Yv Côté overme a difficult past to help breathe new life to a 165-year-old church the heart of Montreal’s Gay Village. Read his story as part of the CBC/Conrdia seri.
Contents:
- SHARG THE GOSPEL THE GAY VILLAGE
- LAKE BLUFF NSIRS FLYG GAY PRI FLAG ON VILLAGE FLAGPOLE; ‘WE N SEND THE RIGHT MSAGE, THAT WE ARE AN ACCEPTG ... MUNY’
- ALL 4 NY EPISPAL BISHOP NDIDAT WILL ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE IF ELECTED
SHARG THE GOSPEL THE GAY VILLAGE
* the church gay village *
My iend John Bell pastors New Cy Baptist Church right the heart of Toronto and has an active evangelistic mistry wh Toronto’s gay village.
It is Gay Pri week here Toronto and Tim has asked me to wre a gut post tailg my evangelistic efforts Toronto’s LGBT-oriented muny [LGBT stands for Lbian Gay Bisexual Transgenr).
I had never been to a gay ffee shop before but I thought (rrectly) that gay men would want a plete stranger to s wh them and ch-chat, so that’s what I cid to do. Toronto’s gay village is jt a ten mute walk om where I live.
LAKE BLUFF NSIRS FLYG GAY PRI FLAG ON VILLAGE FLAGPOLE; ‘WE N SEND THE RIGHT MSAGE, THAT WE ARE AN ACCEPTG ... MUNY’
I found out later that this is the gay ffee shop all of the Greater Toronto Area. The gay muny Toronto is very close-kn. The men have accepted me as their iend and have troduced me to other gay men, although they know I’m a straight, born aga nservative Christian who do not ndone their liftyle.
I have talked to que a number of gay men now–almost all of them whe and middle aged.
ALL 4 NY EPISPAL BISHOP NDIDAT WILL ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE IF ELECTED
When I first meet someone at the ffee shop and they ask me what I do (which is a natural “” to troducg the gospel) they assume that I mt be a liberal gay Baptist mister, bee otherwise what would I be dog their ffee shop? Gay men love to talk (at least the on this ffee shop seem to) and people general today enjoy discsg “spirualy”. I have been able to share the gospel wh many men over the past two years, even though I am sayg thgs highly offensive to the gay liftyle–which is actually their inty.
” I have done thgs my life that I am ashamed of and oftentim what I am ashamed of the bible lls my “s” (I have found that gay men n relate very well to shame). I do not zero on their homosexualy (which is what they expect me to do) but rather the fact that they are sners. Now, more often than not, they will ph me and ask if practicg homosexualy is a particular exprsn of their sful disposn and I will not hate to tell them “y.
” When asked, I tell gay men that, personally, I have a “live and let live” approach to everyone’s sex life, but my personal opn don’t unt for anythg if God, our creator, has clared otherwise.