Gay Couple Told to Move to Back of Bus

[Catmatic Leftist]

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/07/13/Gay_Couple_Told_to_Move_to_Back_of_Bus/


Singer Ari Gold and his boyfriend were told to move to the back of the bus for holding hands, he said Sunday on Facebook.

When Gold refused, the Shortline bus driver pulled over and called the police.

Gold said "we were both listening to Whitney Houston on an iPod double jack and loving her love songs," and holding hands, when the driver pulled over to tell us to "stop sitting in the front." Gold said no, "and that's when the driver called the state trooper."

When the state troopers arrived, Gold said they told the bus driver "there was nothing illegal about the way we were sitting." Still, Gold says he and his boyfriend were again told they could move to the back of the bus and resolve the problem.

"We said no," and asked to file a police report but the officers "quickly exited the bus, leaving ours and the other passengers safety in the hands of a dissatisfied, discriminatory, and mad driver," according to Gold, who said he couldn't get badge numbers for the officers.

Gold said he stood up to the driver "despite my racing heart." Things could have easily escalated. "The only thing I could do is make sure my boyfriend stayed calm," said Gold. "I was afraid he was going to lose it."

The Village Voice's Michael Musto was first to report the incident, and Shortline sent him a response, saying it will investigate Gold's account of what happened.

"We do not condone or endorse the actions taken by this one driver. His actions are not representative of the management of our company," wrote George Grieve, president of Hudson Transit Lines, which owns Shortline. "We will continue to investigate this incident until we are sure we have all the facts at which time we will take the appropriate disciplinary and remedial action. We apologize for the insensitive action of our driver and can assure you we will take the necessary steps to make sure this does not happen again."

[ComradeGrant]

I can't be the only one seeing the parallel.

[Comrade Crow]

Apparently Rosa needs to come out of retirement and show these bus fools the business.

[Invader Zim]

Apparently Rosa needs to come out of retirement and show these bus fools the business.

The comparison doesn't work. In this case these two men were met by a homophobic jackass of a driver. Rosa Parks, and all other black people in that era, on the other hand faced ubiquitous corporate racism demanding that they, and all other black people, be segregated from white people while on any bus.

[Dr Mindbender]

Regardless i hope that fucking knuckle dragger was sacked.

Doubt it though considering insitutionalised homophobia goes right to the top.

[Shropshire Socialist]

This is outrageous! Hope the driver is sacked. :cursing:

[KevlarPants]

Man, I hate homophobes more than racists, but the fact that they were listening to Whitney Houston on an Ipod double jack kinda scratches that primal part of a straight male that says that some things are just wrong.

Not being gay, just listening to Whitney Houston love songs on a double jack and holding hands. Straight or gay, that's just gross.

[Dr Mindbender]

the bus driver is one of those insecure probably-a-gay-in-denial types that think its possible to catch 'gay' by being in close proximity to them.

It'd be hilarious if it wasn't a matter of institutionalised bigotry.

[-marx-]

Luckily it wasn't me on the bus as I'm not the type to take shit from anyone and would have knocked the bigot clean out had he insulted/discriminated against me and my b/f in that manner. People like him think we are all effeminate and passive and easy to push around...Wrong!
I have zero feelings nor compassion for homophobes!

[Agent Blazkowicz]

This is shameful.

[tbasherizer]

If I were in charge, the driver would get sacked in both the British and American senses.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Man, I hate homophobes more than racists, but the fact that they were listening to Whitney Houston on an Ipod double jack kinda scratches that primal part of a straight male that says that some things are just wrong.

Not being gay, just listening to Whitney Houston love songs on a double jack and holding hands. Straight or gay, that's just gross.

Music is music...get over it.
___________

Nothing surprises me anymore,so this isn't even a real story to me.Disgusting in every way though.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

Music is music...get over it.
.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. Music is music and politics is politics and economics is economics.

Music is a serious thing and music is, too, political. And some music is just horrible. It's unlikely it was the music that made the driver of the bus tell them to get in the back, though, as it would have probably been less of a fuzz to ask them to turn it off if so, driver seems to have wanted to stir things up.

Although its an irrelevant thing to the issue; they should have used headphones or something so as to not spread their noise around too much. I hate when people play music in public.

[tm315]

they should have used headphones or something so as to not spread their noise around too much. I hate when people play music in public.
They were using headphones. There is a link to an interview inside of the article.

Is it possible that you were distracting the driver in some other way, maybe your music was too loud?
No, we were listening to music on headphones and there were witnesses around. We were not disturbing anyone else. It was very, very clear to everyone else including the state trooper that the driver just had a problem with two men sitting arm in arm.

[Manic Impressive]

Am I the only one who wouldn't want the driver to be sacked?

A much more fitting "punishment" would be educating him by making him spend some time helping the LGBT community in some way. I don't know what exactly but stupid prejudices usually come from ignorance. Not just "oh, he must have a low IQ" type ignorance but ignorance due to simply not interacting with any Queer people. Interacting in a social group where he is the minority would be much better than sacking him which will only give him the excuse to tell the good ol' boys at the bar "I lost my job because of those damn fags".

[MattShizzle]

He certainly should be fired. Or at the very least forced to attend some sort of diversity training.

[Manic Impressive]

He certainly should be fired. Or at the very least forced to attend some sort of diversity training.
what would sacking him accomplish? do you think that losing his job because of his homophobia will improve anything? or will it just help to cement his bigotry. What if he has dependants, children? how are they going to react to being broke as fuck because their dad lost his job? will they blame their loving father or his employers, maybe but more likely their resentment will be fixated on the homosexual couple who reported him. people who do something wrong and get punished tend not to look introspectively at themselves and their views, no they blame the victim in this case homosexuals. Sacking him would only enforce his views and possibly spread them to others.

[Catmatic Leftist]

Am I the only one who wouldn't want the driver to be sacked?

A much more fitting "punishment" would be educating him by making him spend some time helping the LGBT community in some way. I don't know what exactly but stupid prejudices usually come from ignorance. Not just "oh, he must have a low IQ" type ignorance but ignorance due to simply not interacting with any Queer people. Interacting in a social group where he is the minority would be much better than sacking him which will only give him the excuse to tell the good ol' boys at the bar "I lost my job because of those damn fags".

Excellent suggestion. :thumbup1:

[TheGodlessUtopian]

I'm not sure what you mean by that. Music is music and politics is politics and economics is economics.

Music is a serious thing and music is, too, political. And some music is just horrible. It's unlikely it was the music that made the driver of the bus tell them to get in the back, though, as it would have probably been less of a fuzz to ask them to turn it off if so, driver seems to have wanted to stir things up.

Although its an irrelevant thing to the issue; they should have used headphones or something so as to not spread their noise around too much. I hate when people play music in public.

I was attacking the posters clear statement of homophobia. He hid it behind a bunch of sarcastic words, but in the end it was bigotry hidden behind a sort of parody.

[Dr Mindbender]

what would sacking him accomplish?
Create an example?

[Jazzratt]

Create an example? One groups example is another's martyr. A guy loses his job tells his mates about how it's all the fault of the queermos and then one of them tells one of the surviving shitrag papers, probably a "Daily" something and boom you've got a massive dispute over PC and the gay agenda.

There are a myriad options between showering this bloke in plaudits and hoofing him onto the dole queue. Surely an official reprimand followed by some kind of education on the matter. It's not like homophobia is an immutable quality that is fated to stick with people forever. I mean, yeah, some people do remain homophobic forever, but the idea that people are incapable of changing their views on things is a nonsense.

What he did was unacceptable and his going totally unpunished would be a travesty but handing out the worst possible punishment (outside of criminal proceedings with prison sentences and shit) as an immediate go-to for being a total prick is going overboard.

[Mythbuster]

Absolutely horrid of the driver. He has no right to do such a thing. I'm proud to be gay. Does anyone else see the paralells between this and tne civil rights?

[Game Girl]

Absolutely horrid of the driver. He has no right to do such a thing. I'm proud to be gay. Does anyone else see the paralells between this and tne civil rights?

I do.

There will always be those who will blindly hate another human being for their differences. People fear what they don't understand. Sometimes they don't want to understand it. They see it, don't like it and wish to get rid of it.

Fascism is a social disease. It's time we find a cure for it.