From the Star & Sickle:
Minneapolis Fire Chief Bonnie Bleskachek, already the subject of an internal investigation, has been accused in a federal lawsuit of repeated physical attacks against her former domestic partner, a Minneapolis fire captain, who said Bleskachek denied her the opportunity to advance in the department….
She said in the complaint that she was one of two firefighters to pass the first part of a test to become battalion chief, but that Bleskachek canceled the second part of the test.
Cornell claims in court documents that she and Kathleen Mullen, another fire captain, were the only candidates to pass the first portion of the test and that Bleskachek’s girlfriend was among those to fail the test.
Remember when people used to say that life would be better if only women were permitted to take charge? Remember? That was awesome!
I imagine that you’re as shocked as I am to learn women who want to do men’s work tend to be dykes and that performance tests would ever be altered in order to allow women to pass them. But what could top the humor of the fire chief calling 9/11 in order to pester her former “domestic partner”?
The lesson – besides the obvious one about the humor inherent in dykes – is this: never allow anyone who confuses the personal with the professional, much less the political, to have any power whatsoever over you. And that goes double for those who believe the personal is the political.