Over trans woman Venessa Fitzsimmons’ four years working with Chicago’s Universal Taxi Dispatch, the company’s owner Gordon Simic repeatedly called her a âfreak,â a âqueer,â and an âabomination, claimed the company lost business because of her, forced her to pay for her own cab repairs (something he didn’t require from other employees), and refused to help her out when her taxi broke down. And though she may have lost a bit of dignity while working for Simic, she also just won $104,711 from him as well, thanks to the ruling of the Illinois Human Rights Commission. Respecting your trans employees isn’t only decent, it’s also good business.
Image via Phillie Casablanca
the crustybastard
Congratulations to Ms Fitzsimmons and her attorney. Employment law makes those cases exceedingly difficult to prove and win.
Mav
Why the HELL did she put up with this for four years?
If you let someone “repeatedly” call you a freak, an abomination, etc…you almost deserve what you get. The only reason bigots like Simic act the way they do is because people are too cowardly to call them out.
Stand up for yourselves, for Christ’s sake.
Nice Sean
@Mav: Probably because finding a job as a trans person is even harder than having a job as a trans person…
missanthrope
@Nice Sean:
Exactly, when other people won’t hire you no matter how talented you are, you take what you can get.
And what’s with the victim blaming Mav, you’re upset at Fitzsimmons “taking that” but you show no outrage that the dude serially harassed her for four years. What’s up with that?
nsomniac
She should have won a HELL of a lot more. But congrats on the win!!!
Isaac
Congrats to Ms. Fitzsimmons. I hope that more states get on board with protecting everyone’s right to live and work in a harrassment free environment, even though we’re on shaky ground with our politics these days. Maybe this will “encourage” some employers to do the right thing and treat all their employees with the respect they deserve. I think Mav is suffering from Oblivious Privilege Syndrome, a condition marked by a tendency to blame the victim and to lack any empathy towards those who don’t look, behave, or fall into the same income category as themselves.
Wildeman
Excellent! I agree with comments above that finding a job as a trans person is probably harder than keeping one. Its just great when an obvious asshole like this boss is made to pay- literally. It might be a deterrent to others. Well done to Ms Fitzsimmons for finally going through with it.
ChillinInNy1
What I want to know is who wrote this, and where did they learn to write? Terrible grammar and punctuation. The picture with the story could at least be a taxi cab from Illinois…What a beautiful NYS License plate that is đ