Interestingly, bus driver union officials disagreed. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 officials say that it condones intolerance, and drivers who have complained about other ads have not been given permission to not drive those busses.
Metro Transit feels it is making a "reasonable accomodation", but it sounds more like knuckling under to bigotry. Officials claim that it won't lead to a slippery slope effect, and individual complaints will be handled using the same civil rights law as in this case, which would appear to be Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But if the bus driver is now allowed to choose which busses she will drive based on the advertising on the outside of the bus, what will Metro Transit do when she doesn't allow someone on the bus whose appearance goes against her religious beliefs? Bus drivers have quite a bit of latitude in removing disruptive people from the bus. If I'm wearing a t-shirt with a gay slogan, and I'm being disruptive? How about if my boyfriend and I are holding hands on the bus? If driving a bus with a gay ad on the OUTSIDE, where she can't see it once she's driving the bus, is enough of a distraction to her ability to safely drive the bus, gay people on the bus, visible in her mirror, must be enough to incapacitate her. Logically, if such a word can really be applied here, she should not allow these disruptive influences on the bus. Besides, there may be children on the bus, and above all else WE MUST THINK ABOUT THE CHILDREN!
The Twin Cities has an ongoing controversy about Muslim cab drivers who are refusing to carry passengers who have alcohol with them, on religious grounds, and now the bus company is adding fuel to the fire by giving in to this bus driver's demands. The Minnesota Department of Human Rights' newsletter has a lengthy article about how grey it is when trying to figure out where a person's religious beliefs can and can not be accomodated. Personally, my solution would be to give all the other drivers first pick of the busses, and if there were only ones with gay ads left, and she refused to drive one, don't pay her for that day's work. Of course, some might then accuse me of being intolerant.
