Canadian doughnut mogul Tim Hortons has walked away from a plan to sponsor a Rhode Island event promoting heterosexual marriage after word of the company’s involvement caused an Internet dustup that flooded the Canadian news media.
-- From "Tim Hortons drops role in marriage day" by Cynthia Needham, Providence Journal State House Bureau 8/12/09
The flap started when local organizers approached a regional Tim Hortons executive and asked whether the company would sponsor “Rhode Island’s First Annual Celebrate Marriage and Family Day!” on Sunday, Aug. 16, at Warwick’s Aldrich Mansion. Tim Hortons agreed to donate coffee and won itself a mention on the invitation.
Put together by the group known as the National Organization for Marriage, the outdoor rally includes a nuptial-vows renewal ceremony — for heterosexual couples only — Christian music and a barbecue.
It wasn’t long before word of the Tim Hortons sponsorship made its way onto several left-leaning blogs, hitting Twitter feeds and Internet sites in the United States and Canada. Within a matter of days, the mainstream Canadian news media got wind of the controversy involving one of the country’s most popular chains.
Canada legalized gay marriage nationwide in 2005.
Inundated with criticism, Tim Hortons pulled its sponsorship Monday, announcing on its home page that company does not sponsor events “representing religious groups, political affiliates or lobby groups.”
“It has come to our attention that the Rhode Island event organizer and purpose of the event fall outside of our sponsorship guidelines,” the statement read. “As such, Tim Hortons cannot provide support at the event.”
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