Anti-gay harassment: Missouri man cannot sue for sexual orientation discrimination.

For those that say this does not happen, I have two words for you - Fuck You!

James Pittman faced discrimination because he was gay—that, nobody denies. As an employee at Cook Paper Recycling Corp. in Missouri, Pittman was subject to vile homophobic harassment: Employees called him a “cocksucker,” asked whether he had AIDS, mocked him for being gay and having a boyfriend, and ridiculed him when they broke up. Then Cook Paper fired him.

Pittman sued, alleging he was subject to illegal workplace discrimination. The court promptly dismissed his suit, ruling that Pittman’s harassment was perfectly legal. Neither Missouri nor federal law explicitly bars discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, the court reasoned, so Cook Paper’s employees were free to torment, mock, and fire Pittman for being gay. On Tuesday, the Western District Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s ruling.

And as Stern notes, it will continue to happen

Twenty-eight states offer no explicit protection against sexual-orientation discrimination in the workplace, and congressional Republicans are currently blocking a vote on a federal law to ban anti-LGBTQ discrimination nationwide. Until that law passes—or until the Supreme Court adopts the EEOC’s interpretation of sex discrimination—people like James Pittman will continued to be harassed, humiliated, and fired for no reason other than their orientation. That strikes me as a profoundly distressing and unjust status quo. But it is a status quo that conservative politicians appear eager to maintain.

Anti-gay harassment: Missouri man cannot sue for sexual orientation discrimination.