Nashville Fire Department Firefighters, in uniform and carrying radios, showed up to at least one Nashville gay bar this weekend, selling rainbow themed ‘Nashville Fire’ t-shirts to the gay men in the bar, or as one patron called it on his social media “selling water in a desert.”
It wasn’t immediately clear if they were for an official city fundraiser or charity, or if for some sort of union purpose, of if they’re perhaps making up for the money the city hasn’t given them as a cost-of-living raise. There was also no word on why they chose to manufacture specialty rainbow themed t-shirts just for the Nashville LGBT community.
We’ve reach out to the NFD who provided some updated information:
“Our fire halls often design and sell shirts to raise money for various causes. The shirts are designed, printed and paid for by the firefighters at the individual halls.
This particular shirt came as a result of a meeting some station 2 B-Shift firefighters had with the Tennessee Equality Project. When they learned of TEP’s mission they decided to design and sell a shirt to raise money for the organization. It is a common practice for that hall and shift… Friday they were at Tribe meeting with management to let them know about the shirts. “
For those curious, yes, there is a Nashville Fire Station called ‘The Bottoms’ – although this woman isn’t a firefighter, she was just some seemingly drunk woman who asked to wear a firefighter’s helmet for a photo. Nashville Firefighters seem to have a lot of photos taken by the public in local bars in their uniforms and gear.
