Alright. So. Let’s Talk About What Happened at Coffee Times

The Movement took a bad turn.

I’m going to do my best to not get too crazy here, but I have to admit this situation got my Unholy Goat Bob really angry, and he’s hungry.

A few days ago, a story was published in the Coffee Times publication. The publication has always been vocal about being supportive of the community, claiming they were there to help make a difference. Their tagline at the end of stories is: “Coffee Times is not just a publication, but a movement to build a mutually supportive community that encourages active reading and better writing.”

Alright. That sounds great. I even published a few stories through them in my time here, and enjoyed the process overall.

That being said, what happened a couple of days ago goes beyond acceptable, and into the realm of abject hatefulness.

You see, the story published on their platform was an article whose title dripped with hostility and animosity.

It was “Why I hate the LGBTQ Community.”

In it, the author goes on for paragraphs about exactly that.

I won’t reproduce any of it here, but let me just say the writing was absolutely horrible, with typos, extremely bad grammar, and more vitriol than you’d hear on any Fox News broadcast. That’s saying something.

Ahem. Anyhow, obviously this article stirred some emotions, not only within myself, but others as well.

While it’s reasonably easy to find hate speech everywhere you might go, it’s usually not given much support by society-at-large, and with good reason.

If the story had just been self-published by the guy on his own profile, that’d be one thing. But the fact the story was actually accepted, and published, by an established publication like Coffee Times is really taking the cake.

Delving further into the situation, I discovered the story had actually been given claps by the publication owner, along with a single other person.

Now, had it just been a situation where the editor of the story got lazy and just let something through without reading it, that’d be bad, but understandable. I’m editor for a few publications, myself, and I know how it can get when you’re working with a busy pub and a lot of things come in at once.

Still, allowing that kind of diatribe to fall through any cracks at all is unacceptable. Upon discovery of it, a story like that should have been removed.

But that didn’t happen.

Instead, the owner of the publication actually clapped for the damn thing, inferring he endorsed it fully.

Now, that, too, could have been laziness on his part. Maybe he just claps for every story that comes in. Perhaps he didn’t even notice what the thing was about and just did it out of habit.

I don’t know.

What I do know, however, is, whether he actually endorses the kinds of things being said in an article like that, or was just pure lazy about it all, either case does not bode well.

Both spell disaster for a publication that touts being about community and uplifting better writing.

Over the past couple of days, some changes have happened.

The first is that the writer of the original story has been removed from the platform. Whether he deleted his account or was banned I can’t say. I do know the story was reported to the platform multiple times.

Second, the publication, Coffee Times, has also gone into shutdown mode. My own stories published through there no longer have the “coffee-times” URL involved, and if you go to their page, you get nothing.

The pub’s owner, too, no longer has a profile on the platform.

Their Twitter page is silent, as is their Substack. No word has come through about what’s going on behind the scenes there, and they’ve yet to make any kind of public statement about what the future holds for them.

As for me, I will say I’ll never be involved with them again. As I said, whether it was due to laziness or being complicit, the fact a story like that ever saw the light of digital day on their publication is more than I can accept. I refuse to have any sort of association with something of that nature.

I’ll probably delete and re-publish my own stories that were there, just so I don’t risk them popping back up if Coffee Times happens to get reactivated.

What do you think of it all?

Either way, I’m glad it’s resolving in favor of supporting the LGBTQ community. I know there is still a lot of hate in people relating to those of us who identify with it, but at least I can take comfort in knowing it’s something taken very seriously here.

Thank you for being you.

Keep striving to “be the best you that you can be” at this moment. Remember, no matter who you are or what you’re going through, you are worthy of being loved. Don’t let anyone teach you anything different.

For free fiction stories you’ll find nowhere else, grab my Original Worlds Substack. If you’d like to support through a Medium membership, you’ll not only help me, but you’ll get access to everything Medium has to offer for only $5 a month. Any funding goes directly to helping this blind man feed his family.