Opera Star Fired For Homophobic And Vicious Facebook Rant

An American opera singer was fired by a Canadian opera company after his homophobic, racist, and ugly Facebook comments became public.

Award-winning bass singer Valerian Ruminski during Ottawa’s gay pride weekend found himself on a city bus with the Queen of Pride, Jade London. 

London had bejeweled fingernails. Ruminski decided to take a photo of London, which he posted to Facebook, along with his thoughts. 

“He is ASKING for criticism by parading his choices in front of everyone,” Ruminski’s Facebook rant read. “Like the black males who wear their pants down off their asses. They WANT you to notice it and get angered by it. Thats [sic] part of the strategy. He has an agenda by gluing diamonds onto his nails…and so do I by commenting on how stupid it is!”

“Clearly people have deficiencies and deficits and needs in this world and this is who we get to see them. people with issues do things to get noticed. Frankly, I don’t want to notice them, I don’t want to be an unwilling participant in their ego issues and I don’t want to be forced to think anything about them as people because I happen to glance over and see some absurd monstrosity like 10 diamonds nailed onto his fingertips. They FORCE you to think something about them. they FORCE you top pass some kind of judgement. Turning the other way and not thinking about WHY would be the easy way, I guess. NOT having an opinion is exactly what they DONT want. They are dying, salivating for the people around…”

Ottawa’s Opera Lyra fired Ruminski. In a statement, Opera Lyra said it “dissociates itself entirely from Mr. Ruminski’s publicly stated views.”

But Ruminski’s comments after his Facebook rant — which has since been removed — aren’t helping.

“I said something extremely stupid about someone’s nail fashion and their appearance,” Ruminski told the Ottawa Citizen. “It was a spur of the moment, thoughtless, idiotic thing that I would do a thousand times and it wouldn’t amount to anything. But this one time I took the picture of the wrong person and I said the wrong thing and the wrong person got riled up and really misinterpreted a lot of what I said because my life has been shaped by many members of the gay community; my teachers and my coaches and my agents and everybody.”

“I said something stupid on social media and, as we have seen recently, social media can spiral out of control and the original intent can be lost.”

On his personal website, Ruminski attributed his “big mistake” to feeling “powerless.” 

“I get agitated at things and I want to vent and let people know I am bothered,” he wrote. “I made a big mistake last week. Please forgive me.”

I sat on a bus last week and I saw a man with 10 diamonds glued to his fingernails. I thought it was a bit over the top. I did not know who he was, To me it did not matter if he was gay or straight. I simply objected to the flambouyance and unneccessary accoutrements on his fingers. I wanted to get a picture of them so I angled my cell and got one. I posted the picture on Facebook. I vented some frustrations about his nails and his appearance and I left it there.

That was my big mistake. I did not know him. I did not know if he was smart or witty or dull. I didn’t take the time to say hello or greet him. I didn’t take the time to pause and think and consider that we are all special and that this person was different in a way that was unique to everyone else around us. I am an opera singer. He, as I learned, is a drag queen. The two of us are not too far apart, I guess.

Queen of Pride Jade London had some thoughts also.

“What I say to the gentleman that secretly took that photo behind my back and wrote nasty comments about how I’m a moron and how my nails all bejazzled up compensated for my face . . . well you know what, guess who’s standing here today as the new Miss Capital Pride, me.

“I show a lot of heart and I don’t really care what people say about me, but it hurt me when it happened and I feel sorry. I can’t feel anything but sorry for him that he’s so close minded and he chose to post as much negative things as possible about a male sitting on a bus with bejazzzled hands. I think if it was a woman in that place, would it have been the same reaction? I don’t think so, so he was clearly bashing the gay community on expressing themselves.”

 

Image: Facebook
Hat tip: Gay Star News, Huffington Post