[LifeSiteNews] 22 Sep 2008--Four San Diego firefighters who were commanded against their wills to drive a fire truck in the city's "gay pride" parade, where they were subjected to explicit sexual advances, are now suing city officials for sexual harassment and violation of free-speech rights.
Tracy Jarman, the openly lesbian fire chief of the San Diego Fire Department, admitted in her testimony on Thursday that the environment the firefighters were subjected to "could be construed as sexual harassment." The four firefighters (John Ghiotto, Jason Hewitt, Alex Kane and Chad Allison) say they found the sexually explicit environment at the parade so vulgar and disturbing that each of them sought therapy after the event, Jarman testified.
One firefighter said, "You could not even look at the crowd without getting some type of sexual gesture," adding, "If any crew member were to hang up pictures at the station of what we saw, we would be disciplined."
Charles LiMandri, attorney and West Coast director of the Thomas More Law Center representing the firefighters, believes the city should have known from past experience, "the kind of offensive activities that go on at this event," which in this case involved X-rated catcalls, genital exposure, and simulated sex acts between two men. (See LifeSiteNews.com article http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/aug/07080702.html).
No comments:
Post a Comment