"You can put out my fire...Let me hold your hose...Pull out your hose..." -Firefighter testimony in sexual harassment lawsuit against the City of San Diego
Outrage! What is going on in the San Diego gay community lately? Is it the eight years of the George Bush administration? Are the gains toward social legitimacy and legal marriage responsible? Where is the pride? The aforementioned taunts lobbed at four San Diego Firefighters during the Gay and Lesbian Pride are despicable. An utter embarrassment to the generations of brilliant gay comedians who came before these hecklers who dare not speak their name. & The flurry of green carnation petals you see flying these days are a direct result of Oscar Wilde spinning madly in his grave.
These lame "hose" jokes were pulled from the bottom of the clich e bin; the sort of fireman jokes you might expect from rural Pennsylvanians taking a time out from guns and bitter religion. & If we can no longer count on members of the gay community to come up with side-splitting, society skewering, keen edged barbs at just the right moment... then the world is truly becoming unrecognizable. Next, I suppose there will be a black President.
Firemen who wilt, wince and blubberat Will and Grace or Three's Company caliber gay jokes are one thing - but I for one refuse to stand for a city which cannot properly heckle its beefcakey civil servants. The recent mistrial verdict should not be read as a victory for San Diego's gay community. You know you have problems when Mike Aguirre rushes to your defense. Never mind those Playboys the fellas back at Firehouse No. 5 had sitting around. Never mind the long standing tradition of firemen posing in hunky calendars for charity ( the Carlsbad crew ).
I suspect the tears these firemen purportedly shed after the parade were less of shame than they were of sorrow. & Is gay comedy dead? Have firemen become super sensitive? Has this equality thing gone so far that now straight and gay people are equally funny? Or maybe it's time for me to confront a longstanding prejudice.
