I can't believe that happened

woman vs men in volunteer fire department

Please keep in mind this happened over 10 years ago  I have since gotten over it though  wishing I sued the doc when I had a chance and wanted to share my story.  A little background first I am a female who wanted to be a firefighter. The interest started at 13 when I joined the Jr fire department. When I was 17 just a month shy of my 18th birthday  I wanted to join  my goal was to be a fire marshal. At 18 we are allowed to join the department  and since the process can take a few weeks I put  my application in a month before  my birthday to start the ball rolling. In the beginning I wanted to join my fathers engine company and quite a few old school old timers don't like the idea of a woman  firefighter in their company. To prevent  this one of the old timers whos son was in the same company  but died on 9/11 approached my parents  saying he had a peice of advice (with dual purpose as advice and to keep a woman out). He said since my father is in the company it would be  difficult for me because people will always see me as my dads daughter not a fellow firefighter and I should pick a company that doesn't have a parent in it. We saw some of the logic while we also knew the true motivation but it made sense. I picked a engine company that had no connection to my family  the other one has a bad history with my grandfather and I put in my application.  A few weeks later I was at the firehouse for something when the company i applied  for officer pulled me aside  a trainer for the fire house was also there. The officer  said the company  is worried about how far I was from that house and I am better off in my father's company which the trainer was agreeing with. The officer also said he took the liberty before talking to me to forward my application to my original choice fire house. After that talk my parents were upset  the way it was done but they knew deep down it was my first choice company. Fast forward I introduced myself as a candidate  and somehow my application kept disappearing. Finally one of officers had me fill out the application  the day of submission and a company vote  to approve me was happening. Some of the old timers made though  a special motion for a ballot vote to hid the people  opposed. I still made it in. When it came time for everything else I thought  it was going smoothly boy was I wrong.  The main department doctor the most entitled man (he has the village  in his pocket and does extreme makeover on his house makes his employees miserable and is very controlling) is the doc i have to see for my medical. Now I always had a fear of needles and the way I distract myself  is with music. The medical  is going fine than comes the blood draw. At this point entitled doctor  comes in and sets up for the rest of medical. He automatically assumed I was going to rescue to be an emt to which i said no to an engin company  no more was said I just  said let me just put on a song to distracted me from the blood draw he asked about a song I was listening to and didn't say anything else and finished the medical. Fast forward 2 days later I get a call from the office saying they need  me and my parents to come in now I am 18 and don't need  my parents with me and said that but still  I had to bring  them in. I literally  was nervous my family has a diabetes history and I was afraid I was diagnosed with it. When we got there a nurse leaned in to my parents and said stick to your guns which confused us. When we got in the doc sat down and said everything  came back fine but while talking to me I seemed  a little off (he only talked to me for 2 min at the most) and he had to ask the chief  what a class a firefighter entailed to make a decision (he's been doing these medical for years). My parents responded i have aspergers which just makes me socially awkward  nothing  more. That's when the doc wanted to send me to his friend a shrink to see if I can handle a fire situation (no one else ever had to do it) this reason all firefighters don't know until you experience it. The doc said if I was joining rescue he would have given an immediate pass to join. My parents decided to go to the other department doc for a second opinion since everyone who went to the first one hated his guts because  he has a history  of demanding  people  go to his friends  only for issues that he wants to be checked and I was passed and cleared to join with this doc. Unfortunately the entitled doc and department had him retract it because  they argued that entitled doc  gets the approval of new guys and ignored the fact the other doc said  I was fine to join. We decided  to appeal to the village and department since his reasoning for not passing me because of disablty was discrimination.  We got family and friends to write letters of how I can handle it and attend village board meeting the village wouldn't budge backing up the entitled doc who we found out had a secret (his license was suspended in jersey and he lied under oath in court  and sold illegal firearms out of his house in jersey so he was a crimminal). Fast forward  some more we found  a pro bono law firm that deals  with disabilities  cases and they  agreed to talk to the village lawyer and the doc.at that meeting the village  lawyer was not good  at keeping his mouth shut  and the doc pulled  out the book of letters  insulting each of them and calling autism  and aspergers a disease  which one of our lawyers  held back his anger but glared daggers at him (his son is autistic  and the doc was out of line and mis informed). Afterwards  the lawyers said  wow we weren't kidding  about  him being  an asshole but were glad we got him to agree if someone can vouch that people with disabilities can do firefighting  he wold let me in. It just so happened that I joined a college  group that works with people with aspergers  and the head of the program  was an expert on it and agreed to write a letter.  A few days later we got a call my 2 year fight paid off I was in. That was the happiest day of the year though some drawbacks happend (time hurt my chances of being a fire Marshall right after college) by the time college  ended i had 4.5 years out of 5 necessary to take the only test i heard of. The positive drawback my fight allowed others with disabilities come into the department easiest. The thing we figured though while all this was  going  on is that someone  in the department  was looking  to keep me out but wanted to find a way around gender discrimination  and unfortunately  picked the wrong way to go and open the disability discrimination can of worms. Which shows dont ask someone who thinks they can get away with discrimination while covering it as a medical excuse it can backfire. The doc still does medicine but due to our little research the towns hired cops looking for a way out of being sent to him found out about his past (my mom was an emt at the time and the cops would ask about my pending application) were not happy about it. their union fought the village about being treated by someone who had a criminal background and got the right to have a different first choice.
Flash forward from this story  i am still in the fire service  and had a few times I showed the men the way to do something. The most notable one is I was still in college and just so happened to be taking a fire alarm class. Well we had an automatic  alarm and none of the cheifs knew how to silence it. I walked over saw the button  and pointed it out.