Posted on 06/14/2008 12:32:57 PM PDT by trumandogz
A new color graces the gay pride rainbow flag: fire engine red.
Members of the Austin Fire Department Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered and Friends will take part in the Austin Pride Parade today, riding on a fire truck and marking the organization's second appearance in the annual event that celebrates the gay community in Austin.
Lt. Jan Wesson, who leads the group, said it received great support last year from attendees, who named the truck "Best Vehicle."
"That was just the highlight of my career," said Wesson, who has served in the Fire Department for 24 years and came out in 1993. "When we turned the corner of Fourth and Congress, the crowd, which was about eight or nine people deep, they just gave this big huge cheer. I talked to some folks later that were there, and one woman said when she saw us she just started crying."
Wesson, 51, started the organization in fall 2005 to give a voice to gay firefighters in the department's diversity trainings. It is the only official organization for gay public servants in Austin, although some members of the Austin Police Department will participate in the parade for the first time this year, Wesson said.
Since its inception, the group has focused on making the Fire Department a safe work environment for gay and lesbian firefighters. Though the group has mostly focused on advocating fair treatment on the job, it plans to eventually include community outreach.
"We want the community to know that they don't have to fear being judged by the Fire Department if they are gay and that we'll treat them with the same respect as anyone else," group member and firefighter Andrea Mote said.
Wesson said she is proud of the small strides the organization has made. The group has gained heterosexual members, has persuaded a commanding officer to ride on the fire truck in the parade this year and has persuaded the training academy to drop chants that were perceived as derogatory, Wesson said.
Despite the group's achievements, no man in the department has openly declared that he is gay for fear of mistreatment, Wesson said.
However, Wesson thinks the department is moving in the right direction.
"Sometimes people say things because they just don't know any better or they don't think before they say things," said Carie Pritchard, 31, who joined the Fire Department six years ago. "Like, how many times have heard someone say, 'That's so gay'? But now we have more people who are becoming more aware of what is said and done and who are coming to us to get those issues addressed."
Pritchard, who will lead the group next year after Wesson retires, said she thinksthe Austin Fire Department is more progressive than departments in other cities. She attended a national conference for fire departments last year, and Austin was the only city that had an organization for gay and lesbian firefighters, she said.
For now, group members say they are content with progress within the department.
"I've never had really negative experiences, and after I had my child, people kind of saw me differently. I became a person," said Aimee Floyd, who has been with the Fire Department for nine years. "I'm a mother first, then a firefighter and then a gay woman."
For these extreme narcissists following their “impulses” is the goal of their lives. Not being the best person they can be and perhaps helping others.
Exhibiting their self centeredness for the world to see is the ultimate highlight in life.
Amen...God help this country. We seem to sink a little lower each day.
Will you be attending both parades or just the one?
“I ‘ave got a hosepipe,
“I ‘ave got a hosepipe,
“I ‘ave got a hosepipe,
“What shall I do wiv it?”
Dennis Leary’s show “Rescue Me” (FX) had a couple of shows devoted to the gay firefighters that were lost 9/11 and the house had a hard time believing that ‘firefighters could be that way’, with all the “You are full of it, he was married and had kids, so he was straight”.... the consensus finally figured out that being gay wasn’t bad as one “got to hang out with the guys, didn’t have to put up with a wife’s nagging, watch all the sports etc, with DL finally surmizing: BJ’s and ball games, a guys dream come true”
It doesn’t matter if 5, 10 or 100 fire trucks drive down that road in support of homosexuality, it still doesn’t change the fact it’s a sin.
Even if 99.99% accept that homosexual sex is OK, it still doesn’t change the fact it’s a sin.
They can pass laws, accuse me of hate speech, and punish me if I don’t shut up, but homosexuality is still wrong.
Doctors can claim homosexuality is normal and even use technology to counter nature. They can cure or halt the diseases and even give homosexuals children, but nature itself is unchanged. Homosexuality is still abnormal and unnatural.
Homosexuals need to do the same thing as everyone else who sins, including myself—repent, turn away from your sin, and turn to God. There’s truth and wisdom in these words for all who will have it.
Wrong....the Austin mansion was a total loss.
The charred Texas Governor's Mansion is structurally stable and the first steps toward restoring the 152-year-old historic icon began Thursday after arson investigators lifted their tight cordon on the crime scene.
http://www.statesman.com/search/content/region/legislature/stories/06/13/0613mansion.html
From your link:
"And just as all the furniture and historical artifacts were out of the mansion and in storage, so were all but a few of the original windows."
That's great news.
So, the Texas Governor's Mansion will not be any less authentic than the White House.
(The interior of the White House was entirely gutted and rebuilt in 1949 - 1952.)
“Stick it up the chimney”
“Stick it up the chimney”
“Stick it up the chimney”
“and put the fire out.”
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