A gay man in Tennessee has become one of the first LGBTQ+ people in the country to invoke the Supreme Court’s historic decision on workplace discrimination after being “humiliated” and discriminated against by his boss.
Jacob Brashier, who lives in Blount County, Tennessee is suing his former employer Manorhouse Management, Inc., an assisted living facility management firm, for allegedly firing him because he is a gay man. Brashier is reported to be the first person in the state to use the recent landmark case that says people cannot be fired based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Brashier’s career with the firm reportedly started in April 2020, when he joined the company as a certified nursing assistant. He began facing discrimination and harassment by supervisors before being fired on June 19th, just four days after the Supreme Court ruled on the workplace law. According to the lawsuit, Brashier was “summarily subjected to disparagement, ridicule, and humiliation in the course of his employment with [the] defendant” and dealt with experiences like being called the f-slur multiple times and having a “soiled rag” thrown in his face.
The lawsuit, filed by Brashier’s attorney James Friauf, says that Manorhouse accused the plaintiff of making up his claims, telling him to “forget about it” before cutting his pay and eventually firing him. Brashier alleges in the lawsuit that both his firing and the initial salary cut were retaliation for his complaint, and that the company “undertook zero efforts to ameliorate the discrimination” of Brashier, “nor did it investigate and correct the wage and hour violations of which [he] had been subjected and subsequently complained.
The lawsuit also goes on to note that Brashier decided to file his claim not just to claim his own rights, but for the community at large.
“He files this action to rectify the wrongs he has experienced as a result of his sexual orientation, as well as to advance the rights of his fellow LGBTQ community members, who have been historically and unlawfully marginalized and oppressed for generations,” notes the lawsuit.
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