Oh, you silly Americans. You thought you had a monopoly on anti-gay government workers refusing to do their jobs where they cross paths with teh gays. Well I'm here to tell you, we have them in Canada too.
Oh, and happy frozen Pride Day Calgary!
Tonight's title owes apologies and humility to Weird Al Yankovic, and by extension to Queen.
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Grab yourself a Tim Hortons (no apostrophe!) coffee and an orange croissant, and join the festivities below.
Today, Sunday Sept 6, is Pride Day in Calgary. Alright, technically it's a week-long festival, not just a day, though it culminates with the parade on Sunday. Why so late in the year? Because back in the old days, Pride Day was held in the spring, as it is in many other North American cities. But the weather was often crappy. Cold, wet, the remnants of winter sometimes refusing to give up. So, a few years ago, the local organizing committee decided to move Pride Day to late summer, hoping for better weather.
How did that work out for ya?
Well last night, as my partner and I were surfing the net (me here in Top Comments, him reading other blogs) and multitasking with a documentary on the teevee, something was going on outside. It was this:
Snow. The night before Pride Day, and the parade, it snowed. This morning as I type these words at about 8:30AM, most of that snow is still on the ground. The current temperature is 4C/39F with a wind chill effect at 0C/32F. The parade starts downtown in about 3.5 hours. That awful stuff should be melted away by then.
Sometimes they get lucky with the weather, sometimes not. Oh, well.
If you know your gay Pride history, you know that you can't just have it without a little push-back from the right wing, eh?
In honour of the day, and the preceeding week, the city's public transit system painted one of their buses with rainbow colours, and the slogan "Ride With Pride". This bus was sent out on a different route each day for the week, in order to circulate around as much of the city as possible. And of course it will be in the parade as well.
The Pride Bus in happier days, pre-snow
One of the transit bus drivers, Jesse Rau, objected.
Jesse Rau, who has worked for Calgary Transit as a driver for about a year, says he's a Christian and can't support homosexuality.
...
Doug Morgan, director of Calgary Transit, says drivers can only refuse to work based on safety issues.
Rau is a unionized employee of a service owned and operated by the municipal government. He refuses to drive the Pride Bus, on the grounds of religious freedom. But here's the thing: he hasn't been asked to drive it. Rau went public to declare that he wouldn't do his job, if asked, before he was even asked. And I'm of the opinion that, had he been asked to drive that particular bus, and then stated that he'd rather not, Transit would simply have moved on and handed the keys to another driver. I don't think Transit is looking to stir up confrontations with its employees. I also haven't seen any comments from the Amalgamated Transit Union; one
could interpret that as meaning the union does not support Rau's actions.
This particular grandstanding is rather interesting.
As it happens, Rau is a follower of Artur Pawlowski, the so-called "Street Church preacher", who has had a number of run-ins with the city. In 2012, Pawlowski and some of his parishoners "hijacked" the annual Stampede Parade by inserting themselves and their Jesus signs at the head of the parade, as if they had been invited to lead it. There have also been a number of issues with sermons delivered over loudspeakers in city parks. He is, one could say, a firm believer in religious freedom, particularly his. He doesn't just speak his religion, he amplifies it...whether you want to hear it or not.
As Calgary Herald columnist Rob Breakenridge wrote:
Rau is a member of Art Pawlowski’s controversial Street Church, which is well-known for its virulent anti-gay views. In fact, they believe that the Pride Festival, and Calgary’s embrace of tolerance and equality, is what led God to flood the city two years ago. It seems they’ve found another way to try to advance their agenda.
This is getting into Pat Robertson territory. Pat, as we know, likes to claim that various natural disasters are god's wrath for this or that offence, often laid at the feet of teh gays. Seems like Art is a Pat wannabe.
Rau now claims that Transit is out to get him. There is a recent allegation against him of texting while driving, a fireable offence. He denies the charge. It's hard to predict where that will end up, and it depends on what evidence exists or does not exist.
Clearly, Rau does not want people to think he supports gay people:
I do not want to be mistaken that I promote it. In fact, I would like people to know that I am not for it, that I would like it to stop, ultimately.
OK Jesse, thanks for clearing that up, even though we didn't ask.
It's not like driving a city bus means you have to endorse everything about that bus, when it's your job to drive it. We are in the midst of an election season now, and ads from political parties are everywhere. If one party or another buys ad space on the side of a bus, should that bus only be driven by members of that party? Or do you look through the front window at the driver and say "Aha! I knew you supported the XYZ Party!"
No. You drive the bus because that's what you were hired to do. It's not your job to look down the rows of vehicles at the bus garage and say "I'll drive this one or this one, but not that one or that one". We won't think less of you for driving one that carries an advertisement for some product, a political party, or even an advocacy group. We know that you're just doing your job.
But now we do know, because you made such a public stink about it, exactly what your views are.
Jesse, I do hope you weren't texting while driving. That would clearly be a public safety issue, and just plain wrong. But if you were, then I won't feel a bit sorry when your ass is bounced out of there.