Toronto Street Preachers: Gays Not Targeted

A quiet street in a Toronto neighborhood has been the site for a local church's street preaching efforts for years-but now that a video of the group being asked to leave by the street's residents has gone viral, the neighborhood has suddenly been thrust into the spotlight.

The video, taken on Highfield Road in Leslieville on the evening of Aug. 22 by gay resident Geoffrey Skelding, shows a group of well-dressed street preachers wielding Bibles and being confronted by residents who tell them that they find the group's street preaching disruptive and ask them to leave.

In the video, a man can be heard telling the church group, "You are yelling on a street that is shared by a bunch of neighbors who like each other."

"We have the authority to preach the gospel," responds a church member, who seems to be holding a Bible.

"The entire neighborhood is out here right now telling you to leave, so please – move along," answers another resident.

"We've been doing this for seven years," rejoins the church member.

"And we've hated it the whole time!" cries one resident. "Because we'll have a nice night and there'll be people yelling."

"That's your choice," replies the church member as he and the others in the group turn and begin to walk away. "And in the will of God, next year we'll be here."

As the church group leaves the neighborhood, residents can be heard yelling after them. "Get the hell out of our neighborhood!" calls one.

"You are not welcome!" advises another.

But the church says that the video does not tell the entire story, reported Canadian GLBT site Xtra! in an Aug. 24 article. The church's members have engaged in street preaching actions since 1934, the church has indicated, ever since Highfield Road Gospel Hall opened a few blocks from the scene of the Aug. 22 incident.

As for charges that the group had targeted a gay couple-outside of whose house they were preaching the gospel-the group denies this, saying that the only reason they were standing before that house was that the road was clear of parked cars there. (The gay couple who lived at that address was not home at the time.)

Xtra! reported that Skelding and his partner were at home at the time, however, and they heard a commotion outside. Skelding took his video camera out with him to record the scene, which he then posted on YouTube-where, overnight, it became a sensation, with GLBT advocates interpreting the footage as proof that zealots were harassing GLBT residents of the Toronto neighborhood.

The article reported that Skelding and his partner had moved into Leslieville at the start of the year, and they were told at the time about "this crazy church at the end of the street and they might come and knock on your door and tell you you're a sinner," said Skelding. "We didn't think anything of it – they sounded like the Jehovah's Witnesses – so I was surprised by this. Another lady said they do the same thing on her street behind my house." Skelding also told the media that he'd heard that a lesbian couple had been driven from the neighborhood by the church group.

But an unnamed person at Highfield Road Gospel Hall (who asked to remain anonymous) told the press that harassment of gays was not at all what the group had set out to do. "It appears there's been a major misunderstanding. I wasn't there [on Aug. 22], but I've been involved with outdoor services like that for over 40 years, every Sunday night, weather permitting, on a different street.

"From what I understand, someone felt we were targeting a specific house but we would never stoop, never stoop to target any group such as gay people. That's very low." Added the man, "This was not a protest in front of a [gay couple's] house. We do not get involved in political issues, social issues, people's gender persuasion. We're not out in the street with a vendetta to change anyone, we're just out telling the world's greatest story."

Added the Gospel Hall congregant, "I'll say it again: we do not seek to antagonize or target or stir up strife. We're there to deliver the message of the gospel, that God loves every soul. God does not discriminate." The man continued, "It's a grave misunderstanding on the part of the people who say they're being targeted."

Skelding was not entirely convinced. "Why don't they just stand in front of their church with its empty parking lot and do it there?" he said to Xtra!. "The cops did show up but they hadn't heard of this happening. I don't think anyone's reported it before. The cops said if it happens again, keep reporting it. Some people don't care, they don't mind, it's been going on for years, but it's not cool. How do I know they're not going to come and stand in front of my house next week?"

But one of the men who was supposedly the target of the group came out in defense of the church group. "I don't like how the whole issue is being distorted," said Blair Chiasson, whose house the street preachers had chosen to stand by on Aug. 22. "Nothing happened," added Chiasson, who shares the home with Paul Collins, his life partner. They have lived in the neighborhood for 13 years, reported an Aug. 24 article at local newspaper The Toronto Star. "I just want this to stop," Chiasson went on. "Stop discussing it. Stop talking about it. It's really kind of spiraling out of control."

Chiasson said that in the time he and Collins had lived on the street, they had heard the church group preaching only occasionally-but never against gays. He also opined that the others on the street had "overreacted," and claimed not to be personally acquainted with the neighbors who confronted the group. "We don't even know the people that started this," Chiasson told the media. "So the people who are apparently our defenders, we don't even know who they are."

But another Highfield resident, Jane Farrow, said that the group had proclaimed their message outside the home of an area lesbian couple, and had also gone door to door to tell straight residents who were living with their life partners-but not married to them-that they were "sinners," the article said. "It goes beyond spreading the word of God." Said Farrow. "It's righteous, it's rude, it's bigoted--and there's no room for it on Highfield.

"I've only talked to a couple of the queers I know on the street so far but they've definitely said they'd be into helping out with 'reclaiming the street' if more things were to happen in the future," added Farrow. "Clearly, people have a right to wander the streets, sing gospel tunes and read the Bible, but if you start doing it on a regular basis and over a period of years, I think it constitutes invasion of privacy and harassment."

The man at the Gospel Hall seemingly understood this point of view. "If it was me, and they were coming in front of my house year-in-year-out with something I didn't agree with, I'd suggest to them they try further up the street to get their message out," he told Xtra! "We're not the only church that does this," added the congregant, going on to note that the church had cut back on its preaching already. "We used to spend about half an hour... but we sensed some people were not receiving the message well."