To be honest, the case of Los Angeles County Lifeguard Captain Jeffrey Little has me scratching my head.
Little is a veteran lifeguard who filed a religious discrimination, harassment and retaliation lawsuit last month against the county fire department, which also employs lifeguards. He claims he was forced to work under a rainbow pride flag during June, which is celebrated as LGBTQ+ Pride Month, going against his deeply held religious beliefs.
Little believes flying the flag or supervising those who fly it is a violation of his civil rights, and he doesn’t want to work on beaches where the flag is flown. The lawsuit is a bit vague on these points.
In any case, I believe him if he says he is genuinely offended by displays of queer and trans pride. But I would describe his position as bigoted, just like those who use their Christian faith to explain their opposition to, say, interracial marriage. I’m not a fan of people who use the Bible to dehumanize others.
In his lawsuit, Little argues that the Progress Pride flag in question symbolizes and promotes “a variety of controversial religious and moral views, including regarding the nature of family, marriage, human sexuality, including the promotion of certain sexual acts, and the identity, nature and purpose of human beings.”
Sexual activity? I think he could read quite a lot into a light-colored fabric sample.
Little also claims he opposes the flag because it is “prominently displayed in gay pride parades around the world, including those in which adults appear scantily clad or even nude in front of children.”
Excuse me, what do the lifeguards in Los Angeles say?
Doesn’t the captain realize how many people are running around nearly naked on the beaches of Los Angeles on an average sunny day? I mean, it’s hard to tell the difference between a bikini and dental floss these days. In fact, sometimes it’s hard to tell who’s wearing a thong and who’s actually naked.
But hey, unless someone asks you about your sexual orientation while you’re caught in a rip current, even lifeguards are allowed to be prejudiced, at least in private.
But forcing their religion on us is my limit. Same-sex marriage was legalized in 2015. Gender is not binary. Transgender people exist and should be respected. Flying the Pride flag is a symbolic way of saying “you belong here too.”
Little’s superiors probably handled his complaints poorly and should have anticipated that their dispute would lead to an intriguing lawsuit like the one brought by lawyers from the Thomas More Society, a conservative Catholic legal advocacy group.
This story began in March 2023, when the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to fly the Progress Pride flag at county facilities every June.
This particular flag is a variation of the Pride flag that debuted in San Francisco in 1978. As the superintendent noted, the original flag “included eight stripes and hot pink, one for each color of the rainbow.” The colors represent sex, life, healing, sunlight, nature, magic and art, serenity and spirit.
Over the years, the flag’s design has evolved: the widely adopted version in question adds a V-shaped stripe of black and brown (representing marginalized LGBTQ+ people of color and those lost to or infected with HIV/AIDS) to the original colors, and pink, blue, and white (incorporating the transgender flag).
Interestingly, in at least one part of the lawsuit, Little doesn’t challenge the county’s right to fly the flag, acknowledging that “governments can send their own messages,” but he does object to being required to fly the flag himself.
He says the police department was initially accommodating, letting him work at beaches where the Pride flag wasn’t flying (some lifeguard stations aren’t equipped to fly the flag). But when he arrived to work at Dockweiler State Beach in late June last year, he found Pride flags flying on two lifeguard towers and another building, which he claims amounted to religious discrimination.
His first reaction was confusion, he recalls, “because I didn’t think I’d have to work in these conditions,” and he took the flag down.
It was a stupid thing to do, and as you can imagine, this apparent act of insubordination didn’t sit well with his superiors. He says his permission to avoid the beach with the Pride flag was revoked.
It was a classic power struggle. Little alleges that Lifeguard Division Chief Fernand Boiteau, described in the lawsuit as much larger than Little and “trained in martial arts,” physically and verbally intimidated him. “You need to stop what you’re doing. You’re a Los Angeles County employee. That’s all that matters. Your religious beliefs don’t matter,” Boiteau allegedly told Little.
It’s unclear whether Boiteux actually said that — the fire department wouldn’t comment on the matter — but of course religious beliefs are important, even if they are outdated, misguided or bigoted.
If Little’s explanation is correct, his superiors could have treated him more sensitively and less aggressively, and he might have avoided the ordeal of being sued in federal court at a time when religious bigotry is being codified into law by the Supreme Court.
It’s a shame, but perhaps inevitable, that the Progress Pride flag has become a battleground in the culture wars, and it’s a shame Little didn’t try a little harder to love his neighbor.