Calgary Bus Driver Would Rather Lose His Job Than Drive A Pride Bus

A Calgary bus driver would rather lose his job than drive Calgary Transits' Pride bus

Image via twitter.com/calgarytransit

The Calgary Pride parade is scheduled for September 6th following a week of celebrations for the city’s annual pride week. In honour of the event, Calgary Transit just unveiled a bus decorated with the colours of the rainbow to show their support. The bus tells the city to “Ride the Pride” and join in on the festivities.

“It’s a public display of equality across the city,” said Pride Calgary’s Craig Sklenar. “It’s also an advertisement of our event. We want this to be the largest Pride event in Calgary’s history. It’s our 25th anniversary and it deserves the attention that we’re hoping it gets.” This year’s Pride Parade is expected to attract up to 60,000 people to the downtown area.

The bus is scheduled to cover various routes for the next week that Calgary Transit will tweet out for anyone interested in taking a ride. But despite the support the city has shown for pride week so far, there is at least one person who isn’t happy about the Pride bus.

Calgary Transit driver, Jesse Rau told The Canadian Press “I’m a Christian so, as a Christian, there are things like homosexuality that I just can’t condone. Unfortunately, we live in a culture where if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, the accusation is that you hate the person.”

Rau admitted that if he is asked to drive the Pride bus he would have no choice but to refuse, even if that meant losing his job. He told CTV Calgary, “if I’m asked to compromise in such a big way for what I believe to be right, yes of course I have to lose my job, there’s nothing else that I can do.”

Although Rau has a wife and young son to support, his beliefs are more important and according to him, being forced to drive the pride bus would “put him in a corner.”

A Calgary Transit spokesperson said drivers can refuse to drive based on safety issues, but that’s about it. So, while Rau could very well lose his job if he makes a big stink over the pride bus, it seems that as long as he isn’t asked to actively participate in Pride events, he isn’t going to protest. The rainbow bus is only one out of hundreds of busses in the city, and it’s only running for a week, so surely Rau can be scheduled on a different route. In fact, chances are that’s exactly what would have happened anyway, and no one would have had to hear about this story at all.

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