This past July, Short Line bus driver told hunky songster Ari Gold that if he wanted to hold his boyfriend’s hand on the bus, they had better to sit in the back. Well Gold called Lambda Legal and they got it alllll ironed out. Let’s take a peek at the settlement.
Basically on August 5, the Short Line Bus Company told Lambda Legal that they disciplined the driver and sent him to sensitivity and non-discrimination training at the New York Reform School for Very Naughty Bus Drivers. They also said they’d make all their drivers take further anti-discrimination classes and annual “refreshers” just so they remember not to go all “Rosa Parks” on people.
Short Line also apologized to Gold and his boyf and refunded the cost of their tickets. Then Gold, in his infinite manicorn beauty (that’s man + unicorn) said:
“I am so grateful to Lambda Legal for helping me use my platform as a singer/songwriter and activist to bring attention to an issue that happens way too often to people whose voices don’t get heard enough. I am even more pleased that something that was initially very negative to experience has turned into something positive because of the actions taken by Short Line Bus Company to ensure that something like this will not happen again. I hope more corporations will follow suit. Maybe in the future all corporations will be held responsible for implementing their own sensitivity/harassment training and not wait for another person’s civil rights to be violated.”
He then trotted back into the New York forest where he ate starfruit and chased wishing stars before sipping from the peach soda pond and nestling for a nap in the cotton candy fields.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
walt
Is there really such a thing as peach soda?
David C
I thought it was tangerine flavored.
mike hearts ari
Peach Fresca, mmmmmmmmmmm
Whataloser
I am sure he is reading this because he is such a pathetic loser that he probably googles his name every 5 minutes. Ari you are a nothing. You will never be anything. Stop trying to do anything for attention. You will never be famous. ever. you are a loser. and ugly at that.
j
@Whataloser: Whoa, settle down.
alan Balehead
He’s just another Victim/Famewhore running equal rights into the ground…
Observer
Wait, how big WAS the settlement?
Tony
You gurls are in full bitchy mode today, aren’t you?
Jack E. Jett
No 4
WTF? Why so much hate? Did he refuse to fuck you? He did something positive for us all.
jj
Wow. Really? He looks plenty cute to me in the photo on the main page. I lurves me some reclining shirtless men.
Claudio Martínez Obrero
@Whataloser I don’t know who Ari is but one thing I can say: Envy.
He is, now, somebody for me because he succeded in this.
Orion
@Whataloser: oh, my. Someone needs to get laid. Are you his ex or something?
Ganondorf
Truly a watershed moment in lgbt history. I can’t recall a more significant victory for all of us because I was born yesterday.
Jim
Eh, the (relatively) little things are important too imho.
Kieran
If a white bus driver had told a black couple to move to the back of the bus, actually stopped the bus and called police to enforce his order, what do you think would have happened to that driver? He’d get sensitivity training? Bullshit. His ass would be fired. And would the black couple settle for ticket refunds? Hell no. They’d have a multi-million dollar lawsuit going against the bus company for emotional pain and suffering, etc. If it really happened that this gay couple was treated in the kind of demeaning and discriminatory manner they say it did, the victims are fools to let this case slide so easily and none of us should be celebrating this as some kind of civil rights victory.
Zach2
Good for him. I met him a few years ago when his videos were first being played on LOGO. Very nice guy.
timncguy
I thought Ari Gold was the name of the agent character on “Entourage”…..
timncguy
Yep, sure enough… I googled Ari Gold and just got all kinds of pics and content about Jeremy Piven playing the character “Ari Gold” on “Entourage”. Nothing about this supposed singer at all.
Sebizzar
@Jack E. Jett: Exactly. And the fact that he called him “ugly” is obviously jealousy xD
TJ
Way to go Ari! You have been standing up for LGBT people since I got your first album. Everyone needs to get his new album under his moniker “Sir Ari: Between the Spirit & the Flesh” It’s so hot!! Don’t listen to the haters and the self-haters. They can’t erase everything you’ve accomplished in music and for gay people. We love you!!
rodca
@timncguy try googling “Sir Ari Gold”. He changed his name after Ari Gold became popular as a character on Entourage and after he was “knighted” by The Imperial Court of New York.
http://www.google.com/search?q=sir+ari+gold&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1&rlz=1I7MOOI_en
Ganondorf
Rosa Parks, you just got served.
christopher di spirito
I really want to fuck Ari Gold.
Miguel
Ari Gold is not a singer or famous. He got back his 2 dollar bus ticket. What a major story for gay people lmfao. He would do anything to be famous. Sad. He will always be a WHO?
Stephen
I love Sir Ari!! I love what he has done for the music industry and for LGBT history! He has changed our world for the better…a fan forever!
JT
Who the hell is Ari Gold?