Friday, September 14, 2012

Too Goth for a Hospital?

I found this article on during a random Google search, and frankly found it disturbing. This guy visited an ER after a skating accident, seeking medical attention for a broken wrist, and was denied service by the smuck behind the front desk because of an inverted cross he was wearing.

What the frick?

He doesn't look all that scary to me. 

Ok, let me begin the rant. Most likely (though I am just guessing here but this is very likely what happened) the reason the clerk was so offended was because he was probably a Christian who associates an upside-down cross with Satanism. That is not the only way that cross is used, it is also used in Catholicism (yes, a Christian religion) as a symbol of St. Peter, who was crucified upside-down.    And even if he is a Satanist, this country was founded on the concept of the freedom to worship in anyway one would like without fear of persecution, so unless this guy had ran up and said "I'm going to kill you" or something similar, the clerk had no reason to deny him medical attention.

And what is more, the Goth guy offered to tuck in the necklace so it could not be seen, if it was so offensive. And the clerk still told him to find someone else to check him in.  Personally, I would have made such a scene that the guy probably would have been fired on the spot. The Goth in this case was very polite in the face of such ruddiness, and I commend him for it.

Honestly this makes me loose faith in humanity a little bit. Thankfully nothing like this has happened to me, but that is not to say that it couldn't eventually. I can only hope that the clerk will loose his job over this.   

3 comments:

  1. That's outrageous but somehow, doesn't surprise me. And I agree with you, the person behind the desk should have been fired. If a person doesn't believe in providing care to everybody equally, he or she has no business working in a hospital.

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  2. This is insane. He shouldn't even have had to hide it, he wasn't breaking any rules, and last time I was in Canada there still was freedom of belief.

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  3. I'm really disappointed this happened in my home town. I've always considered it pretty open, boasting some great goth hang outs and boutiques. At the same time, I'm not surprised that it did-- while it is predominately young that city, it is politically conservative.

    I agree with Nightwind-- that clerk has no business being in the practice of care.

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