Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...Firefighters sue San Diego, alleging sexual harassment at Gay Pride
09.15.2008 3:59pm EDT
(San Diego, California) Four San Diego firefighters have launched a lawsuit against the city, claiming they were forced to take part in the city’s LGBT pride parade and were subjected to sexual taunts by crowds on the street.
The lawsuit does not mention a dollar amount sought, but the Los Angeles Times, citing settlement negotiations, reports the four want $3 million.In 2007, the San Diego fire department put a fire truck in the parade and scheduled the four to appear on it.
Following the parade, the four hired Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center, a conservative Christian law practice, to represent them. Last year, Thomas More attorney Stephen Stirling asked the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing for right-to-sue notices, a first step toward a lawsuit, and when mediation failed, the lawsuit was filed.
“You could not even look at the crowd without getting some kind of sexual gesture. If any crew member were to hang up pictures at the station of what we saw, we would be disciplined,” one of the firefighters was quoted as saying in a press release issued by the Thomas More Center shortly after it was hired to represent the men.
“I was forced into a situation that would compromise what I hold true and what I believe in,” the firefighter was quoted as saying.
The four claim they followed the order that they appear in the parade because they feared that if they refused they would be suspended or punished.
In previous years, firefighters were encouraged but not ordered to take part in the parade.
The lawsuit claims that the pride parade is a political event whose purpose is to advocate for LGBT rights including “the controversial concept of gay marriage” and that the department improperly used the four to support a political cause.
The court filing also contains photographs of bare-chested men on floats that the suit says were sexually suggestive and a list of taunts the men claim were yelled at them.
A spokesperson for the fire department at the time said that the men were assigned to the parade at the last minute, because the volunteer participants backed out when one of them had a family crisis, and that the four worked in a fire station near the parade route.
The San Diego fire department has participated in the city’s pride parade for the past 15 years.
San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre is defending the city in the lawsuit. In a court filing, Aguirre said that firefighters are “required to serve the community without discrimination as to sexual orientation.”
Aguirre’s brief also said that appearing in the parade was different than other public relations tasks performed by firefighters.
Next time a straight woman gives me the “eye” at the produce section of the supermarket, I’m gonna sue her a**! It happens all the time, and I’m completely traumatized by it. Too bad Johnny Cochran is deceased. Maybe I’ll try Gloria Allred.
Of course these guys shouldn’t have been forced to participate…but I must wonder if they themselves haven’t subjected women to the kind of treatment they received?
While some straight guys would and do find that kind of attention highly flattering.
JohnM,
I said that the firefighters do not need to participate in any parade of any type in my previous posting, (the words “of any type” might have escaped your notice. I did not exempt any parade by name)
I don’t care whether it’s St, Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, Martin Luther King, Jr. or any other day. We need the firefighters at their stations ready to fight a fire unless the parades for some reason like the Chinese New Year with its exploding firecrackers might need a firetruck for a practical reason related to exploding flammable things.
Especially, very large cities need to every firetruck available and not tied up in a parade regardless of whatever parade or whose parade it is.
Why did they not put on a sign on the truck that said:
“Straight Firefighters Lighting Your Fires!”
The law suit is just frivolous. They are greedy and lazy, and they want a free ride on San Diego. Perhaps they now might understand how we feel when we receive the homophobic cries and taunts from the rest of the non GLBT+ community.
If they prevail in this case, then we all need to bring law suits against those who spew anti-gay $#!+ like the Phelps bunch and the religious bigots. It would set a really expensive precedent.
Maybe then the bigots would leave us to our lives, if it hit them where it hurts the most: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
I totaly disagree. Whats the worst thing anyone is going to say to a fire fighter at a gay parade, your hot your hunky, come on baby light my fire? This is just a rediclous way to try and pad their wallets at the tax payers expence.
And why did they have to go to the ends of the earth to drag in a right wing law firm to represent them? Because no one else would consider them to have standing? I hope the jury is packed with gay folks to assure a proper verdect.
I dont blame them for not wanting to be in the parade. Its their right not to have to subject themselves to potential ridicule that we sometimes face ourselves. Not everyone can be as strong as we are to take the abuse that is thrown at us from the hate groups that im sure were also protesting the parade.
I for one would not want to participate in a parade for say the clan or even a St. Patricks day parade, as I am neither a moron nor catholic irish.
The firefighters have the right to sue and I hope then win.
Help DEFEAT Proposition 8 in California NOW
https://secure.ga4.org/01/equalityforall?qp_source=lagaycenter
https://www.kintera.org/site/apps/ka/sd/donor.asp?c=kuLRJ9MRKrH&b=4026589&en=mtKQKXPIIfIMLYNGL9IJJZPRLtIXJ5NOJmLYLcPPIeKRKbP2E
This is the craziest thing that I’ve ever heard.
Like most stories, I’m thinking that there is more behind this than is being explained. I can not imagine that firefighters or cops would be “forced” to participate in a parade. I can see having them stationed in the area for incidents or even to do displays, but not to ride/drive in a parade. Heck, I know gay folk that are not comfortable participating in a Pride Parade.
Atlanta is probably a bit more gay tolerant than San Diego and we have never had a fire truck in the parade. There is a fire station along the parade route and it’s off service during the parade. So the firefighters open it up for people to see the inside and see the services of the community. The straight and gay firemen in town enjoy Pride. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.
The Firefighters’ suit seems to lack merit on the face. They are required to as part of their job to be subjected to anyone’s taunt.
Jon and Morgan,
Let’s see: if these firefighters were asked to participate in a Martin Luther King Jr day parade, or a Cinco de Mayo day parade, or a Chinese New Year parade, and refused, would you feel the same way. We want our firefighters to support our city’s cultural diversity and show they are public servants hired and paid to help ALL the people of a city, not just those they are “comfortable” with.
To not participate because of homophobia is wrong, prejudicial and culturally insensitive. If these firefighters don’t want to ride on a simple float, what will they do when they need to put out a real fire in a major gay bar, or during the gay pride event?
Oh, the poor fireman, being ogled by other men is so tough it is worth being paid 3 million dollars. Give me a break, this suit is about sheer greed. These same firefighters have probably been ogling women for years. If they are so sensitive, then they should not take a job requiring bravery and putting their lives at risk.
It is also, like the military, that an order is an order, and if these men were told they have to do the job, they have to do it, unless they have good enough reason not too. These men just saying they were afraid they would loose their job, is just an assumption. They should of made their bias known, and asked to be released of the said parade duty.
The so called being shocked and sexually harrassed at the parade is a bunch of mush. For them to be shocked by what they heard at the pride parade and any so called gestures is just them putting the whole LGBT into a ‘naughty category’ with claims of sexual perversion. This is what they want people to believe, so as to claim the 3 million, and what better way than to fake humliation, and harrassment, than to blame a gay pride parade.
Waaaaaaaaah. Straight men need to learn how to take a compliment.
Oh the poor things! Anyway, they SDFD should have just pulled out if they didn’t have anyone to ride on the float, rather than force these four men on it.
I’m sure the crowd probably assumed, and rightly so, that these firemen were gay and that’s why they were there.
I find it a little deceptive to people on a float or truck when clearly they don’t feel “gay” pride what so-ever. Shame on the fire department.
Doesn’t the fire truck and its crew have better things to do (than appear in a parade of any type) like being on hand at the fire station in case of a fire in need of extinguishing?
This is a tough case because although the four men involved are clearly uncomfortable with gays, their hiring of an anti-gay christian based law firm makes that clear, the truth is they should not have been forced to participate nor should they have felt refusal could mean censure. The bottom line here is, if gays want equal treatment and freedom to be who they are, then by definition, these four men should be allowed to refuse. Whether I agree with their beliefs or not (I don’t), they still should have had the right to decline. As for the “required to serve the community without discrimination as to sexual orientation” comment. The parade was not a fire. If these men had refused to put out a fire at a gay bar, this comment would have merit.