A Cincinnati emergency room nurse was suspended over a profanity-riddled rant about homosexuals and transgenders in a Facebook post.
Cindy Carter, was placed on administrative leave from her job at the Bethesda Butler Hospital in Hamilton, Ohio, after she launched an attack against homosexuals and transsexuals on Facebook. She wrote, in part that “this country has gone to complete s—! and “these f—ing c–k-sucking h—- think they deserve everything.”
Carter posted multiple comments in response to complaints by members of the LGBT community – many of whom are served by the TriHealth Hospitals system.
According to KSHB News, Carter’s rant was motivated by Proctor & Gamble’s decision to remove the Venus feminine symbol from Always pad wrappers after a female-to-male trans person complained about the packaging on Twitter.com.
In two comments screen shot by Cincinnati Councilman Chris Seelbach, Carter wrote she did not believe in the existence of transgender people, and that “entitled” gay men and “confused woman” were ruining the country. “Men need to be men. Women need to be women.”
“This is the reason why transgender people don’t feel comfortable going to the doctor, and they don’t feel comfortable accessing medical care,” said Tristan Vaught, a female-to-male nonbinary activist. “In hospitals, you’re not sure who you’re going to get.”
Councilman Seelbach called for the hospital to fire the nurse. “Nurses should be able to treat anyone regardless of our differences, and having such extreme views and being able to put them out there publicly would make a lot of us apprehensive of wanting a nurse to treat us,” said Seelbach, who is openly homosexual.
“As an LGBTQ+ person, I don’t feel comfortable using their services until I know Mrs. Carter would never treat me. Until TriHealth terminates the employment of Carter, I will not be using their services,” Seelbach wrote on Monday.
But Vaught disagreed with Seelbach. “I know some wonderful people that work there. I’ve been in talks with their diversity committee. I don’t think, as an organization, this is what they stand for.”
Vaught called on TriHealth to make it clear that homophobia and transphobia are not part of their organization.
“I think everyone can be trained to be respectful,” Vaught said. “I don’t think that you’re going to change hearts and minds. I think you can teach people, while they’re on the job, while they’re clocked in, ‘This is the culture that we’re going to have.'”
In the past, Carter would’ve been protected by the First Amendment that guarantees freedom of speech – even if her comments caused hurt feelings. But times have changed in the post-Obama era.
