San Diego Firefighters Forced To Attend Gay Pride Parade

San Diego Firefighters Forced To Attend Gay Pride Parade

www.foxnews.com

In 28 years of responding to fires and saving lives, Fire Capt. John Ghiotto of the San Diego Fire Department never thought his job would require him to attend a Gay Pride parade.

"I've dealt with finding bodies in burning buildings, traffic accidents with kids, but I've never been so stressed out before until this incident," Ghiotto told FOXNews.com in an exclusive interview.

(visit the link for the full news article)


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Mod Edit: Removed excessive copy/paste over the 500 character limit.

[edit on 8-8-2007 by UM_Gazz]

This is an example of the government forcing their employees to support a political stance. That is patently against the law, and will result in a successful lawsuit against San Diego.

www.foxnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but are'nt firefighters along with other emergency
personnel suppose to attend all events with large amounts of people like this?

They should know that it's part of their job to protect the public, regardless
of if they are comfortable or not.

Unless they were ordered to march IN the parade?
That would be illegal right?

Originally posted by iori_komei
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but are'nt firefighters along with other emergency
personnel suppose to attend all events with large amounts of people like this?

They should know that it's part of their job to protect the public, regardless
of if they are comfortable or not.

This was not a case of performing a public safety function. Their boss, who is openly lesbian, forced them to show support for the parade against their wishes.

Originally posted by jsobecky
Their boss, who is openly lesbian, forced them to show support for the parade against their wishes.

If this is true, then I agree with the sexual harrassment suit. If it was not part of their job, then how were they under her orders? If I'm not on duty and my superior tells me to do something, you know what I'd do? I tell them no and to stay out of my personal life. If they were not on duty, why didn't they just leave? If they were on duty, then they should remain on duty and stop whinning about it.

Furthermore, if they were so uncomfortable and these people were really being lewd in public, why didn't they call in their cop friends to start citing people for public lewdness?

Sounds like a couple guys who were embarrassed to be seen at the parade to me. But, I don't want to jump to conclusions as I've been told I do sometimes.

this is a classic example of the gay rights lobby forcing their agenda on the rest of us. this parallels with the oakland case, where the terms "marriage" and "family were prohibited from being used in a government office because a certain lesbian felt "uncomfortable" and "excluded". however, straight people were forced to deal with signs proclaiming "gay pride" and other abnormal filth.free speech was blatantly, and deliberately suppressed. this needs to stop NOW.

I guess the city should pay for them to go to a Jesus camp to get the gayness off them before they turn into the dark side.

I find the story hilarious.

This grown men and women could have denied to attend base on their believes and then fight the system with law sues for any repercussions against them.

But no, this grown men just force themselves into the sin and decadent of the lesbian and gay parade so they can have more ammunition to their very clear law sues that are to come next.

Yes they need Jesus camp alright.

Marg, Jesus Camp!!!

Well, i dont see anything wrong- If i saw a bunch of firefighters at a Gay Parade, i wouldnt think the firefighters were Gay. There will be policemen too, and they just represent order and some people are just too Homophobic, that's all.

I'm not a lessie and i've marched for AIDS with a ton of gays and it didnt wreck my life or make me wonder if i was doubtful about my sexual preferences.

Honestly, with all the problems in this world, you'd think this was some horrific ordeal for the firefighters.

Be a man and get out there and DO YOUR JOB. And stop being a baby and ??? questioning your sexuality.
This is my morning Editorial.

Also, if they were NOT at work, how can they claim sexual harrassment on the job?

If they were at work, why didn't they cite these lewd people?

I agree. Just more ammo for the homophobes out there.

Originally posted by Griff
Sounds like a couple guys who were embarrassed to be seen at the parade to me.

Perhaps they were embarassed. But who are you or I to tell them what they should like or not like?

But, I don't want to jump to conclusions as I've been told I do sometimes.

That seems to be a good idea...

The four men allege they were ordered by a battalion chief to attend last month's parade and feared consequences for failure to do so, since refusing to follow a direct order constitutes disciplinary action.

If the men refused to follow the direct order, they could have been suspended on the spot and stripped of any chance for a promotion, according to their manual, Ghiotto said. It was Ghiotto's first direct order.

Originally posted by marg6043
This grown men and women could have denied to attend base on their believes and then fight the system with law sues for any repercussions against them.

But no, this grown men just force themselves into the sin and decadent of the lesbian and gay parade so they can have more ammunition to their very clear law sues that are to come next.

Wrong. That would have put them into the position of defending themselves, instead of putting the focus where it belongs - on the supervisor.

If not for the illegal actions of their supervisor, they would not have been in that position. She is the one who needs to be disciplined, not them.

But then, it's so much easier and more fun to appear "enlightened" and to mock the "Homophobic firefighters", isn't it?

To those of you that think the firefighters are making a mountain out of a molehill, let me ask you a question.

Would you attend a support rally for Bush if your boss told you to?

Originally posted by jsobecky
But then, it's so much easier and more fun to appear "enlightened" and to mock the "Homophobic firefighters", isn't it?

Enlightened Js? they are playing the game quite well actually, they are the forced victims of a lesbian power

They forced themselves on attending so they can have now a thread like this one to support their views of how sick society is when they force good Christian men and women into the depravity of attending a gay and lesbian parade.

Anti gay groups are having a ball with this one.

Yes they need to go and disinfect themselves in Jesus camp.

[edit on 8-8-2007 by marg6043]

Originally posted by jsobecky
Would you attend a support rally for Bush if your boss told you to?

If I was on the job, yes.

If I was'nt on the clock, I would if I was getting overtime.

Jsobecky, yes, some men/women are homophobic, and that is the plain truth.

Its like they think they will catch "the decease" if they rub elbows with a gay person.

Nothing could be further from the truth and they were made to go because the "presence of firefighters are at most of these functions"- Its just the way it is. They should look upon it as a day when they wont be called to fight a fire and put their lives at risk.

They go to fairs, they go to childrens functions, schools, they are respected because they often put their lives on the line and they will be respected at a Gay Parade also.

Wow, i cant understand how some can actually be insulted by this. These few firemen would complain if they had to go to an all negro gathering, or to a Hispanic function also.

Very narrow minded and i'm glad they have to go and sweat it out.

I'D BITE THE BULLET AND GO TO A BUSH RALLY IF I WAS GETTING PAID FOR IT.

[edit on 8-8-2007 by dgtempe]

Originally posted by jsobecky
But who are you or I to tell them what they should like or not like?

No one should be.

The four men allege they were ordered by a battalion chief to attend last month's parade and feared consequences for failure to do so, since refusing to follow a direct order constitutes disciplinary action.

So, they allege that they were ordered to attend. How can she order them to attend when they are suppossedly NOT on duty to "protect and serve"?

If the men refused to follow the direct order, they could have been suspended on the spot and stripped of any chance for a promotion, according to their manual, Ghiotto said. It was Ghiotto's first direct order.

This is supposition from the firemen. Nowhere did I read that the comander said if they didn't, she'd strip them of a chance for promotion.

Wrong. That would have put them into the position of defending themselves, instead of putting the focus where it belongs - on the supervisor.

No. It would have put the focus on the supervisor.

If not for the illegal actions of their supervisor, they would not have been in that position. She is the one who needs to be disciplined, not them.

Like I said, if she actually did order them to "attend" and not "work", then I agree with you.

But then, it's so much easier and more fun to appear "enlightened" and to mock the "Homophobic firefighters", isn't it?

No. It's easier to recognize that these guys were ordered (so they say) to do their job and not whine about it.

Originally posted by jsobecky
Would you attend a support rally for Bush if your boss told you to?

If I was a police officer or a fireman that was there to "protect and serve", then yes. If I'm off duty, I'd tell my superior to go frack themselves.

I think that the main point here is that the firefighters felt uncomfortable with what they were being asked to do. Surely that is all we really need to know.

Originally posted by dgtempe
Nothing could be further from the truth and they were made to go because the "presence of firefighters are at most of these functions"- Its just the
way it is.

Do you have a link to back this up? I am just not sure if this is the case or not.

Originally posted by dgtempe

They should look upon it as a day when they wont be called to fight a fire and put their lives at risk.

Presumably this is the exact reason that most firefighters signed up, not to attend rallies which promote something that goes against their beliefs? I am not religious and don't care what people get up to in their private lives, but these firefighters do seem to be religious and doing what they were asked to do goes against THEIR beliefs.

Originally posted by dgtempe

Wow, i cant understand how some can actually be insulted by this. These few firemen would complain if they had to go to an all negro gathering, or to a Hispanic function also.

We are not all the same dg, we don't all think the same or have the same beliefs. Surely its not that hard to imagine how they could be insulted? And I don't think its really fair to assume that these same people would complain about going to a "negro gathering" or "hispanic function" either. Are you suggesting they are racist also?

Originally posted by dgtempe
Very narrow minded and i'm glad they have to go and sweat it out.

This is starting to sound like an attack and it really isn't, but aren't you the narrow minded one for not being empathetic enough to understand the views and concerns of others?

If what the fierfighters are complaining about was a non issue then surely things wouldn't be at the stage they are now? ie. News reports and complaints relating to the incident

There has been representation by the fire department for years at this
gay parade. It's a community celebration type-of-thing. In the past,
their representation has supported the fact that different lifestyles can live
in basically the same area and get along.
These wamby-pamby light-weight firefighters are more concerned about
their macho images than they are of anything else.
So what if there's a fire in this section of town? Maybe they'd be shown on
television as "morally-reluctant" to respond. Then what would happen to
their image?
I live close to the area, and this really hasn't been an issue before.
These firemen are just mental lightweights. In a state as big and diverse
as California, they should know better. ( or get another job!)