Was this The 700 Club, or Fox News? It’s sometimes a hard call to make when you discuss homosexuality and religion in the same conversation.
Peter Vadala is the right-wing’s new hero. He’s the now-fired Brookstone employee who dared criticize a lesbian manager’s sexuality and marriage, because of his religious beliefs. And if he plays his cards right — and doesn’t have any sex tapes lying around — he can replace Carrie Prejean as the unsolicited spokesman for marriage bigotry.
Except it appears Vadala does have a few skeletons in his closet: Some of his homophobic Facebook postings have been captured (but not posted) by the blog Joe My God, which will come in handy if this fella decides to take his moral crusade from the workplace and further out into the public. Like, say, a National Organization for Marriage ad.
We’re perfectly fine with Vadala telling his side of the story, which apparently goes like this: It was his manager who kept bringing up her “controversial” gay marriage, which he had to suffer through hearing about. And therein lies the clear cut example of discrimination: Openly heterosexual employees are free to discuss their marriages in the workplace without fear of reactionary behavior, but gay employees are not? It could be argued that no personal relationships should be discussed at work, which is a ridiculous presumption that would never hold, because we are human beings, and we like to share. But hey, if we learn that a colleague, or boss or underling, doesn’t want to hear about our home life — gay or straight — that’s fine, we don’t have to discuss it with them. Just don’t discuss your bigoted Bible teachings with us at work, either.
How about we take this to the next level?
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UPDATE: We knew Vadala could be a star, but star of YouTube parody? John Raymond Barker takes a stab.
terrwill
Me thinks he doeth protest way too much (has a scruched up gay face)……..follow him for a week, guarantee you will find him getting barebacked in a cruise area……
InExile
This guy seems like a religious right plant to create a case to justify their bigotry. TAX THE CHURCH!
naghanenu
Interesting point though..
He lost his job because he does not support or he dared to say he does not support gay marriage.
Gays are really disappointing me if you dont see this. Do you think people support gay marriage or do you think they are afraid to say they do not support gay marriage?
Has this occured to you that this may not be a good thing? The enemies you know are easier and safer to handle than the ones that are smiling and looking into your eyes that they support gay marriage but come referendum day…..
Tarcash
What would have been fair and balanced, would be if he was asked, “Have you ever discussed your marriage arrangements with coworkers?” Seriously, can he answer that?
RS
@naghanenu — It’s my understanding from previous news reports that he lost his job not because of his beliefs but rather because he was harassing her about her marriage.
Chisne
She shouldn’t have fired him,. She should have told him to keep his thoughts to himself and that should have been the end of it. But, no. By firing him, he has become a temporary martyr for the religious right.
Fox News continues to prove its homophobic standard. Have we ever seen them talk about anti-gay crimes? No, it’s always about the evil gays shoving their agendas to the poor hetero crowds.
Orpheus_lost
@Naghanenu
It’s not an “interesting point” you make, it’s the exact same point every bigot who wants to spread ignorance and hatred makes to justify their harassment of others. “All I did was state my belief in JAYZUS! and all those mean old fags started discriminating against me!!!” These bigots want freedom of speech for themselves but not for us.
This is how it went down (as it ALWAYS does). This bigot’s boss mentioned her wedding and marriage at work, something every hetero couple does as a matter of course and something the bigot has heard many, many times. The bigot started ranting that JAYZUS! hates fags and created a hostile work environment. The boss took this issue to her own boss who said “fire the ignorant fuck.” The bigot’s boss then did just that on the grounds of harassment.
Now the bigot is using his ignorance to parade himself on every talkshow and newscast that will have him in order to make some cash off of his hatred by claiming his right to free speech has been infringed while carefully omitting the real cause of his termination or the fact that he was trying to curtail someone else’s right to speech. This is what bigots do because they don’t consider us real human beings or Americans.
Sadly, a few of us will actually buy into the bigot’s lies so I thought I’d set the record straight before too many others followed your example.
John Raymond Barker
You need to see his original YouTube video telling his story–which he contradicts in this Fox appearance. You can also check out JerbyVids for my parody of his video.
He had NO problem hearing all about her life and marriage and honeymoon when he thought she had a male fiance.
Jon
I hope someone outs him.
Orpheus_lost
@Chisne
Yes, we should always allow bigots to harass us without consequence. /sarcasm
Alfonzo
He looks like one of my ex-boyfriends.
B SF
This is a simple case of an inappropriate way to handle an issue. If he had a problem then he should have addressed it differently, that’s why he was fired. If someone is saying something you don’t think is appropriate, then you say that. DON’T go off about your God and call someone else’s life wrong. THAT is why he was fired. Turning it into religious bias is a fallback to protect idiocy, as it usually is.
Ray
@B SF
I completely agree!
nikko
He just made a fool of himsel! Just listen to him!! Mental illness/ religious delusion and lousy reasoning skills.