A gay employee at Wolff Olins, a global branding company, was none too happy to be labeled "HIV Boy" by his employer. The man, Christopher Perez, is suing his former boss for constant harassment due to his sexual orientation.
Perez's supervisor, Dean Crutchfield, was best friends with the CEO of the company so Perez's complaints never went answered. Instead, he was fired from the company because of them.
Other instances of harassment include a time when Perez asked for vacation time, and his boss
proceeded to ask if he was "going away with your team for a scandalous holiday." While Perez may have very well been going to the Winter Party, the comment is obviously inappropriate.
We at MANHUNT would probably consider all those things terms of endearment, but harassment of gay men and women is a real problem in many workplaces. Does anyone have a story of being harassed at a job because of sexual orientation?
– Andy
I used to bartend at a TGIFriday’s in Miami while I was attending school. 3 of the managers would constantly harass me from the minute I’d walk through the door to the minute I left.
For example: I walked in once wearing an orange University of Miami t-shirt and they’d make comments like “Couldn’t you find a men’s shirt to wear? Only girls wear something like that.” And I would find rude and harrassing remarks on the ‘prep sheet’ (things I needed to make for the day like desserts and drink mixes). Suffice to say the words gay and homo appeared on it many times and even the word fag once.
They said it was all in good fun and they were just jokes. I would have left but I needed the job, struggling student and all. I finally quit when a fellow employee confided in me that I was being put in the worst position at the worst times because of my sexual orientation. I asked one of the managers and it was unofficially confirmed, something like “We don’t know if our regulars would feel comfortable.” Had I known how to bring legal action or had the money to do so, I would have.
Until December of 2008 I worked for AT&T. In March of 2008 my manager learned that I am gay. He proceeded to make sexual comments about me including describing sexual positions he envisioned me in. When other management learned of this he was terminated.
However, that did not fix things. This guy also bragged about being a Federally licensed firearms dealer and claimed he had a bunch of automatic weapons at home. When I requested meetings with management (I spent a couple of months checking the parking lot both before and after work concerned that he might be out there – I was not the only one with these concerns), my meeting requests were refused.
I filed an ethics complaint through the companys process, the person assigned was rude and made anti-gay comments during the call, she also claimed that the managers actions were simply “management style”. I later had to file a complaint against her as I learned (and had independent proof) that she told lies about me. She was later reprimanded. In the mean time I had a VP retaliate for going over her head to file another complaint (also have proof/witnesses) and finally I mailed a certified letter to the CEO. That resulted in more lies (also have some emails proving this) the person “investigating” my complaint finally (after refusing to give me an update) called me, admitted that she while she never contacted any of my witnesses and never looked at any of my documentation, that she completed an “exhaustive” investigation. I was terminated 2 hours later.
There are other gay employees at the same office (Plano, TX) that have had anti-gay comments made to them to their face yet management refuses to do anything about it.
So for all the money AT&T spends advertising to the gay community, they are very unfriendly to their gay employees and refuse to do the right thing. All they care about is covering their ass.
Hmm, I live in Kentucky, and have never experience harrasment at work. However, i worked at this retail store since highschool (and before coming out), until now (I am 21). So we are all kind of a family. I mean besides the hourlies that are constantly changing, i have never felt uncomfortable at work. However, before coming out, i did hear alot more homophobic comments, or jokes, so I don’t know. Reminds me of something Truman Copote once said..
“Everyone knows a faggot is a gay man who just left the room.”
First off, I am an Assistant Manager for Sonic Drive-Inn in a town not so far away.
Last year, I was taken to the back of my store by our General Manager at the time where she proceded to tell me that our supervisor wanted her to fire me. I sat there and listened to her and what she said startled me. She said our supervisor’s reason for wanting her to terminate me was because my times and labor percentage wasn’t to her liking. This was an understandable reason, but she then went further. She said our supervisor said the reason for this was because she felt the employees didn’t respect me as much as the other AMs because I am a little bit flamboyant. I swear if you had caught me on tape at that moment, my jaw would have been on the floor.
I am pleased to say, however, that my kind GM did not terminate me because she recognized what was going on and said there was no reason to fire me, stating I was a model employee, never late, always coming in when called, etc. I have not had any other kind of discrimination at work since (although the younger customers are another story [thankfully that was solved by my current general manager]).
There was some minor discrimination prior to this regarding my pierced ears where she said I couldn’t wear any earrings. Thankfully, I know the manual forward and back and pointed out that says employees may wear one pair of post earrings (not specifying gender) and she dropped the subject.
Hey Juan: Unless you actually were wearing a women’s cut t-shirt, then I would think they were teasing you because they are not particular fans of the Hurricanes, not because of your orientation. Sports nuts like us will ridicule anyone who wears anything emblazoned with their alma mater on it because we know how much their school sucks in sports, or because they have a football program that is the envy of us all.