Pictures from 2007 San Diego Pride (Video: hapyphan8 at YouTube)
Yesterday four firefighters returned to a San Diego courtroom. John Ghiotto, Jason Hewitt, Alex Kane, Chad Allison and their attorney, Charles LiMandri, are suing the city, claiming the four were victims of sexual harassment when the firefighters were ordered by their superiors to participate in the 2007 Gay Pride Parade in San Diego. This is the second trial for the group. Last October a jury rejected their claim of sexual harassment and also ruled that one of the four was not retaliated against when he was up for promotion to the rank of captain — the rank he now holds.
According to the San Diego Union Tribune, “They said they were subjected to cat-calls and forced to watch barely clothed men simulate sex acts during the July 2007 parade. The experience, they said, left them with headaches, anxiety and stomach problems, although they’ve acknowledged they are no longer suffering.”
According to one of the firefighters, ”You could not even look at the crowd without getting some type of sexual gesture.” He added, “If any crew member were to hang up pictures at the station of what we saw, we would be disciplined.” However, the firefighters’ attorney described a presentation to the courtroom during the earlier trial as “R-rated.”
The local GLBT paper, the Gay and Lesbian Times, disagrees with the charge of sexual harassment, “If they’re to be believed, these firefighters faced comments (including “Show me your hose,” or “I need mouth to mouth”) from 100 of the 150,000 parade spectators, or less than one-tenth of one percent of the parade-going people during the mile-long, three-hour celebration.”
To be clear the San Diego pride parade is not what’s on trial. What is on trial is an internal fire department policy, now rescinded, that required personnel to participate in the annual parade, that resulted in the alleged sexual harassment, and retaliation for publicly objecting to how their superiors treated them.
At his website, attorney Charles LiMandri describes his clients as “four brave Christian Firefighters who were ordered against their will to participate.” In addition to the sexual harassment and retaliation charges, LiMandri maintains his clients’ freedoms of speech and religion were violated during the three hour parade. The attorney is seeking damages of up to one million dollars for each of his clients.
If LiMandri’s name sounds familiar, that is because he served as general counsel for the National Organization for Marriage, one of the key backers of the Prop 8 campaign, and as West Coast Director of the Thomas More Law Center. More about the man James Hartline named San Diego’s 2009 Citizen of the Year later.
For the duration of the trial, I’ll be posting updates and information about the individuals involved. It seemed the best place to start would be by taking a look at the 2007 parade.
Having attended GLBT pride events in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Amsterdam, San Diego’s pride events seem rather tame by comparison — hardly the dionysian, gays-gone-wild street orgy the plaintiffs make them out to be. I’ve included two video slideshows, and sets of photographs from San Diego Pride, the event’s organizing body, can be found at Flickr.
San Diego Pride 2007 (Video: Universal Hillcrest at YouTube)
Earlier posts on this topic:
