Court: Straight man can be victim of homophobia

By 365gay Newscenter Staff

(London) Britain’s Court of Appeal has reversed a lower court ruling that had said a man was not entitled to file a homophobic harassment case against his former employer because he is heterosexual.

Stephen English says he was forced to quit his job at an awning manufacturer because the company refused to stop workers from calling him a faggot and other gay slurs.

English filed a complaint with the Employment Appeal Tribunal alleging the harassment began when fellow workers discovered he had been educated at a boarding school and that he lived in largely gay Brighton.

The complaint said that final straw came when the company’s in-house employee magazine said he had attended Brighton’s Gay Pride parade wearing “skin-tight Lycra cycling shorts”.



The Tribunal refused to hear the case because English is not gay and is married.

English appealed to the Court of Appeal.

In a 2-1 landmark ruling the court said that a person can be “harassed” by homophobic remarks even though he is not gay, is not thought to be gay by his fellow workers and he accepts they do not believe him to be gay.

Writing the majority opinion Lord Justice Sedley said it did not matter whether English was gay or not.

“[The] calculated insult to his dignity” and the consequently intolerable working environment were sufficient to bring his case within the regulations.” Sedley wrote.

“The incessant mockery created a degrading and hostile working environment, and it did so on grounds of sexual orientation,” the judge said.

The ruling said that he had a case, and ordered the Tribunal to hear it.

*365Gay.com