Employee Scolded for
Gay Film Fest. E-mail

An employee of the Ohio Department of Public Safety was scolded by her boss after she forwarded an e-mail promoting a gay film festival in Columbus. Tina O'Grady, administrator of the Ohio Traffic Safety Office, was asked to meet with Ohio Department of Public Safety director Henry Guzman after some of her coworkers complained about the contents of the e-mail. The e-mail, which she sent as an "FYI," advertised the Out@Wex Film Festival presented by the Wexner Center for the Arts.

In particular, reports the Columbus Dispatch , her coworkers were offended by the description of Otto, or Up With Dead People, an "art-porn provocation" by director Bruce La Bruce that "depicts an explosion of cannibalistic, sodomy-seeking zombies in Berlin."

O'Grady is a member of the public-safety agency's cultural competency initiative, which includes fostering respect toward LGBT employees as one of its goals.

A spokesman for the Ohio Department of Public Safety said that Guzman spoke with O'Grady about her "lack of judgment" in forwarding the e-mail.