i feel like their main complaint was that one: they were forced to participate in something they believe is wrong. two: they were put on display. essentially in a non neutral position. whereas if they were doing crowd control the public wouldn’t necessarily see their presence as supportive. but they still would have received the same treatment, i believe.

am i making sense?

anyway, thanks for sending this article my way. i talked to my mom and she said she hasn’t heard anything about it and that she didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary with the fire dept float. she said there were a lot of overtly sexual displays, as always, but definitely tongue in cheek and in a gracious way. i don’t even want to get into what she means by that. i guess she means, that there was nothing going on that she wouldn’t take her 10 year old daughter to. and in terms of parenting my mom was pretty protective.

Parades of this size, regardless of what cause they celebrate, often get out of hand. Take any town’s St. Patty’s Day parade, par example, a holiday devoted to the consumption of alcohol. It is necessary for public servants — police and fire personnel — to be present to “keep the peace” as they say and provide for the general welfare of the people. Surely cops and firemen have to deal with drunks who do lewd things like flash them, make immature sexual statements, make out in public, la la la at these parades.

So, then, would it make the case any different if these four men were at the parade to provide security, as part of their job, and exposed to the behavior they deemed harassment? As opposed to being exposed to it while riding a float? Providing security at the parade would still have been apart of their job, and refusing to do so would have likely brought on the same disciplinary action.

Do you think the men would have still complained then, even if they were subjected to the same “taunts and obscene bahaviors?”

and you’re right they shouldn’t have been forced to participate. i must have missed the part where there was a gun to their heads.

Actually the men were forced to go.

There WAS a complaint after last years parade by a female fire captain. It was ignored by the fire department. That’s where they made the mistake. They knew there was a problem, so they threatened these guys with discipline if they didn’t participate.

This parade is overtly sexual in nature and uniformed public safety personnel should have never been forced to participate. But the department knew that and took the risk anyway.

The firefighters were correct to retain legal counsel.