Peter Vadala and Fox News: A Love Story

[Sarge 2.0]

The news headlines say he was fired for expressing opposition to same-sex marriage, but by his own admission, Peter Vadala lost his job as a store manager because he believed God wanted him to tell a co-worker that homosexuality is wrong. And the retailer he worked for says he was fired because he used the word "deviant" to describe homosexuals, and added that he "hates" gay people.
Vadala's story has become a popular topic among conservative activists in recent weeks, who last August lost his job as an assistant manager at a Brookstone outlet at Boston's Logan Airport.
"Man fired for advocating traditional marriage," says a headline at the conservative OneNewsNow site. "Massachusetts man says he was fired for telling colleague her gay marriage is wrong," says the headline at the Fox News site.
But the story the 24-year-old Vadala told Fox News indicates he lost his job for expressing views against homosexuals as a whole, and not against same-sex marriage.

Story continues below...​

Vadala told Fox News he confronted a Brookstone store manager who was visiting from another location after she repeatedly mentioned her engagement to another woman.
"I found it offensive that she repeatedly brought it up," Vadala said. "By the fourth time she mentioned it, I felt God wanted me to express how I felt about the matter, so I did. But my tone was downright apologetic. I said, 'Regarding your homosexuality, I think that's bad stuff.'"
According to Vadala, the woman replied, "Human resources, buddy — keep your opinions to yourself."
But according to the gay-issues news site Tips-Q, Brookstone says Vadala "used the word 'deviant' with both the manager in question and the Brookstone HR executive. He also referred to "the homosexual lifestyle" and told a co-worker "I hate people like that."
Vadala disputes that he ever said those words. In an interview with Fox News on Monday morning, he said he had not yet decided whether he would pursue a legal case against his former employer.
Fox News quoted Brookstone CEO Ron Boire, who said, "Brookstone is an equal opportunity employer. ... We are proud of our diverse workforce of varying cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds."
"Obviously Christians are excluded from that," Vadala retorted. "I can't believe that [Boire] had the audacity to say something so erroneously false."
Progressive bloggers say Vedala's right to believe whatever he chooses does not extend to criticizing co-workers for their sexual orientation.
"He didn't defend traditional marriage, he didn't attack gay marriage. He told the woman that her homosexuality was wrong," writes James Urbaniak at LiveJournal. "He knew she was gay because she'd mentioned the sex of her fiance but Peter Vadala's issue with her was that she was gay, period. Her marriage was so much icing on her gay cake."
But conservative bloggers insist that the political issue of gay marriage, and not Vedala's actions, are the key issue here.
"This is a chilling example of the ultimate consequences of imposing the concept of same-sex 'marriage' through force of law," says an unsigned posting at the MassResistance blog. "We've certainly seen it coming. What happened to Peter is actually what was intended by the homosexual movement. It's about making people accept what they normally would not accept and punishing those who resist."

http://rawstory.com/2009/11/media-firing-gay-marriage/


Go Team Venture!

 

[Sarge 2.0]

I also like how he stumbles, with utter sincerity, right into a redundancy when he says "erroneously false".

 

[-Arya-]

Another christian hating on homosexuality....What else is new.

 

[Gilpesh]

What is it with this christian idiot trying to be a martyr for hating people?

 

[Sarge 2.0]

I don't know, but if you go to Urbaniak's blog you can listen to the godawful songs he composed for a musical designed to bring college kids to Jesus so that they'd stop struggling with their pornography and dirty, filthy gayness.

But isn't it awesome that this toolbag got owned by Dr. Venture?

 

[-Arya-]

I don't know, but if you go to Urbaniak's blog you can listen to the godawful songs he composed for a musical designed to bring college kids to Jesus so that they'd stop struggling with their pornography and dirty, filthy gayness.

But isn't it awesome that this toolbag got owned by Dr. Venture?

I'm missing something here. What's the connection with Dr. Venture?

 

[Sarge 2.0]

James Urbaniak voices Dr. Venture.

 

[bored]

James Urbaniak, the writer the article cites, is the voice actor who plays Dr. Venture.

 

[-Arya-]

Huh...that is pretty awesome actually.

 

[Gilpesh]

I just love how open people, who are against gay marriage, are with their hate.... but yet get away with it a lot of the time. It's almost like some strange bizzaro world has crossed over with ours. Where in that world the phrases like, "no offense," or "I'm just sayin'," or "I don't mean nothin' by it,"... actually work.

 

[The Battousai]

Look at what a lot of people said about black people and interracial marriage only a few decades ago, and you won't see much of a difference.

 

[Heretic]

I am for gay marriage and all that...but...playing devils advocate here...why did this chick come from another store to visit, maybe help out for a day...and talk abut her sex/dating life all day?? I can possibly understand if they worked together all the time, but on one day this chick feels comfortable enough to just chat it up about sex or dating???

I manage a band...and speak with the singer every day...we sleep on the same bus when on tour, spending weeks together at a time, and I do not know his girlffriend's name. It's none of my business. It's WORK. Even when I ran a retail store back in the day, I didnt know ANYTHING about the lives of the people I worked with. As long as you are working, thats all I care about.

 

[Motown Marvel]

why are news sources quoting bloggers?

I am for gay marriage and all that...but...playing devils advocate here...why did this chick come from another store to visit, maybe help out for a day...and talk abut her sex/dating life all day?? I can possibly understand if they worked together all the time, but on one day this chick feels comfortable enough to just chat it up about sex or dating???

I manage a band...and speak with the singer every day...we sleep on the same bus when on tour, spending weeks together at a time, and I do not know his girlffriend's name. It's none of my business. It's WORK. Even when I ran a retail store back in the day, I didnt know ANYTHING about the lives of the people I worked with. As long as you are working, thats all I care about.

people who work together bulls**t with each other when working. hell, first day at my current job we were talking about getting blow jobs after sticking our penis' in milkshakes and after my boss played a first day prank on me i told him i hope his wifes vagina falls off. sure, thats on the more extreme end of things. but chatting with someone new, getting to know the person your working with, nothing wrong with mentioning a significant other if its part of your life. if the dude didnt want to hear about it, or didnt personally approve of her lifestyle choices, thats his right but there were better ways to deal with it.

 

[Heretic]

why are news sources quoting bloggers?



people who work together bulls**t with each other when working. hell, first day at my current job we were talking about getting blow jobs after sticking our penis' in milkshakes and after my boss played a first day prank on me i told him i hope his wifes vagina falls off. sure, thats on the more extreme end of things. but chatting with someone new, getting to know the person your working with, nothing wrong with mentioning a significant other if its part of your life. if the dude didnt want to hear about it, or didnt personally approve of her lifestyle choices, thats his right but there were better ways to deal with it.

I get what you're saying...but I guarantee that it is against corporate policy ti be chatting about sex lives and all of that. Most crappy retail stores are lax on the policy, but it exists. It is HIGHLY inappropriate for a manager of another store to engage in such personal talk with a person who is underneath them in rank. I GUARANTEE that the corporate training instructs the managers not to have conversations like that.

 

[Motown Marvel]

was she talking about her sex life? or was she just talking about her girlfriend? because according to the article she was just talking about her getting engaged to her girlfriend....and not talking about great it was going down on her the other night.

 

[Heretic]

It doesnt matter....well, it kind of does. It isnt clear on exactly WHAT was being discussed.

Lets say I am managing a retail store...and as a heterosexual guy, I start talking to one of my underling employees about girls I date...whatever...the point is that my comments make the girl uncomfortable. At that point I, as manager, have violated MOST companies policies on sexual harassment. The guy handled it very poorly, of course...but he never should have been made to feel uncomfortable in the first place.

 

[Motown Marvel]

its not sexual harassment to talk about dating people though. nor to talk about your new fiancee. theres nothing sexual or harassing about it. i mean, not even the closed minded religious conservatives are accusing the manager of sexual harassment.

 

[Heretic]

The point is...it is the policy of most places that managers (or anyone else) should nt be discussing personal matters to avoid making others feel uncomfortable. Sure, he handled it wrong. Sure, he's a bigot. But if this was a girl complaining that a male manager was talking about his personal life or what have you the manager would be looking for a job right now.

The manager should have followed the rules that I am SURE they learned in training which is to avoid any talk of a sexual nature that may make others feel uncomfortable. In ONE DAY this guy should not have come into contact with several instances of the manager talking abut her personal life. How about getting some work done instead of violating your companies rules?

 

[Heretic]

The point is...it is the policy of most places that managers (or anyone else) should nt be discussing personal matters to avoid making others feel uncomfortable. Sure, he handled it wrong. Sure, he's a bigot. But if this was a girl complaining that a male manager was talking about his personal life or what have you the manager would be looking for a job right now.

The manager should have followed the rules that I am SURE they learned in training which is to avoid any talk of a sexual nature that may make others feel uncomfortable. In ONE DAY this guy should not have come into contact with several instances of the manager talking abut her personal life. How about getting some work done instead of violating your companies rules?

 

[Motown Marvel]

i dont think any corporate place has ever mandated your not allowed to mention your significant other. theres nothing sexual or inappropriately personal about mentioning a significant other. i mean, should we talk all of our family photos off our desks and hide our wedding rings when we come into work?

 

[Heretic]

No...but this is a retail setting, where there are no photos.

We have NO IDEA what she talked about. Thats the problem. He says she repeatedly talked about her lesbian lifestyle...she says she just talked baut her girlfriend.

The problem is that it never should have come up. The company policy is SURELY to avoid anything personal that might cause an issue. She was there to WORK, not talk. It wasnt even her store! She showed up at a store she wasnt usually the boss of, spent half the day running her mouth instead of working...why is that not a problem?? had she merely WORKED instead of run her mouth this wouldnt have happened.

My biggest problem with it is that her laziness and possible violation of company policy is being overlooked because the guys was a christian.

 

[Motown Marvel]

we do know what she was talking about, the dude himself says she was talking about getting engaged. its right there in the article. and she was brought in to run the store for the day. for that day, it WAS her store to run, she was in charge. and just because she is talking does not mean she isnt doing her job. everyone talks at their job. anyone who isnt capable of talking and working B.S. retail would never be made manager of a store. and im sure there is no company policy that excludes talking about a significant other, since it would be impossible for a store to mandate employees only talk when its strictly work related. she didnt do anything wrong. and if you're problem with all of this is you're assumption that she is a lazy worker, then we need to stop this conversation since this man's sheer *****ebaggery is a lesser concern to you.

 

[Heretic]

The guy being a *****ebag has nothing to do with the workplace.

A manager coming in and repeatedly talking about her personal exploits DOES have to deal with the workplace.

The reason why managers are trained to not do this type of thing is precisely because someone may be offended. Everyone in the story agrees that she REPEATEDLY talked about her girlfriend. For a retail manager to come in to run a store for one day and repeatedly talk about their personal life is a very real reason for the company to take action.

I am a HUGE supporter of equal rights. I have taken part in gay marriage rallies and all of that good stuff. This has nothing to do with gay rights though. It has to do with an employee feeling uncomfortable because of the repeated conversations of a manager. THAT is the issue that started every other line of conversation we could go down.

The manager is in a position of authority, and should have left her personal information at home, especially when she was in a store that she was not familiar with.

Again...had this been a male manager, who was heterosexual...an a female coworker who felt uncomfortable, the man would be unemployed.

Heck, I dont work retail anymore...but in down times when I go months without working in my career (like...well...now) I sometimes get little part time jobs to stay busy. If I was working retail and my manger started talking all about their personal,lives Id tell them to shut the heck up and let me work.

 

[Sarge 2.0]

I am for gay marriage and all that...but...playing devils advocate here...why did this chick come from another store to visit, maybe help out for a day...and talk abut her sex/dating life all day?? I can possibly understand if they worked together all the time, but on one day this chick feels comfortable enough to just chat it up about sex or dating???

I manage a band...and speak with the singer every day...we sleep on the same bus when on tour, spending weeks together at a time, and I do not know his girlffriend's name. It's none of my business. It's WORK. Even when I ran a retail store back in the day, I didnt know ANYTHING about the lives of the people I worked with. As long as you are working, thats all I care about.

She wasn't talking about her sex/dating life.

She had just got engaged, and like 99.9999% of recently engaged people regardless of sexual orientation she was very excited and wished to talk about it.

And you're either naive or ridiculously uptight if you think that kind of talk (and more) doesn't go on in most work places. Most normal people don't give a **** unless the person is going in to some sort of detail about their sex life. Which she wasn't doing. So yes, you (and Mr. Vadala) are still wrong.

 

[Majic Walrus]

The point is...it is the policy of most places that managers (or anyone else) should nt be discussing personal matters to avoid making others feel uncomfortable. Sure, he handled it wrong. Sure, he's a bigot. But if this was a girl complaining that a male manager was talking about his personal life or what have you the manager would be looking for a job right now.

The manager should have followed the rules that I am SURE they learned in training which is to avoid any talk of a sexual nature that may make others feel uncomfortable. In ONE DAY this guy should not have come into contact with several instances of the manager talking abut her personal life. How about getting some work done instead of violating your companies rules?

No company or organization I've ever worked for allowed bigotry in the workplace. In fact I've walked people out the door in places for being bigots. However I've never fired someone for telling me that they were getting engaged.

Furthermore it is unreasonable for someone to be offended at the thought of another person being gay. You do not have the right to not be offended, especially when you get offended by stuff that is reasonably NOT offensive.