As The San Diego Union-Tribune reported last week, the Catholic Archdiocese has angered a federal judge by filing for bankruptcy. The judge says that by doing so the Archdiocese is hiding assets the court needs to help settle more than 125 child abuse claims and preventing the cases from airing in public courts.

Is there anything more immoral than being indifferent to child abuse and then hiding the money to pay the child abuse victims for the physical and emotional trauma?

Where are the Alliance Defense Fund and the Thomas More Foundation?

We all know where the Thomas More Foundation is. It spent last week filing a sexual harassment claim on behalf of four San Diego firefighters. The claim is so weak, lawyers are joking that “even Mike Aguirre can win this one.”

To put things in perspective, Brenda Lee, African-American lesbian firefighter who sued the L.A. Fire Department on charges of pervasive racial and sexual orientation, won a real “sexual harassment” and bias case last month. A Los Angeles jury awarded her $6.2 million.

Unlike the local firefighters, Lee proved that her co-employees and supervisors harassed her on a daily basis for years. They ridiculed her in every way imaginable, despite her complaints to superiors. Her claim met the conditions in the California Government Code for such anti-gay bias.

The claim filed by local firefighters does not. The claim does not allege that the firefighters were subject to pervasive and persistent harassment by colleagues and superiors. Instead, it alleges they suffered harassment by “parade-goers.”

California law, while requiring employers to protect against abuse by “customers,” does not require employers to protect against abuse by those over whom it has no control.

Further, in sexual harassment cases, the victims must suffer damages. They must prove post-traumatic distress, or emotional strain.

On this point, one should bear in mind that fire fighting/ paramedic work is not for the thin-skinned. The typical homeless junkie or drunk is far more abusive to our emergency workers than anything the firefighters allege the parade goers were.

It’s no coincidence that the firefighters filed their claim at this time, when Tracy Jarman is the first female and the first lesbian to be at the helm of the male-dominated fire agency. Perhaps the firefighters hoped to cast Jarman in a bad light, expecting her to criticize them for complaining. But Jarman put the fire out right away when she issued an apology to the men and the city amended the department policy about taking part in parades.

Jarman and the city did the right thing, recognizing that a parade is about a message: The Supreme Court treats parades as a political spectacle/speech. Given that some people view Pride as a platform for supporting same-sex marriage or other GLBT issues, anyone who disagrees with these messages should not be required to march alongside those who do. Similarly, Jarman and other lesbian and gay firefighters should be excused from marching in a parade celebrating the Boy Scouts, as the group bars gays and lesbians from coming anywhere near the compound on city land, except in case of a fire.

But this reasoning ends with the parade. Firefighters cannot be excused from other job functions on the grounds of their personal beliefs. They don’t, by extension, have the option of refusing to save a gay man in a burning home because they, for instance, believe all gays should burn in hell.