Driver excused from driving bus with gay-themed ad!

[cboy4]

MINNEAPOLIS - A city bus driver who complained about a gay-themed ad got official permission not to drive any bus that carries that ad, according to an internal memo confirmed Tuesday by Metro Transit.

Transit authorities call it a reasonable accommodation to the driver's religious beliefs.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/15783884.htm

:wtf:

You know what?

Where does this stop?

Not gunna drive if the ads are for Planned Parenthood or a certain political candidate or a rap music or Viagra, etc.??

I have an idea: Don't drive a fuckin' bus if you're all sensitive about what the ads might be about!!

You know going into the job that buses carry advertisements.

Nobody is holding a gun to your head forcing you to take the job.

If I drove, I wouldn't like having a Christian Coalition ad on my bus, but I'd deal with it.

So should this idiot.

[Kiouni]

1. how is a blatant

discrimination a religious belief? i mean if you can't fire someone because of it or not hire someone of it or discriminate someone on the job because of it..how is it a religious belief? what a crock of shit

[Hav]

2. .

The guy is probably so insecure about his own sexuality that he fears he could get associated with the ads.

[davidinalameda]

11. not every homophobe is a closet case

there are some out there who just hate

[xchrom]

3. from the paper...

''The ad at the center of the Metro Transit flap is for Lavender, a local magazine for a GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered) audience. It runs periodically on 50 city buses and carries a photo of a young man with the slogan, "Unleash Your Inner Gay."

The memo to dispatchers at the Nicollet garage in Minneapolis was dated Oct. 12. It listed 25 buses at that garage that carry the Lavender ad, and said not to give them "under any circumstances" to the complaining driver, identified only by employee number.

"Our diversity office determined that we could make a simple, reasonable accommodation on religious ground by not assigning her (the driver) to one of the 25 buses - out of 150 - at the Nicollet garage," Metro Transit spokesman Bob Gibbons said.

"The decision has nothing to do with the content of the advertisement," he said. "It has everything to do with the employee's religious beliefs."


unbelievable -- religious fanaticism is going to fuel this bullshit for years.

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. Does this mean a member of the World Church of the Creator...

or some other racist church can be exempted from driving any bus with ads showing black people? What about an ad promoting a Jewish Community Center?

Bigotry, even religiously based bigotry, should not be encouraged like this.

[xchrom]

5. the employer is giving credence to the notion that ''gay''

is something other than normal -- a political choice, or that over worn statement a ''lifestyle'' choice.

what can i say other than -- gay is nature -- natural.

if the driver doesn't like it -- well, mars is looking for inhabitants.

[Meeker Morgan]

8. Don't blame the employer.

Religious accommodation is the law.

Unfortunately.

[xchrom]

10. so then the driver can refuse to drive buses with

ethnic groups the driver doesn't like religiously is the law?

sorry -- i hardly think that's EXACTLY the law.

white drivers would not be allowed to say i won't drive a bus with african americans appearing in ads because my faith condemns people of african decent. they would have to find another job.

[Solo_in_MD]

7. Or Black Muslims can request a bus that does not have whites or Jews?

Or Muslims drivers refuse to carry seeing eye dogs? (happening with taxis in the UK and a similar issue in MSP Airport)

[Tyo]

6. What's so sacred about religion?

Seems like society has to accommodate you in just about every area as long as your demands are based on your religious beliefs.

[ThomCat]

9. It's apparently okay to hate GLBT people.

It's wrong to hate someone because of their race, ethinicity, gender, etc. but it's okay to help someone because of their sexuality.
x(

Nice message they're sending.

[The Brethren]

12. Is he afraid it might rub off on him?

So would it also be a "reasonable accommodation" for me not to work in an office where someone brought in a religious symbol since there many religious fanatics who would hang gays if they could which is clearly against my belief system? If I did, I have no doubt my employer would give me 2 options: get over it or receive a pink slip.