Trial Begins for Firefighters Suing City over Forced Participation in Gay Pride Parade

Monday September 22, 2008
By Kathleen Gilbert

SAN DIEGO, September 22, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - 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." the rest

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