Dear John Ghiotto, Alex Kane, Jason Hewitt and Chad Allison,

We’ve read your complaint about your mandatory participation in the Pride parade, and we’d like to apologize.

We are sorry you were the target of ugly, sexually degrading comments that belittled and humiliated you, and showed little respect for your character or the work you do. The GLBT community is all-too familiar with the treatment. We, too, have been disparaged and demoralized at the hands of others.

But that is all the empathy you are going to get from us. Because, in truth, we have little sympathy for you, our first responders – you whose mental capacity, courage, strength and confidence could not withstand a few comments made during an event that, by its nature, is intended to celebrate diversity.

We will speak directly to you, and not to your colleagues, who have walked alongside us in Pride parades for 15 years. We have little sympathy for you four because there was a policy in place that required you to participate in a parade in your district. The policy was not specific to your station. The policy existed for each station and pertained to all city parades and festivals. You chose to work at Station 5, in the heart of Hillcrest on Ninth Avenue.

And so, knowing you are four of the best and brightest, we’d like to believe you read your contracts and understood your duties. We hope you understood your responsibilities and that, in the event the volunteer base didn’t come through, you were entirely aware 30 days in advance that you would ride in the parade July 21.

The policy has since been scrapped, a weak reactionary move by the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department and Fire Chief Tracy Jarman, a lesbian. Granted, the policy should not have existed in the first place. But, to cave to your complaint only reverses the progress we’ve made. And it blemishes your department’s progress too – your department had a 15-year history of supporting Pride; 15 years that passed with no reported incidents. A decade and a half during which no other firefighters found reason to claim, as you have, that comments allegedly directed your way during the parade so shook, so bothered, so traumatized you that you had to request counseling.

Face it: If you had been forced to patrol Over The Line, a hedonistic celebration of hetero-sex and hard liquor wisely disguised as a softball tournament, you would have been thrilled. And if sorority girls from Pacific Beach had shouted, “Show me your hose,” you would have called your station mates and laughed. Now, we hope your colleagues are calling you and laughing at what wimps you are.

The New York City Fire Department has splashed its firefighters’ bare-chested bodies on calendars for years. The FDNY capitalized on its workers’ sex appeal, in fact, until last week, when it discovered cover boy Michael Biserta happily tugged on his hose in Guys Gone Wild. It seems that sexploitation is perfectly acceptable among firefighters so long as it’s hetero.

The truth is, the GLBT community, the community you chose to work in, is still the only socially acceptable target of discrimination, and you capitalized on a culture of hate for a cash grab.

Even though you’ve received permission to sue, it’s time for you to find new districts. As far as we can tell, you are weak-wristed, unstable, unsuited, incapable little mamas’ boys. You’ve shaken our confidence, shamed Station 5 and, I’m sure you’d agree, the last thing we need is sissies monitoring our safety.

Regards,

The Gay & Lesbian Times