[BlessedBeGod]

On New Year's Eve, one firefighter attacked another in an assault preceded by what some newspapers are calling "a homosexual slur." The victim has been hospitalized with severe head injuries. FDNY spokesmen call the assault an isolated incident resulting from "horseplay." Mayor Bloomberg called it an "altercation." Some reports have portrayed verbal harassment as a firefighter's rite of passage.

With these paragraphs, the writer is already discredited by mischaracterizing what happend. Reasons for the fight also include alcohol and one firefighter accusing the other of taking advantage of his colleagues. It wasn't simply because of slurs.

[Richard Kimball]

Verbal abusiveness may be a tradition in the FDNY but it has nothing to do with creating good firefighters. It is also a violation of the law. For the mayor and the department's officials to tolerate a culture of prejudice is unacceptable and an insult to the gay, lesbian and minority firefighters who have given their lives in the line of duty.

To the New World Order, the primary function of every organization is not their mission. It is to indoctrinate the organization to the values of the NWO. That being said, an assault is an assault. If two guys were goofing around and one got hurt, that's different. No person should be assaulted on the job by coworkers, but the purpose of this article is to create an impetus to require cultural diversity training in the FD.

[jimt]

But despite braving the worst hell anyone can imagine, they are afraid to live openly as gay men within the Brotherhood.

Another shrill demand for "celebration". Sorry, Mr. Ryan. You are entitled to live as you please, and others are entitled to disapprove.

[NYCVirago]

These descriptions are unbelievably dismissive. An anti-gay slur followed by a physical attack is not horseplay, whether the victim is gay or not. It is a hate crime.

So, even though neither of the firemen involved in this fight were gay, it was a hate crime, because somebody said an anti-gay slur. Right.

[Clemenza]

Its incredible how while it is increasingly rare to see white guys involved in blue collar occupations in NYC, the FDNY and NYPD still draw heavily from white Catholics who "tawk like dis." I think the reason is that LEOs and firemen tend to be raised in a culture of informal networks/family ties that encourages them to follow in dad's/granddad's footsteps. They truly are a culture apart, but that seems to have served us well over the years.