A former Cheesecake Factory employee is suing the company after he says managers discriminated against him for being straight when they allowed his gay co-worker to “touch him inappropriately.”
Jessie Ross was a dishwasher at a Cheesecake Factory in Providence, Rhode Island. According to his lawsuit, a male co-worker grabbed Ross’ butt and crotch while he was working a shift in August 2016. When Ross went to his manager, he responded by saying not to worry about it, that many members of the staff were gay, and that they engaged in such “rough” behavior all the time.
Afterwards, Ross claims he felt unsafe and continued to suffer discrimination, but management didn’t seem to care due to his “protected status as a heterosexual male.”
“I was an outstanding employee,” he says. “Why would I make something up?”
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A few weeks later, he complained again. This time he told his manager he wasn’t comfortable working there until something was done. That’s when the manager cussed him out then fired him on the spot.
Ross says he continued to receive threatening phone calls and text messages “in an effort to intimidate him and cover up his firing.”
“It is important to remember that an employer cannot retaliate against an employee in any way just because the employee has reported harassment,” Daigle says.
He adds: “Punishing an employee for complaining about or opposing discriminatory treatment opens an employer up to a lawsuit under both state and federal employment discrimination laws.”
State and federal laws ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex in employment.
Related: Straight dude “in tears” after winning $17.4 million in homophobic discrimination lawsuit
h/t: Providence Journal
Paco
I’m not understanding how he is being discriminated against for being straight. It is plain sexual harassment and the company had a legal responsibility to address the situation.
The offender must have forgotten he was at work and not a bathhouse.
Mack
Agreed. I don’t think Queerty understands the law. He was sexually harassed and it doesn’t make any difference whether he was straight or gay and neither comes into play in the lawsuit.
radiooutmike
Something similar happened to me near Providence when I was a dishwasher. But, of course, this was 32 years ago. The cook who also did some of the harassing, said, “If you can’t stand the heat…” So, I quit.
The ProJo did not report that.
PinkoOfTheGange
I hope none of this is true.
baggins435
There was a case in Louisiana some years ago where a man working on one of the oil rigs in the Gulf quit and filed a sexual harassment suit against the company, the managers, and the men he claimed were harassing him. It was the “usual” grab assing, comments, and locker room talk/actions you hear about. The judge tossed the lawsuit saying the Louisiana law was not written with male victims in mind because it was impossible for a man to be sexually harassed. Basically, the boys will be boys excuse.
I had a gay coworker back in the 80s who became my manager. He was a few years older than me and the only one who knew I was gay. He started grabbing my butt and nipples every time he saw me. He would call me into his office and shut the door and I would reopen it and try just standing in the open doorway. I was in my mid 20s and not at all ready to come out back then. It really gave me the incentive to find a much better job I wouldn’t have considered if not for his actions. I have to say that I’ve run into any number of gay men who assume it’s perfectly ok to treat their fellow men like a piece of meat, like they can “get” most straight men, and, of course, any gay man because they think we all want the same thing they do.
2ndcoming
This is the reason why straight guys don’t want to be around gay dudes. This why guys dudes aren’t wanted in men’s locker rooms.
DCguy
Awww, how adorable, thetoll comesn here with anti-lgbt comments. The funny thin is, yo ight wingers always attack any women who claim they’e been sexually harassed, and yet when it is against a gay guy, funny how quick you are to believe. Oh wait, that’s because you’re a bigot….ok, I got it.
Juanjo
Troll making up nonsense.
PinkoOfTheGange
Guys that espouse this usually aren’t worth the effort to try to appear like you aren’t looking at them.
GayEGO
Sexual harassment is illegal regardless of gender and the company should accept the responsibility and fire the sexual harassers.
GayEGO
By the way, I was sexually harassed with knee bumping under the table at work by straight married guys that heard I was gay. I ignored it as I followed the rule, never mix business with pleasure. I also followed the same rule when I was in the Navy during the time I decided to live my life as a gay man and I introduced my non-military partner as my roommate. I was in the Navy 4 years from 1959 through 1963 and received an honorable discharge. We are both retired and living the American dream in an over 55 community and we have great neighbors!
Juanjo
I have been doing employment discrimination cases for a while. This may be a case worth pursuing. The issue will be the extent of the harassment and duration, not to mention the response of the management. What we have here is the dishwasher’s version of what happened. If the facts are correct then the company might have an issue here.
Lookyloo
As others have pointed out; this seems WAY more like a sexual harassment case than a discrimination case.
BUT.. I wish more straight people would realize that anti-discrimination laws that include protecting people based on sexual orientation ALSO PROTECT straight people – This is because; as many straight people seem to forget, ‘heterosexual’ is a sexual orientation.