NEWS: Firefighters Threaten To Sue The Pants Off Of San Diego After Being Put Out By Flaming Homosexuals

That type of logic is senseless.

I am a professional fireman.

I don't care who people sleep with...if their house is on fire, I'm going in and putting it out.

I am not "grossed out" by homosexuality. I would not, however, want to march in the gay pride parade. First...I'm not gay. Second...the relentless ball-breaking by the guys who weren't forced to participate would make life in the firehouse miserable. Third...there is no direct professional correlation between the pride parade and the fire department.

This was not firemen refusing to participate in a professional capacity. This was not firemen refusing to perform say...a fire safety lecture in a gay community.

Where the firemen lose my support...is when they decided to sue for sexual harrassment. They should have accepted the chief's apology...and then had a conference with their union president to ensure that Sad Diego firemen would not have to participate in non-fire related duties against their will.

Calling the firemen jerks because they didn't want to march in the gay pride parade against their will is ignorant.

I am confused... were they asked, or were they ordered?

It seems they didn't have a problem with it until they looked around and saw gay people. At a gay pride parade? You're shittin' me!

If they were so against it, they should have refused to get on the truck in the first place. Then if they were forced to (how?)...they might have a reason to sue.

But if they didn't sue I promise you the cheif would never have apoligized, and then it would have just been swept under the rug. It was stated earlier and I agree with it.... the only way to get things done in america is fucking sue.....

i would totally fucking sue.
if i was forced to be there,
and that kind of stuff bothered me in the slightest.

that's a great lawsuit.

Ok then...file the lawsuit...accept the chief's apology, and promptly withdraw the lawsuit once your point has been made.

Being a fireman is more than being just another civil servant. There's a responsibility to it...a certain code, if you will. We do things differently. There are things you just don't do when you're a fireman. THere's a certain way to act.

Firemen are honorable, standup, blue-collar guys. They're old-fashioned guys. We handle things internally. We're not supposed to air out our dirty laundy.

We're different from most other public servants. We have to buy a lot of our gear with our own money....or make it from things we can piece together. How many cops do you know who make their own gunbelt....or work on their own patrol car?

Being a fireman is a special thing. I take it seriously. There's a responsibility (or there should be) that comes with the job....and suing to make your point isn't in the game plan.

That's just how I feel.

To start this off I want to let everyone know that I have never commented on anything on this site before. But the missconceptions by people commenting on this topic made me feel like I needed to say something.
First of all I am a firefighter in the San Diego area. I dont work for the city, but not far. Any firefighter will tell you that they are harassed on a regular basis, usually its by women but I have personally been subject to lewd remarks by both men and women on the job. Personally I am a shy guy and can't really take those remarks by either men or women. They make me feel uncomfortable. I also know that if I am subjected to behavior that makes me feel uncomfortable I know that I can let my supervisors know that I am uncomfortable with being there. I also know that any good supervisor would help you out and just leave.
Now the problem with this situation is that they were ORDERED to be in a situation that made them feel uncomfortable. They were harassed, tried to leave, and were ordered to stay and get back out of their engine. Imagine if this were an all female crew at say a St. Patrick's Day parade. Let's also say that hypothetically their happen to be drunk people in said parade. Now let's just say that some of those drunk guys started to whip out their genitals and told those female firefighter to "check out their hose." Those two situations, as far as sexual harasment legally goes, is exactlly the same. And I don't think anyone here would say that those female firefighters would be out of line to sue the city. Everyone has to realize that this, legally, has nothing to do with homosexuality. This has to do with a department that did not stand up for their employees. That chief was criminally stupid to do what she did. This situation could have been completely avoided if that cheif hadn't let her personal beliefs get in the way of her profesional responsibilities.

I agree completely....

+1

Actually, here in Baton Rouge at least, cops do have to buy a lot of their equipment; uniforms, boots, handcuffs, belts, etc.

That's not really true, Fire Departments don't hire only guys. They may be blue-collar, and some of them may be honorable, but the 'guys' part isn't really correct as the FD is a mixed sex organisation.
Just a linguistic correction, really.

My father is a firefighter for SDFD and knows the guys that are behind the lawsuit. According to him, the guys that were originally supposed to attend the parade called in sick on the day of in order to avoid it, and their replacements were sent without much warning when they showed up to fill in for the original crew. The main thing isn't that they are intolerant of homosexuals but that they are forced to attend something and then are harrassed the entire time. From what i have heard from firefighters that have attended in previous years is that on one side you have gay people constantly throwing out innuendo at them and on the other side you have the anti-gay religious protesters telling them they are going to hell on the other side of the street.

I think a lawsuit is a little over the top, but no one regardless of their beliefs should be forced to attend something like that and i totally understand where the firefighters are coming from.

yeah, most of that stuff is uniforms & non-life safety equipment. I know a lot of department make their cop sbuy their own body armor, though.

The point I was trying to make...is the firemen often have to buy or MAKE our own life-safety equipment. I had to buy my own emergency harness & rope...in case I ever have to jump out of a window.

I had to buy my own linesman pliers incase I ever have to cut myself out of wires & duct work in a collapse. I had to buy my own flashlight so I can see (somewhat) in a fire.

We also have to work on our own equipment...because we can't afford to take our vehicles out of service long enough for the city mechanic to get around to fixing it. We weld shit back on the gets broken off...we make our own brackets.....we haul shit out of the trash and make it work. We have to make our own door wedges out of scrap wood because the city won't buy us the stuff we need. a 5 cent piece of wood keeps an automatic door from locking us in a burning stairwell...or apartment.

For Christ's sake....we've had to buy LIGHTBULBS...for our firehouse with our own money...because the city "couldn't afford it in the budget".

All I'm trying to intimate here...is that we're not you average, 15-minute coffee break....1 hour lunch....watercooler gossiping civil service employee....and we deserve a little bit of latitude when it comes to how we react the something we're FORCED to do that isn't part of our job description.