[After nine Scottish firefighters were disiplined after refusing to hand out fire safety leaflets at the Scottish gay pride festival.]
"They were asked, while in uniform, to hand out leaflets during a demonstration where they had legitimate concerns about being the subject of taunts and jokes, and in which in some cases, their religious sensibilities would have been grossly offended by people dressed as priests and nuns lampooning the Church."
He added: "That the officers concerned are being forced to undergo diversity training is alarming. The duty to obey one's conscience is a higher duty than that of obeying orders."
28 comments
Firstly - it's a good idea to hand out fire safety notices, whomsoever's parade it is.
Why would they have expected the gays to taunt them? That seems like a ridiculous thing to expect against anything but counterdemonstrators or groups or persons previously known to be ideologically opposed to gaiety, such as the archbishop quoted above. I have never known fundyism and firefighting to be equated before this. The whole incident just doesn't make sense to me.
<< David: This has been rumbling along in the news for a few days now; it only turned up on here because the archbishop stuck his oar in. I think this was the first mention on the BBC site; I don't know whether the nine firefighters were acting out of religious bigotry or just plain ordinary homophobia (Lord knows there's enough of that about even without the support of the church). >>
You know, I am Scottish, so I feel a bit of, well, ownership on this one. Come on guys, we are a people whose formal wear for men includes plaid skirts that would make a horny Japanese school-girl fetishist collapse with a brain embolism. We should not be homophobic. The gay men I know think I look fabulous in my kilts. Luckily I have the legs for it, but unfortunately I have the ass of Dr. Venture. :(
They are not paid to think about 'religious sensitivities', they are paid and expected to do the job they were trained for...so if they are going to discriminate, they need to get out of the PUBLIC service sector.
And sorry sir, but Christ, as far as I am concerned, did the same. After all, they are commanded to help human beings, however horrible their acts are.
Er maybe he means they were afraid that in their uniforms they would have been mistaken for homosexuals.
I know someone else is bound to say it, but fuck it, here goes:
Sort of gives new meaning to the phrase "flaming fag" doesn't it?
(BTW, I'm bisexual, so I can say that. Take it up with the FCC.)
"The duty to obey one's conscience is a higher duty than that of obeying orders."
Yes, it is. But in the case of a conflict like this they have two choices, obey orders or quit their jobs.
This is weird.
Why were they ordered to distribute fire-safety pamplets at a gay-pride parade?
Why didn't they organise a fire-safety parade on their own account? You know, roll the ladder-trucks down the street and spray the children with fire retardant [just kidding]...were they too cheap to do that? or did some bureaucrat simply deem it expedient to use *any* public venue to propagate the message?
I'm with the rebellious firemen on this, simply because the association is rather ludicrous.
His Archbiship [stolen from A. Burgess] stuck his oar in, indeed.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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