Concerned people want to defend marriage. No, they don’t help unemployed people find jobs, they don’t create parks where children can play, they don’t raise money for family counseling or try to improve our schools.
The National Organization for Marriage defends marriage by trying to make it illegal for same-sex couples to marry. They scheduled a rally at Tim Hortons donuts, the Aldrich mansion in Warwick, with Tim Hortons as a sponsor. But then Tim Hortons unsponsored it.
Tim Hortons has reversed its decision to sponsor a Rhode Island rally held by a U.S. group that opposes same-sex marriage, after encountering fierce criticism for the move.
The August 16 event, organized by the National Organization for Marriage, is billed as a “Celebrate Marriage & Family Day.” Held in suburban Providence, the rally is to include speeches, a cookout and a ceremony in which married couples are invited to renew their vows.
Apparently the execs in Canada told the owner that his job is to sell a lot of donuts, and offending potential customers is not in the business plan. With Dunkin’ and Bess Eaton and who knows how many other competitors, why would Tim Hortons want to endorse NOM? Even the Governor, who seems antsy to get on to bigger and better things than our contentious little state, doesn’t come out as a member, although he probably has a card in his wallet.
Tim Horton’s official statement is here. I would have loved to have heard the uncensored phone calls back and forth. There are several TH donut shops located in what CBC calls ‘suburban Providence’. For a Rhode Islander that sounds like an oxymoron, but to Canadians the whole state probably looks like suburban Providence. We know better, of course.
Providence Daily Dose has covered this story far better than I can, so I’ll link to it here. He has lots of background, and comments from Canada.
Thanks to Dubnotdubya for the correction as to the location of the rally. I was picturing a bunch of people in a Tim Hortons parking lot, wondering what the attraction was. The Aldrich mansion is way more posh.
Kmareka.com 
You misunderstood: the rally is being held at Aldrich Mansion in Warwick. Tim Hortons was one of several sponsors of the event, the only one with a national and international presence, which is why it got more attention than the other sponsors. Also, Bess Eaton is no more; in fact, Tim Hortons bought them out years ago.
I am glad that they are no longer sponsoring the event, but I am disturbed that the original decision to sponsor it came from the Rhode Island regional manager, according to Canadian news reports. If it were just one franchisee, I could try to find out which one and avoid it. But now I don’t feel comfortable going to any of the local ones.
Thanks for the correction–I’ll update my post. Providence Daily Dose did such a good, detailed post about this that I linked to it, and they had the specifics about the Aldrich mansion event.
I used to go there for weird meetings with the Catholic charismatics, I wonder if that’s why the DOMs picked that venue.