Meet Sven Sundgaard, the former weatherman of KARE 11 TV in Minnesota. Sundgaard has accused his former employer of creating a homophobic, hostile work environment against him, and now claims that the network fired him for being gay.
Sundgaard has cited several instances to back up his claim. In court filings, he claimed a station manager chastised him in 2007 after he landed the cover of Lavender, an LGBTQ-oriented magazine that circulates in Minneapolis-St. Paul. He further claims the station reprimanded him for making a “size does matter” joke when talking about the number of lakes in Minnesota, and that the station tried to block him from speaking at a convention of LGBTQ journalists. Sundgaard has also cited religious discrimination and says that a co-worker asked him probing questions about his beliefs in Jesus following conversion to Judaism in 2010.
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The Star Tribune reports that Sundgaard finally lost his job last May, ostensibly “due to continued violations of KARE 11’s news ethics and other policies.” His dismissal came just after he reposted a comment by Minneapolis Rabbi Michael Adam Latz on social media, in which Latz labeled gun-toting, anti-mask protesters as “white nationalist Nazi sympathizer gun fetishist miscreants.” Sundgaard claims he received homophobic and anti-Semitic backlash over the comment, which he later deleted. The network fired him the next day.
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“I’ve been overwhelmed and forever grateful for the outpouring of support I have received over the last year,” Sundgaard said in a statement last week, just after filing suit. “I hope to continue to receive your support as I embark upon this difficult journey that will highlight the unfair treatment to which I was subjected. While a lawsuit is not ideal for anyone, I believe it is important to take action to prevent what happened to me from happening to others. I do this also, for the countless young people who have thanked me for being an openly gay man, making it easier for them to be true to themselves. My late mom always taught me to stick up for myself.”
KARE 11, and its parent company TENGA, have denied Sundgaard’s allegations.
“One of our core values as a station is inclusion,” a spokesperson for KARE said in a statement Friday afternoon. “We are committed to maintaining a respectful workplace free from all forms of discrimination and harassment.”
Sundgaard is suing $320,000 including back pay and punitive damages.
banditboy
If you look at the recent history of KARE 11, they probably have the highest number of LGBTQ employees, so it’s a bit hard for Sven to say he was fired for being gay. Perhaps it’s more likely that the employer said to stop with the lightening rod posts on social media, and that a long winded posts comparing a group of people to Nazis was the final straw. Sounds like a privileged white guy not wanting the rules to apply to him.
cuteguy
@ beatitboy. Go back to Fox News site where you belong you GQP troll
Cam
You tried to post the exact same thing under one of your other screenames back when this story first started happening.
Nice try troll.
banditboy
That’s where you’re wrong. I am a gay male Democrat (called a DFLer in Minneapolis) living in Minneapolis, so I probably know a lot more about this situation and this guy that you. I just get sick of pricks who do the wrong thing and try to file suit to try and save face and make money.
banditboy
Oh, and I have no other profiles for this site, so believe what you want. My guess is maybe you’re trolls for Sven or maybe you’re actually Sven. LOL
Hdtex
Buttheadboy….that’s a LIE.
BOB K
The post was fired for was too Jewish and two anti-gun toting white supremacist for his bosses.
It wasn’t gay
Cam
@banditboy
Translation, you lied, can’t back it up, and now are scrambling.
Heywood Jablowme
I looked back at Queerty’s original story (May 7, 2020) when Sven was fired. In the comments “banditboy” had the name “banditboy.” Cam sure puts a lot of faith in his magical ability to identify “multiple screenames,” but his crystal ball and tarot cards are out of whack again.
Cam
@Heywood Jablowme
I was referring to the Roy Ajax screename that you regularly also use. But you’re right, you also posted under the name “banditboy” on that article. Funny enough, the account accused Sven of all sorts of things, but when asked to provide any proof it went silent.
I’ve told you how much you expose your troll-ness when you switch screenames to do stuff like this.
Heywood Jablowme
@Cam/DCguy: (Sigh.) No, I’m not banditboy, and I’m not Roy Ajax, and I’m not anyone else here. I don’t make multiple accounts.
YOU however, have done that, DCguy. You’ve never explained that, DCguy. You’ve never even bothered to deny it, DCguy. Just because you’ve made multiple screen names yourself doesn’t mean everybody else is doing that.
How do we know that YOU are not all of these supposed “right-wing troll accounts” and you’re just arguing with yourself? And if Queerty finds that out, they should ban you.
Cam
@Heywood Jablowme
LOL! Except for the fact that Roy Ajax and TheREALTruth screenames are the ones that keep calling me DC Guy.
Funny how you aren’t the same person but happen to say the exact same thing they do.
By the way, nice attempt to deflect from the fact that neither you or your other screename can prove any of the claims you’ve tried to make on the weatherman.
Heywood Jablowme
@Cam/DCguy/Sybil: Nice how you still keep “deflecting” from the pertinent question. Are you or are you not DCguy? If you did use the name DCguy YOU ARE A HYPOCRITE, obsessively insulting practically everyone here for doing something that only YOU have done.
Yes, I took offense at your DCguy hypocrisy – because you kept insulting me for no reason and with no evidence. I was, most likely, the first to point it out a couple of years ago. If others notice and/or remember your DCguy hypocrisy, I have no control over what they say about it but I’m glad your hypocrisy is exposed.
I’m now thoroughly convinced that most of the “right-wing trolls” you complain about are, in reality, YOU arguing with yourself.
Cam
@@Heywood Jablowme
Weird, all those words and yet you still can’t post any proof of your claims that the guy was fired for legitimate reasons.
How interesting. Oh wait, no it isn’t, it’s your typical behavior no matter what screename you’re under. As always, your troll game is sad and weak.
Heywood Jablowme
@Cam: We DO have proof of that. Sven signed an employment contract where he agreed not to post any political opinions on any medium. He did it anyway. Legally it doesn’t matter what the opinion was or if I agree with it (I do) or if you think it’s pro- or anti-gay or in between. He deleted it almost immediately, evidently realizing his breach of his employment contract. This much is publicly known, so far. You seem to want “proof” of all kinds of stuff that ia not publicly known yet. It will come out in court if there is a trial.
Heywood Jablowme
@Cam: And now that you’re suddenly obsessed with “proof”: where is YOUR proof that I or anyone here is a “multiple screename”? You have no proof. There is no possible way for you to prove that. But we know you’ve done that yourself because you admit it.
Thad
Come to Philadelphia. Two of our most loved TV meteorologists are openly gay, as is a longtime AM anchor. Although they haven’t always had it easy…news of a hostile corporate culture toward minorities has been recently revealed.
cuteguy
It’s Minnesota. Not a shock that they’re homophobic. I hope he wins to send a message that lgbtq ppl have rights as well, no matter what they’re tired obvious corporate response was. Lgbtq ppl have been persecuted in the Midwest for too long. Anyone remember the Hilary Swank classic Boys Don’t Cry?
Heywood Jablowme
That was rural Nebraska which compared to Minneapolis might as well be another planet.
jthomasmpls
Cute guy, I think you have the wrong idea about Minnesota and the Twin Cities. Minnesota & the Twin Cities are very liberal. We elected the first Somali American to Congress., The first Muslim Attorney General in the country, Paul Wellstone, Al Franken Amy Klobuchar, Walter Mondale, Hubert Humphrey, and many more. The Minneapolis city Council has multiple transgender council members. We have several fortune 500 company is headquartered that our leaders in diversity equity and inclusion. Largest live theater community outside of NYC. Vibrant arts community. One of the largest PRIDE celebrations in the country. It’s not homophobic here. And it’s not as cold as people think ?
Seth
Referring to violently regressive cave twunts as, “white nationalist Nazi sympathizer gun fetishist miscreants,” is actually kinder than they deserve. Hope the jury awards him far more than that in damages.
twomen4u
It is my prayer that Sven hires a good lawyer and goes for actual and punitive damages. I did see one other comment that he would be welcome in Philadelphia. I worked for 11 years investigating child abuse for the State of FL who did not care what you were, pink, green, striped, gay, straight, sideways as long as you did your job. I did my job and did it well. I must have done something right as on one occasion I drove 118 miles one way daily to go to another district to close old cases. There were two more people doing what I did but did not drive as far. My hope is that he prevails in court.
Fahd
When Sam Champion was forced off Good Morning America, I was mad about it. I’m on Sven’s side, just because he’s an example of someone standing up for himself. After all, even if he gets some money out of the lawsuit (through settlement or a verdict in court) he won’t win. There’s not that much money involved and there’s the lawyer(s) to pay and, sad commentary on the world of work, I predict, getting another weather man gig may now be tough.
Heywood Jablowme
He doesn’t have much of a case. The station’s written ethics policy says: “Do not engage in political commentary on any platform.” He did it anyway.
Claude Peck in the Mpls Star Tribune, 5/6/20: “The homophobia charge is a tough sell, given that Sundgaard, who is openly, even exuberantly gay, has been a prominent on-air talent at KARE 11 for 14 years.
“As someone who has worked at both alternative and mainstream newspapers and in both gay and straight media, my first reaction is to support a suddenly unemployed gay journalist (yes, broadcast meteorologists are journalists who gather, write and present sometimes very important news).
“Trouble is, I accept the notion that journalists covering news (as opposed to opinion columnists and editorialists) should try to remain neutral when it comes to political expression. At most mainstream media companies, that means news journalists agree to avoid donating to campaigns, participating in protests, posting lawn signs and publicly airing their own political views.
…”Journalists’ political pronouncements tend to hack away at the confidence of a news consumer, who may say, ‘Hey, there’s that weather guy who thinks we’re Nazi sympathizers because we want to reopen our failing small business sooner than Gov. Walz says we should.’”
Dredging up minor incidents from 2007 and 2010 probably won’t help his case either.
Cam
Except the policy is irrelevant if the conversations happened the way it sounds like they happened.
You don’t get to create a policy that says anything. But you’ve always been on here defending people who attack LGBTQ people so no shock there.
Heywood Jablowme
Aw, Cam, I was enjoying our truce! You actually apologized to me a couple of weeks ago when you made a dumb mistake. I appreciated it.
“You don’t get to create a policy that says anything.” Did you leave out a word in this? It makes no sense. I’m not creating a policy.
“But you’ve always been on here defending people who attack LGBTQ people so no shock there.” When have I done that? CITATION PLEASE!
Heywood Jablowme
Reflexively siding with the gay guy is a natural reaction. But the legal situation here is, Sven just doesn’t have much of a case.
If someone doesn’t like a law, or thinks the law needs improvement – e.g. employment contracts as they evolve in the Twitter era – the only effective response is to contact your state legislators, comment in local/regional (i.e. mostly hetero) news sites, go to your state capitol for a rally. (All things that I’ve done in real life and I doubt Cam has ever done.)
I realize this would be difficult for Cam, a retiree who treats Queerty comments as his full time job and who probably hasn’t been outdoors since the 20th century.
But he could least send an email to his elected representatives. Apparently Cam hopes, by insulting and badgering the rest of us, that we will contact OUR elected representatives, etc. and thereby fulfill his goal that way?
Cam
@Heywood Jablowme
You’re welcome to post any evidence to back up your claim that the guy has nothing. But I don’t see any articles about a judge dismissing the claim.
Heywood Jablowme
@Cam: And you are welcome to provide any evidence that the TV station is “lying” when they say there were other times he violated the social media policy. That’s what you declared here in May 2020. Do you realize how unlikely that is? A lie about a thing like that would be easily found out in court.
You seem unfamiliar with how court cases work. Perhaps you could read up on it in your nearly unlimited free time. Since he was fired last May, he probably had a year to file the lawsuit, which is just now starting. At this point his probably exasperated lawyers are probably aiming for a (relatively small) settlement, and if it IS settled out of court the public will probably never know the details.
Cam
@Heywood Jablowme
Translation: You made a phony claim and when you were called out you couldn’t post any proof.
Oh, and as for knowing how the court system works, I love you invented a false scenario saying this is probably what happened.
Sweetie, we get it, you’re an anti-LGBTQ troll and you’re here to always defend whatever bigots are attacking LGBTQ people.
Heywood Jablowme
@Cam: What “claim” am I making? I guess you could complain about my “probablys” OR about some claim, but not both. Do you even care what the law really is, or how these cases tend to work? Do you really think all LGBT people must agree with Sven 100% – even if he loses his case – or else we’re anti-LGBT trolls? That’s insane.
If he does lose his case and you think the result is unfair, will you actually DO anything about these laws in real life? (Rhetorical question 🙂 ) Slinging insults on Queerty doesn’t do much to advance LGBT rights. Neither does arguing with imaginary “right-wing trolls” who are actually… you.
James26
Unless he can prove that non-gay employees posted similar things on social media and were not fired, his termination claim won’t survive. I doubt he can do that.
The “hostile environment” claim is weak AF. Hostile environment is supposed to involve workplace hostility so pervasive or severe that it affects the terms of employment. Here, he is claiming that he was chastised 14 years ago for doing a cover interview, was asked some questions about religion (not about being gay) 11 years ago and that he was reprimanded for a d__ck joke, which again is not about his being gay. You don’t get to go back and stitch together isolated slights, separated by years, from a decade or more ago to contrive a hostile environment. Also, he would have to show that he complained about these slights at the time.
Cam
The right wing troll under it’s current favorite name of COURSE comes on to defend any possible bigotry against LGBTQ people.
Your troll game isn’t just sad and weak, at this point it’s boring.
Heywood Jablowme
As near as I can tell, James26 is likely the same commenter as Danny595, who may have been banned by Queerty, although we have no way of knowing that (unlike Cam with his magical crystal ball and tarot cards).
EZinHTown
Wait! What? I thought being gay was a requirement for the job!
xanadude
Pretty much every meteorologist in Mpls is gay, (and Sven has never hid the fact) But I do find valid points in his complaints about the comments the station made to him. Kind of like “It’s okay you’re gay, just don’t be ‘too gay.'” And God forbid you have an opinion!
ScottOnEarth
Based on the above, he has no apparent case. Nothing about these incidents is homophobic. His “size matters” joke is inappropriate for anyone on network news and I’m guessing his re-posting of the Facebook post violated the network’s social media standards, given the subject matter. Finally, a co-worker asking questions about his religion does not constitute religious discrimination. Unless there’s more to the story, his case is virtually non-existent.
Cam
If his size matters joke is inappropriate then there would be a huge number of people fired off of TV news nationwide.
Heywood Jablowme
@Cam: But he wasn’t fired for that joke, just reprimanded, by his own account.
Cam
@Heywood Jablowme
Except that is part of the case because they are claiming that was part of it.
Hey, you still haven’t been able to post any proof of your claims about him.
Heywood Jablowme
@Cam: No, THEY are not claiming that. HE is claiming that. Read it again, Sweetie Precious Pumpkinpie.
BOB K
That last social media post offended all the Jew haters gun lovers and bigots.
It was true but it was too bluntly in your face political for somebody who signed a contract to keep himself noncontroversial
SnickSnacks
As they say in Minnesota, go get ’em Sven, YOU BET’CHA!
Heywood Jablowme
QUEERTY, please ban Cam for his incessant violations of the Queerty comment policy, for example in this comment thread. Most of his comments are “mean-spirited” (to quote the policy), nasty and irrational. His extreme obsession with “multiple screenames,” with which he hijacks innumerable threads, is obviously projection since he has done that himself. It was obvious DCguy was Cam and he’s never explained that, but he always expects others to respond to his hypocritical charges when he accuses them of the same thing. Seemingly at random, he accuses commenters of “always [!] defending anti-LGBT bigots” but when asked to defend this vile charge with even ONE example, he changes the subject. Queerty must have access to our IP addresses (?) and can confirm that many of these supposed “right-wing” accounts are Cam/DCguy/Sybil arguing with himself.