They're gay...and they're proud! (Updated...firefighters were ORDERED to participate in parade)

Who wouldn't be? Because this is the kind of behavior that should be celebrated at taxpayer expense:

Four respected San Diego firefighters were ordered, against their wishes, to participate in uniform on their city fire truck in the city’s annual “Gay Pride” parade.

During the course of the ensuing three hour long ordeal, the firefighters were subjected to vile sexual taunts from homosexuals lining the parade route. This included the following statements: “show me your hose,” “you can put out my fire,” “you’re making me hot,” “give me mouth-to-mouth,” “you look hungry, why don’t you have a twinkie (from a man wearing a “Girth and Mirth” t-shirt),” and “blow my hose.”

When they refused to respond to the crowd, some in the crowd turned hostile and started shouting, “F—k you firemen” and others began “flipping them off.”

San Diego's annual parade celebrates this

The firefighters were also targets of gross sexual gestures to include the following: exposure of genitals, blowing kisses, grabbing of the crotch, rubbing of nipples, tongue gestures, men hugging and kissing one another passionately, many of them wearing make-up and dressed like women. Although the firefighters were not physically assaulted, the gestures were clearly directed towards them.

But according to lesbian fire chief Tracy Jarman, it's all good clean fun:

Fire Chief, Tracy Jarman, an open lesbian, stated, “This is a fun event and all employees are required encouraged to participate.”

When Jarman was appointed Fire Chief she stated that her homosexuality has never been an issue at the department and she has never seen any gay-related trouble.

Well...until now anyway.

More proud San Diegans just having good clean fun

Van Helsing at Moonbattery has more...

(Updated 7:49am, August 7): From the San Diego Union Tribune:

Fire department spokesman Maurice Luque said the fire crew was chosen because its fire station 5 on Ninth Avenue in Hillcrest is in the community where the parade took place. Luque said another crew had volunteered, but bowed out for personal reasons, including a family death, the day before.

In statements filed with the state, the men said that along the parade route, they were subjected to offensive and lewd comments such as, “You can put out my fire,” and saw men blowing kisses at them. Then, they said, they had to endure protesters who yelled at them that homosexuality was a sin. Some comments were too graphic
to print.

Note how writer Pauline Repard uses the line "some comments were too graphic to print" directly after her line about the anti-homosexual protestors...as if the protestors were the ones using the graphic language.

That was not the case. Here is the complaint. The protestors did tell the firefighters that they would "go to hell" for supporting homosexuality...but the complaint does not indicate any "graphic comments" by the protestors.

No...the "graphic comments" all came from the crowd who was there to celebrate the homosexual lifestyle.

But there's more. It turns out that the firefighters were given a direct order to participate in the parade. From the statement of firefighter Chad Allison:

On July 21, 2007, I was called into work for overtime at Fire Station 5. I found out just prior to my arrival that Engine 5 was assigned to participate in the Gay Pride Parade. Battalion Chief Tony Pollard informed our crew that we were going to be participating in the parade. Having heard of past harassment that occurred from members of members of the public to Fire Personnel in the parade and having personal experience with similar circumstances, I felt extremely uncomfortable with the potential of being subjected to sexual harassment...

I expressed my concern to my supervisor, Fire Captain John Ghiotto...Captain Ghiotto expressed our conern to Battalion Chief Tony Pollard. Around 9:00 hours, Battalion Chief Pollard stated that we were to report to staging at 09:30 hours. Captain Ghiotto again expressed his concerns and asked if our participation was a direct order. Battallion Chief Pollard informed us that is was a direct order from Shift Commander Camberos, Deputy Chief Marlborough, and Assistant Chief Jeff Carle.

Contact Mayor Jerry Sanders here.