately is that no one wants to listen to each other and understand everyone’s point of view. They automatically jump to kicking people out or silencing other people, something you advocate for a lot with your “multiple screen name” “oh look, a new screen name!!!!1!!” comments, which shuts down discussion and attacks the person
JaredMacBride
If he thought they were a threat to the store or to customers he had every right to ask them to leave. If he was simply opposed to their beliefs he had no right to do so. Far better ways to handle it, as jetrocky said, like taking their money and donating it to something the neanderthals find repulsive.
Rocinante
I am mixed on this. My father and I discuss this a lot, he points out situations like this, to show the left is often very intolerant. I have read different logical philosophers on the quandary of being tolerant even to those that I disagree. I found a fellow that broke it down as such,
“There is a logic of tolerance, which remains to be formalized by some future philosopher. Let me, as a starter, suggest two fairly obvious axioms:
– Tolerance of intolerance yields intolerance.
– Intolerance of intolerance yields tolerance.
In other words, in questions of reason and freedom, societies, like individuals, have to make a choice. You cannot have everything at the same time. This holds for original dwellers as for newcomers alike.”
http://www.signandsight.com/features/1205.html
So, given this is a logical course to follow, this guy was ethically right. You can’t vote for Hitler because you like his economic plan, disregard his call to purge certain people and later claim you didn’t agree with everything the man said in order to ameliorate your conscious when those people are killed. If you ignore discrimination and abuse of your fellow man your just as guilty as those that actively participate. These people in the video are effectively participating by calling for it.
DCguy
Ask your father why it is, that intolerance from the “Left” is always about not allowing people to be bigots or racists. And intolerance on the “Right” is about BEING bigots and racists.
Juanjo
The situation here is a group of people who decided to engage in political speech, albeit based upon some bizarre religious basis. Any business owner can ban political speech in his business if he wishes.
paul dorian lord fredine
now about ‘no. proselytizing’
mhoffman953
@Juanjo
In fairness, those people weren’t engaging in political speech on his property or in his establishment. They were doing their anti-abortion stuff elsewhere then later in the day stopped in his establishment for a coffee. He confronted them and asked if they were the people who made that flyer then kicked them out
If your argument is that any business owner can ban political speech or members who side with a certain issue, then can an establishment ban those who were in a pro-gay marriage march? Can they ban people who engaged in the women’s march or the “fight for 15” march? I think your argument is one sided and rests upon banning only those you disagree with
MacAdvisor
“Any business owner can ban political speech in his business if he wishes.”
I doubt that. It certainly isn’t true here in California, see: Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U.S. 74 (1980). California has a more expansive free speech protection in its Constitution. I don’t have time to check Washington State, but I would bet public accommodation laws forbid discrimination based on political affiliation.
Lvng1Tor
we only know what happened well into it as the people started videoing it, the same people who think we are at best second-class citizens and overwhelmingly evil. In any case, tired of people who think it’s perfectly fine to discriminate against us…to the point of trying to make it federal law…whine when they get the same treatment. Not to mention all the f@gs who think that we should be “above” that type of eye of for an eye. Time that F@ggots started bashing back.
Heywood Jablowme
If you name your business Café Bedlam, maybe you are expecting some bedlam.
(Btw, the word “bedlam” has an interesting history; it comes from England’s first insane asylum – founded in 1247 – which is today a modern psychiatric hospital.)
I’m a member of the ACLU and if I were running Bedlam, I’d just take the homophobes’ money!
o.codone
Wow, the intolerance. This is definitely actionable. The defense should claim “TDS” Trump Derangement Syndrome”. This gay guy surely has a bad case of it. Sue his ass off.
Luna1979
These people have been brainwashed. They might have been productive, creative people. Now, they’re useless trouble. Those responsible for their indoctrination should be held responsible. Their agenda doesnt even make sense. Are they blaming gays for abortion? Gays, who adopt the kids these people overlooked while campaigning? Who cannot even reproduce with their partners? I actually feel sorry for these totally misguided people. They will never know the joy of just being happy.