Right Goal, Wrong Approach

The Los Angeles Fire Commission is considering banning sexually explicit material from city fire stations. The goal of making those fire stations a more hospitable place for female firefighters and paramedics to work is laudable, but the method is not. This is one case in which the people in the firehouse may have to police themselves; the alternative smacks of censorship.

Commission President Hal Kwalwasser argues that because firefighters are on duty at the stations they are not completely free to do whatever they want to do. They should not, for example, be paid for watching the cable Playboy channel or reading sexually explicit books or magazines. “I don’t care what they read at home, but they can’t do it at the fire station” at taxpayers’ expense, he said.

Some women firefighters and paramedics have complained about explicit material being played on television sets at some stations. The Fire Commission is right to try to act to end any form of sexual harassment in the workplace. But that action should come in the form of continued education on why the material is objectionable to some people rather than through an outright ban. To do otherwise is to inhibit free speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Sexually explicit material, whether broadcast on cable television or published in magazines, is not pleasant speech, but it is protected speech.

Firefighters must be 18 or over to join the department, so presumably they can also act like adults. Mature people understand that they must work together; when a workplace is in transition, with more women entering a traditionally male field, accommodation is in order. Firefighters are busy, hard-working, brave people. They should not allow their reputations to be tarnished by a few people who have trouble changing with the times.