Toronto-based anti-gay preacher met by protesters at Vancouver’s Sunset Beach
Posted August 31, 2020 10:32 pm.
Last Updated August 31, 2020 10:36 pm.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Dozens of protesters turned out Monday night to confront anti-gay street preacher David Lynn at Sunset Beach, drowning him out with chanting and singing.
Video on social media shows Lynn surrounded by Vancouver Police officers, as a crowd of singing and dancing demonstrators surrounds him.
Street preacher David Lynn is the founder of Christ’s Forgiveness Ministries and calls himself a radical evangelist. Lynn, who had promoted an event at Davie and Bute streets, makes a point of targetting LGBTQ+ communities and spreading messages of intolerance.
https://www.facebook.com/alternativepride.ca/posts/2406565256312751
A similar action was planned for Sunday when Lynn was supposed to set up at the corner of Davie and Bute Streets.
A counter-rally had also been planned. But protesters, including organizer Justin Philip Cheng, said Lynn never showed up.
The counter-rally had planned to drown out anti-LGBTQ messaging with their own messages.
“People should be supported to be free from harassment. To know they’re safe in public,” Cheng told NEWS 1130.
“I know some people can be very traumatized by his message. From what I think, he’s not willing to engage in any productive conversation.”
Dance Party at Sunset Beach as Vancouver celebrates community and rejects hate #Pride #PhysicalDistancing pic.twitter.com/rVHfwOyxQK
— Pete Fry (@PtFry) September 1, 2020
According to the Vancouver Police Department, no arrests were made and no one was injured Monday.
This isn’t the first event Lynn’s efforts have been met with resistance. He was shouted down by protesters in Victoria on Saturday after planning a rally in that city. He plans to take his roadshow to Jasper, Banff, and Calgary over the next few days.
Lynn’s events come after an anti-gay street preacher was arrested and charged in Vancouver following a violent altercation earlier in August.
Dorre Love is accused of attacking Sportsnet 650’s Justin Morissette, who was attempting to stop him from spreading homophobic messages. Morissette is said to have taken Love’s microphone away while the preacher was in the West End on Aug. 22. Love has claimed he was acting in self-defence.
