Three weeks ago a Glasgow Employment Tribunal
ruled against a firm in which an employee was called a "wee poof"
and "a cream puff" and fired after just eight days of employment
for being psychologically imbalanced. The man was awarded £118,000
in compensation.
Last week in the US a Californian court heard
an appeal against disciplinary action taken against a pupil for
saying "that's so gay".
In the US case a schoolgirl was being teased
by classmates about the fact that she came from a Mormon family.
When asked did she have 10 mothers, she said "that's so gay".
She later told the court that she had meant "that's so stupid,
that's so silly, that's so dumb".
The school involved gave the pupil, Rebekah
Rice, an official warning, and a record was added to her file
detailing the incident. Her parents have sued the school, seeking
to have her record wiped clean, and the trial judge in the case has
yet to make a verdict known.
Similar insults formed the backbone of a UK
employment case in recent weeks. Jonah Ditton sold advertising
space in the media and took a new job with entertainment listings
company CP Publishing.
There Ditton was subjected to insults related
to his being gay from his second day on the job. His manager Warren
Paul made comments in an exaggeratedly camp voice and said, when
Ditton turned up for work in a cream suit, that he "looked like a
cream puff".
He tried to join in a discussion on sex but
was told by Paul to "shut it, you wee poof" in an aggressive tone.
That night Ditton was telephoned to be told that he was sacked
because he was not psychologically balanced.
Ditton said that in the aftermath of the
incident he had started drinking heavily and lived on benefits,
having previously earned £80,000 a year, though he has since
returned to work.
The Employment Tribunal awarded Ditton £10,000
for injury to his feelings, £76,937 for financial loss, £5,291 in
interest payments and £26,081 compensation because the company
failed to follow the procedures set down in law.
The total award was £118,309, believed to be
the highest Employment Tribunal award in a case related to a
person's sexuality.
