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Developmentally disabled gay men kicked out of public swimming pool

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G

Gaborn

Member
A storm of protest has erupted in a small, eastern Kentucky city after a complaint that a worker at a city-owned pool cited the Bible as authority that "gay people" weren't allowed to swim there and forced two intellectually disabled gay men to leave.

"They left the facility crying," Jordan Palmer, president of the gay-rights group Kentucky Equality Federation, said Wednesday. "You don't treat people that way, especially someone that is developmentally challenged. ... I'm so appalled by that I can't put it into words."

The two men had gone Friday to the Hazard Pavilion recreation center in Hazard with a group called Mending Hearts Inc., which works with intellectually and developmentally disabled adults, according to a complaint filed with the federation by Mending Hearts.

The group is calling for the pool worker to be transferred to another department and is planning a protest Saturday at the center that has attracted the attention of local churches, liberal websites and at least one blogger from Oklahoma who is planning to attend, Palmer said. The group's actions have led to angry e-mails, with at least one threatening that if the protest is held, Palmer "will leave with a bullet in his head," Palmer said.

The federation said in a news release the men were sitting together beside the pool when one of them apparently sat on the other's knee and put his arm around him. Mending Hearts Executive Director Shirlyn Perkins said in its complaint that "the Pavilion staff immediately entered the pool area and asked my clients and their staff to leave the Pavilion. My staff asked The Pavilion (sic) staff why ... and they were informed that `gay people' weren't allowed to swim there."

The complaint went on to say that a male pavilion staff member "stated that what he was doing was in the Bible and he could do it. ... My clients, who already feel ridiculed and different, left the city-owned facility crying and embarrassed for trying to participate in `normal' activities that everyday `normal' people do," the federation quoted the complaint as saying.

A telephone message left for Perkins was not returned Wednesday.

Hazard Mayor Nan Gorman, 83, said the city is sorry about the incident, an investigation is under way and no decisions have been made about the employee. Gorman says the city has been inundated with protest calls from around the country.

"I've had people call from everywhere," Gorman said. "You'd think we've had a murder scene up here, a massacre."

Gorman took over as the city's first female mayor in January after the death of her husband, who had been mayor for 33 years. She said the city of 4,800 is not intolerant, and that the city pool once hired a gay lifeguard.

"We're all aware of tolerance here. We're not completely shadowed here by the mountains," she said.

But she acknowledged that "of course you have all kinds of people working when you have 100 or so people," and said since she didn't witness the incident, she wasn't sure what had happened.

"We know enough we don't allow people to show affection in our pool, whether it's a man or a woman or two women or two men," she said. "... I'm sorry this happened. It blackens something that we hold very precious and that's our name."

Charlotte Sizemore, executive director of the recreation center, said she didn't want to comment because she "didn't see what happened that day."

"They don't want us to talk about it but we're not biased," Sizemore said. "... We've had homosexual employees. ... It's just kind of blown out of proportion just a little bit."

Sizemore said a pool membership costs $250 a year and can be used by a family up to seven people. She said Mending Hearts is given a steep discount.

"We are getting all kinds of phone calls," she said. "We're sorry it happened. We're just fair to everybody. ... We never have any trouble here, period."
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Story Here
 
J

jambo

Member
XvfXH.png
 
I

IamMattFox

Member
"Gorman took over as the city's first female mayor in January after the death of her husband, who had been mayor for 33 years."

Are they running some sort of monarchy in Hazard, Kentucky?
 
G

Gaborn

Member
LQX said:
How did they know he was gay?
Click to expand...

The federation said in a news release the men were sitting together beside the pool when one of them apparently sat on the other's knee and put his arm around him. Mending Hearts Executive Director Shirlyn Perkins said in its complaint that "the Pavilion staff immediately entered the pool area and asked my clients and their staff to leave the Pavilion. My staff asked The Pavilion (sic) staff why ... and they were informed that `gay people' weren't allowed to swim there."
Click to expand...

.
 
L

LaserBuddha

Member
How can someone working for a city government say "no gays allowed" and actually think that's going to be upheld/approved of? Sounds like the employee was developmentally challenged, too.
 
K

Kitsunebaby

Member
The complaint went on to say that a male pavilion staff member "stated that what he was doing was in the Bible and he could do it. ... My clients, who already feel ridiculed and different, left the city-owned facility crying and embarrassed for trying to participate in `normal' activities that everyday `normal' people do," the federation quoted the complaint as saying.
Click to expand...

This actually made me want to cry a little bit. I hope the employee gets fired.
 
D

DECK'ARD

The Amiga Brotherhood
Horrible story, but at least it just sounds like the actions of one idiot who will (hopefully) be punished for it.
 
M

Manos: The Hans of Fate

Banned
IamMattFox said:
"Gorman took over as the city's first female mayor in January after the death of her husband, who had been mayor for 33 years."

Are they running some sort of monarchy in Hazard, Kentucky?
Click to expand...

Actually, it sounds more like most Post-WWII Newark mayors, not the monarchy aspect, just the insanely long terms.
 
L

lexi

Banned
What really irks me in all these cases is the vehement denials of not being homophobic. 'We had a gay lifeguard once!' It just really rubs me the wrong way for some reason, it seems so fake.
 
M

mavs

Member
Hazard Mayor Nan Gorman, 83

Gorman took over as the city's first female mayor in January after the death of her husband, who had been mayor for 33 years
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That must be a REALLY fucking good job.
 
M

mre

Golden Domers are chickenshit!!
Here comes GAF, up in arms again over another non-story. Look, guys, if they let gay people into the swimming pool, their gayness will get into the pool water and contaminate all of the previously heterosexual children swimming in the pool with them. I know some of you guys are down with this (as part of the homosexual agenda), but some of us are not okay with it.

As an aside, I'm surprised the guy who based his authority on the bible didn't start stoning the poor couple in question. After all, that was the punishment for adultery in the bible, wasn't it?
 
L

LaserBuddha

Member
lexi said:
What really irks me in all these cases is the vehement denials of not being homophobic. 'We had a gay lifeguard once!' It just really rubs me the wrong way for some reason, it seems so ingenuous.
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You mean disingenuous?

Anyway, the mayor is going to great pains to make sure people see this for what it is: One guy making up his own rules based on his own prejudice. She's rightfully upset that this would be used to give a vast swath of people a bad name, a power which we should never grant to someone's bigotry.

I don't think it's very nice or intelligent for you to implicitly suggest that the whole city is behind this.
 
L

leadbelly

Banned
Alligatorjandro said:
I refuse to go into public pools after I saw a couple having sex in one.
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Generally, I refuse to go into pools when things I'm not exactly sure about are floating around.
 
R

Replicant

Member
lexi said:
What really irks me in all these cases is the vehement denials of not being homophobic. 'We had a gay lifeguard once!' It just really rubs me the wrong way for some reason, it seems so fake.
Click to expand...

Hey, "I have gay (friends/neighbors/co-workers/people that I meet everyday on a bus)*, so I'm not homophobic".

*
they're all imaginary, of course
 
S

shintoki

sparkle this bitch
"She said the city of 4,800 is not intolerant, and that the city pool once hired a gay lifeguard"

I bet they have a black friend too! So they can't be racist.
 
L

LaserBuddha

Member
shintoki said:
"She said the city of 4,800 is not intolerant, and that the city pool once hired a gay lifeguard"

I bet they have a black friend too! So they can't be racist.
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I keep seeing this but I don't think there's any logic behind it, other than you guys wanting to feel smart for making the connection.

When talking about the tolerance of a city government, pointing out that they have employed members of group being discriminated against is highly relevant.

You seem comfortable with making assumptions about their intolerance based on an anecdotal example. Yet you disallow the use of anecdotal examples to show their tolerance. You don't get to have your cake and eat it too.
 
S

suzu

Member
They could've told them "no PDA at the pool" and have them stop. Kicking them out and saying "no gays allowed" is making it very obvious that it was homophobic.
 
G

Gaborn

Member
suzu said:
They could've told them "no PDA at the pool" and have them stop. Kicking them out and saying "no gays allowed" is making it very obvious that it was homophobic.
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Exactly. I don't think there would be the same outcry if they gave them a warning or asked everyone to not engage in PDA, but to kick someone out with no warning (and being explicitly told it was because of your sexuality) and for something relatively innocuous just doesn't sit right at all. I seriously doubt a heterosexual couple would be treated anywhere close to similarly.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
Xeke said:
I think they should kick everyone out for PDA, nobody wants to see that. Gay or straight.
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Well she did say that's the case. But the employee totally went about it in the wrong way.
 
X

xelios

Universal Access can be found under System Preferences
The complaint went on to say that a male pavilion staff member "stated that what he was doing was in the Bible and he could do it.
Click to expand...




Replace verses and deities as needed.
 
G

Gaborn

Member
As protesters spoke out on Saturday against the expulsion of two gay men with intellectual and developmental disabilities from a city-owned pool in Hazard, the city took several steps to try to remedy the situation.

Kim Haynes, the city employee who cited the Bible while telling the men and their caregiver to leave the Hazard Pavilion on June 10, will be suspended without pay for five days because of his "failure to be respectful to the public," "unsatisfactory job performance" and "his use of inappropriate language" about pool policies, the city said in a press release.

The release also states the city plans to:

■ Issue a letter of apology to the staff of Mending Hearts Inc., the company that provides care for the two men.

■ Install a new sign that makes clear that the Hazard Pavilion is "available for use without regard to race, ethnicity, color, creed, national origin, age, sexual orientation or physical/mental disability as required by federal and state law."

■ Modify its rules-for-conduct sign to include its previously unwritten prohibition against "excessive public displays of affection," and

■ Provide additional training to the pavilion staff regarding non-discrimination laws and regulations.

Jordan Palmer, president and co-founder of the Kentucky Equality Federation, which organized the protest outside the Hazard Pavilion, said those actions are "a step in the right direction," but suspending Haynes is "still not sufficient for us."

"He's got to be moved to another area of government," Palmer said. The equality federation is an advocacy group for people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex.

Saturday, in addition to a press statement, the city also released an 18-page report on the investigation into the incident at the pool.

Conducted by Hollon & Collins law offices, the report included interviews with several people, including Laura Quillen, the Mending Hearts caregiver who had accompanied the men to the pool, but not the men themselves. One of the men is under state guardianship, and a state official told the law firm that the state was opposed to them interviewing him.

The report cites conflicting reports about the events at the pool and what prompted the men to be kicked out. Haynes said he saw the men, who he was unaware were disabled, "hugging" "getting friendly" and "fondling" each other in the pool and that he saw the men "fondling" outside the pool but that they were not touching each other's private parts.

According to the report, Haynes said he approached the men "in a humble way and asked them to leave."

Haynes said a woman nearby — who later was identified as Quillen — jumped up and asked why, saying "You can't do that, that's discriminatory."

He said he asked the men to leave because a woman with a child left because of the behavior and a man had complained that the men were kissing in the pool.

A lifeguard and a patron of the pool both said they saw the men hug and kiss each other on the lips while in the pool. Quillen, however, said that she did not see the men hug, kiss or engage in any other display of affection in the pool.

She said that when getting a refund for pool admission, Haynes said he was sorry to have to ask them to leave "but we can't tolerate what was going on."

She said she replied that that was fine, but it was discrimination.

To that, she said Haynes replied, "You need to read the Bible more often, we don't tolerate that down here."

News of the incident made national headlines. In its news release the city said that the manager of the recreational facility, Charlotte Pearlman, has been reprimanded for using "insulting and obscene language" while declining to comment to CNN. The city said it "extends its apologies to CNN and to the staff of Anderson Cooper 360."
Click to expand...

Story Here
 
X

xelios

Universal Access can be found under System Preferences
To that, she said Haynes replied, "You need to read the Bible more often, we don't tolerate that down here."
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But not everyone uses the bible as a basis for their life, and are free to refrain. Not everyone is Christian, "Down here."

You are certainly free to believe homosexuality is wrong, but at the point of using it as grounds for kicking homosexuals out of a city owned pool, you have overstepped your bounds. I am glad they are admitting she was wrong by punishing her, however minor the punishment may be.

That said, if you are obviously fondling, making PDAs and other things to draw attention to yourselves in a public pool (whether developmentally disabled, homosexual, straight etc.) I am not against you being asked to leave. Private pools are a different story and I have witnessed some crazy but acceptable acts. :)

I am also glad the city is taking precautionary measures to prevent future incidents and promote acceptance.

. She said the city of 4,800 is not intolerant, and that the city pool once hired a gay lifeguard.
Click to expand...

I'm not racist; I have a black friend. Beaten of course, but too good to pass up.
 
C

Caerith

Member
Gaborn said:
Haynes said a woman nearby — who later was identified as Quillen — jumped up and asked why, saying "You can't do that, that's discriminatory."

He said he asked the men to leave because a woman with a child left because of the behavior and a man had complained that the men were kissing in the pool.

A lifeguard and a patron of the pool both said they saw the men hug and kiss each other on the lips while in the pool. Quillen, however, said that she did not see the men hug, kiss or engage in any other display of affection in the pool.

She said that when getting a refund for pool admission, Haynes said he was sorry to have to ask them to leave "but we can't tolerate what was going on."

She said she replied that that was fine, but it was discrimination.

To that, she said Haynes replied, "You need to read the Bible more often, we don't tolerate that down here."
Click to expand...
Story Here
Click to expand...
The update actually makes it seem like this Quillen lady was looking for trouble and the lifeguard didn't do anything wrong. At least two witnesses saw the PDA, but Quillen: didn't see any PDA, immediately played the discrimination card, asks for money, calls the lifeguard a biblethumper.

It doesn't add up: if she didn't see them engaging in homosexuality, why would she assume they were being thrown out for it?

Besides...

20110619.gif
 
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