Catholic Firefighters Were Ordered to Drive in a Gay Pride Parade. Their 10-Year Legal Battle Just Ended -- Here's What the Court Said.

Lawsuits brought by two Catholic firefighters who claim that their constitutional rights were violated when they were forced to drive a firetruck in a gay pride parade in Providence, Rhode Island, have been thrown out by the Rhode Island Supreme Court.

Theodore Fabrizio and Stephen Deninno were assigned to drive the truck through the parade in June 2001. They initially asked to be reassigned due to their faith-based opposition to homosexuality, though their request was not granted, according to the Christian Post.

They ended up participating in the parade in 2001, despite their opposition, later claiming that they were subjected to sexual propositions, harassment, offensive remarks and profane phone calls. They filed two lawsuits in 2004 against former mayor Buddy Cianci and former fire chief James Rattigan, Courthouse News Service reported.

Photo credit: Shutterstock

Their decade-long legal battle concluded this week, though, with the judges unanimously ruling that Fabrizio and Deninno didn't have a right to remove themselves from official duty.

"The respondents' participation in the parade as public servants carrying out a legitimate work assignment was not a deprivation of their constitutional rights," Judge William Robinson wrote in the Supreme Court's decision. "The respondents' appearance in the parade, solely as members of the Providence Fire Department, did not constitute a form of expression on their part."

Robinson said that Fabrizio and Deninno were merely doing what they were asked to do by the Providence Fire Department, claiming that it did not constitute "personal speech" and that they were selected due to the fact that their engine company was closest to the parade route, the Associated Press reported.

(H/T: Christian Post)

--

Front page image via Shutterstock.com