Washington was fired for standing up against gay rights???

Question

http://tv.yahoo.com/greys-anatomy/show/36657/news/urn:newsml:tv.ap.org:20070608:tv_grey_s_anatomy_washington__ER:14972

according to this, grey's anatomy star 'Burke' was fired after a comment denouncing gay rights, this is pathetic, it is called freedom of speech people!

And if you dont want to use the 'freedom of speech card' for 'cafetieria picking and choosing' then look at the fact that he apologized AND was forgiven AND it was just a word that is used all the time by many....doesnt it just mean this...
****** - a bundle of sticks and branches bound together
granted it also is used as other things but calling someone a name and getting fired? that is a little over the top.

everyone 'answering' keeps saying things about me being denounced or called a name but the thing is it is just a name. remember that little thing eeryone learned in school... sticks and stones break bones but words will never hurt me?
Another thing, if someone said something about womens rights or something realting to me i still wouldnt care because it is an opinion, but why fire someone for an opinion?

Answer 1

Wow - where have you been in the last six months? Don't you know that it is illegal for you to use the following phrases/word at work, or you lose all your benefits(even if you worked there 30 years and are to retire next week) no retirement, life insurance, medical, everything gone, poof:

1. "family values"
2. "natural family"
3. "marriage" (only lose your benefits and job if you were speaking of a marriage between a man and a woman - if you were engaged in a conversation about how lovely george and jim's gay wedding was, don't worry - you are safe as a bug in a rug)

Say "bye bye" freedom of speech. And if that really gets your goat, you'll love this:
You can now say "bye bye" to your religious rights, too, if you live in my State of Pennsylvania; but the law I'm gonna tell you about will soon apply across the Nation, if they are able to pass it as Federal Law, which they are trying desperately to do:
Two old grandmoms, one 75 and one 76 years of age were arrested in Philadelphia, PA, and charged with the State level of bill HR1592, for comitting a "hate crime". They were charged with the exact same crime as if you dragged a person out to a field, beat them mercilessly, and left them bleeding and for dead. What horrible thing did these two old women do? Ready?
They did what they have done every Sunday afternoon for the past 25 years:
They handed out little Bible pamphlets and said "Have a God filled day, hon". Ut oh.
They were arrested, fingerprinted, changed to prison garb, and thrown into general population of the County Jail. They await a sentence of 47 years in prison, each.
Why? Because under that law, remember, soon to be federal law, these two women
handed out Bible verbage and included in it is Gods Word against being homosexual.
The law states that if you are handing out literature that says you are against gays, then you must agree with the literature. If you agree with the literature, then you are a hate-filled person. If you are a hate filled person, then its just as bad as comitting an actual physcial hate crime. The same as dragging the guy and beating him up.
The two women only made one mistake, and didn't realize it: they handed out one of their little Bibles to a gay guy. The bill HR1592 gives ELEVATED STATUS to homosexuals and crossdressers. In fact, if
you rob, beat up and spit on an elderly or retarded person, you will get 33% LESS JAIL TIME THAN IF YOU GIVE LITERATURE TO A GAY PERSON. Some Senators spoke to the Gay lobbyists and said well, why do you feel you need additional protection under the law? We have laws in place and anyone who is attacked will be subjected to the strictest of those laws, regardless of who they are. They said oh no, we need more protection because of who we are. Yet, a black person is 200% more likely to be a victim of a hate crime; a jew is over 300% more likely to be a victim. So the Senators asked that if elevated status was to be given to people who are esspecially in jeopardy, we need to give that elevated status to the handicapped/disabled, to the elderly, and to children. The gay lobbyists refused to even discuss it; their statement was "no, this bill is for the safety of homosexual citizens and crossdressing citizens for their protection".
If the VAtech shooter had lived, and it went to court, do you realize that the victims would have been called "second tier" victims because they are not homosexuals?
How do you think the parents of those dead kids feel when their kids are being called "second tier" to gays? How would you feel if it was your dead child? Second tier my ***; welcome to the brand new United States of the gays and offended.
If that bill passes, understand that means that pastors and priests can be arrested after giving Sunday morning sermons; any teacher of Scripture will be liable for arrest.
I know this full well, since I am one of them and expect to be arrested almost immediately after the bill becomes Federal Law. Myself, along with many other Bible scholars, are making legal provisions for our children so that upon that arrest, our kids won't have to sit in foster homes.
This is no joke, but the way this Nation is headed and if it weren't all prophecied to be this bad and way, way worse just before the return of Christ, then I would really be having a hard time with it. What keeps my
head on straight is knowing how close it is to the return of Christ. When He returns, this time its not as a lamb to the slaughter, but as a King, and a very, very angry one at that. People will be taught self disipline which they badly need. They will shape up
or they will be gone, period. There isn't gonna be anymore of this nonsense.
Thank God for that. Until then, hold onto the bar, because its gonna get real, real hot in the kitchen.

Answer 2

Wow. So many things wrong with your post, so little time.
Shonda Rimes is not Congress, so she can fire someone for speech issues.
Isaiah Washington wasn't standing up against gay rights. He called a cast mate a particular slur when he didn't appear on time for a scene. He fought another cast mate who spoke in the other guy's defense.
In the business world, he would have been fired on the spot for that offense. So he actually got a break. Did he learn from it? No. He appeared at an awards show and said the slur again, denying he'd said it the first time in front of the people who'd witnessed him saying it then.

Answer 3

Actually, didn't he use the word fag? Which in Britain, BTW, means a cigarette. Go figure that one.

But whatever he actually said, derogatory as it was, it was his opinion. Though, conventional wisdom might have said to not say that in front of people.

Tolerance classes? That's a joke. Just like a couple months ago when some general said something about gays shouldn't be in the military or something....... My reaction was "what? you're an idiot." But then when all this clamor began about one group or another wanting to force him to apologize, I thought "what for?"

Personally, I don't see the point in going to tolerance classes or apologizing for something you aren't truly sorry about.

And before anybody starts calling me a bigot, of which i'm not, you should understand that I've had many gay friends and one day hope they can be as miserable in marriage as the rest of us straight people. lol Sadly, I shouldn't have to make that disclaimer, but in today's PC world I have to.

Answer 4

Free speech doesn't really apply at work. If the employer feels that a portion of their demographic is the gay community they have the right to fire a person they feel is costing them money. Plus as I recall he "outed" a person. It really is not his job to go around telling secrets about another person. It may be "free speech" but it's rude, and if inaccurate, slanderous.
It is illegal to purposefully tell damaging lies about another person. AKA Liable and Slander.

It is illegal to yell 'fire' in a crowded building, or 'hijack' in an airplane too. You can't yell hijack in an airplane even if you know a guy named Jack somewhere in the plane and you just want to say hi.
The son of a friend of mine was permanently forbidden from flying United, because he made a bomb joke when he was asked to put his half empty soda bottle on the x-ray machine. This was before 9/11.

Now I just had to laugh. You are for someone for being against the rights of others.

Answer 5

So, if someone wanted to denounce women's rights, African-American's rights, Native American's rights, etc., it would be okay? I do think taking him off the show was a bit much, but that's what happened. Granted we have freedom of speech, but I bet you would take offense if whatever group you associate yourself with was talked about disparagingly by someone famous. Look at Don Imus.

Answer 6

If you’re in the public and rely on an audience for your salary, they have every right to fire you for disparaging a portion of that audience. If I owned a business that sponsored the program I’d be looking for a different program to sponsor if that sort of thing was going to be tolerated.

The language we use to describe other people or groups of people matters. It matters if we use speech to humiliate or disparage.

If you want to use that language in the privacy of your own home, that’s your business. But no business making business decisions need tolerate it. This is not a governmental issue. This is a decision by a private business. This should tell you something. Many of us have little tolerance for the disparagement of individuals or groups

Answer 7

Eh...I think it's stupid, precisely because it gives people like you something to complain about.

Personally, as a gay guy, I could give a flying freak what Washington has to say about it. But it's nice that you're willing to stand up for his right to use gay slurs. Have you heard about that church that protests soldier funerals because they believe that God is punishing the country for tolerating gay people? There's another one you can defend.

It's somewhat ironic that he's black, and you're a woman. We've all been victims of discrimination, and yet we all discriminate against each other.

Incidentally, though, he had the "right" to speak his mind, but by the same token, his employer had a "right" not to pick up his contract because of the bad PR he generated. Democracy, it's a double-edged sword, I'll tell ya.

Answer 8

No. He was fired after using a gay slur. Naming calling is not denouncing gay rights. No where does it say he was fired for it. Free speech means, you are not going to be imprisoned for something you said. It doesn't mean consequence free.

Answer 9

When that speech perpetuates or supports hate and the harm that hate can cause, like anti-gay rhetoric, racism, etc. then it should be dealt with. What's really "pathetic" is when people use the "freedom of speech" card in a cafeteria-style picking and choosing when it benefits their own agenda and stomping on others when the agenda is in opposition.

_()_

Answer 10

we live in a culture of "Do not Offend." People who preach tolerance are the same ones who are intolerant of other people's opinions. Political correctness rules over reality.
The same people who preach harmony and equality would divide people along racial, gender, and sexual orientation lines. They keep the hate alive.