Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

Lambda Legal Pressesfor Federal LGBT Employment Protection in New Appeals Court Case
From a press release
2018-03-07

This article shared 935 times since Wed Mar 7, 2018
facebook twitter google +1 reddit email


( St. Louis, March 7, 2018 ) —Today, Lambda Legal and co-counsel Mathis, Marifian & Richter, LTD. filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on behalf of Mark Horton, a healthcare sales specialist whose job offer at St. Louis-based Midwest Geriatric Management ( MGM ) was withdrawn when the employer learned Horton is gay.

This is the fourth federal appeal in Lambda Legal's quest to secure the discrimination protections of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for lesbian, gay, and bisexual workers. It comes just one week after the full Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the estate of Donald Zarda, a skydiving instructor fired for being gay, and less than a year after the landmark decision of the full Seventh Circuit in Lambda Legal's lawsuit, Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College, extending Title VII's protections to a college instructor denied a fulltime job and ultimately fired because she is a lesbian. Lambda Legal argued before both those courts.

"We have taken huge strides in ensuring that federal courts across the country recognize that sexual orientation discrimination is a form of sex discrimination prohibited by federal law. Thanks to the landmark decisions by the Second and Seventh Circuits, we have the wind on our backs and progress towards the correct understanding that the Civil Rights Act covers LGBT workers now is as inexorable as it is inevitable," said Greg Nevins, Employment Fairness Project Director for Lambda Legal. "The only metric employers or prospective employers should use is: is the candidate or employee qualified? Mark's case was textbook discrimination by any standard. It was all systems go until MGM realized Mark is gay and withdrew the job offer."

"Midwest Geriatric Management basically ended my career," Horton said. "I left my previous job to accept a great offer at MGM, a position that I had been recruited for. When MGM rescinded the offer, suddenly I was jobless. I am still trying to put the pieces back together. Being able to be open and bring my whole self to my work has been an asset, and I have the track record to prove it."

In February 2016, Horton, then vice president for sales and marketing for Celtic Healthcare, was approached by an executive search firm hired by Midwest Geriatric Management, a Celtic Healthcare competitor, to fill a similar position at MGM. While Horton was not actively looking to leave Celtic at that time, MGM's representative persuaded him that it would be worth his while, so Horton decided to apply. After an extensive assessment and interview process, in mid-April, 2016, Horton received a written job offer from MGM's owners, Judah and Faigie ( Faye ) Bienstock. Horton accepted the offer on May 4, and received an enthusiastic reply email from Faye Bienstock welcoming Horton to MGM. Based upon both the written offer and the enthusiastic reply, Horton notified Celtic Healthcare that he would be leaving.

In the course of finalizing his start date and tracking the last remaining academic records for MGM's background check, Horton had several communications with Faye Bienstock, none of which indicated any issue. Then, on May 17, in an email updating Bienstock on the status of the academic records search, Horton revealed he was in a same-sex relationship when he wrote: "My partner has been on me about [my MBA] since he completed his PhD a while back." Five days later, Bienstock wrote Horton withdrawing the offer of employment.

"This should never have happened," co-counsel Mark S. Schuver said. "Mark was not actively looking to leave Celtic Healthcare; MGM recruited him. And it was only after receiving the written offer and the enthusiastic emails that Mark notified Celtic he was leaving. And he was certainly not hiding his sexual orientation, nor should he have to. This has been devastating for Mark and his family and we hope the Eighth Circuit will follow the examples of the Second and Seventh Circuits and confirm that Title VII protects you no matter whom you love or how you identify."

Schuver and Natalie T. Lorenz of Mathis, Marifian & Richter, LTD, represented Horton in the lawsuit filed last August in the U.S District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. The lawsuit was dismissed, and Lambda Legal joined the case in its appeal to the Eighth Circuit.

Lambda Legal's involvement in this case, as well as Zarda v. Altitude Express in the Second Circuit, Hively v. Ivy Tech in the Seventh Circuit, and Evans v. Georgia Regional Hospital in the Eleventh Circuit, is a part of a national effort to establish and enforce employment discrimination protection for all LGBT people and everyone living with HIV. In addition to the sexual orientation cases, these efforts include an historic win for transgender workplace rights in Glenn v. Brumbyand the current lawsuit Karnoski v. Trump challenging the ban on transgender troops. The current cases are all part of Lambda Legal's Out at Work campaign to bring awareness to LGBT people everywhere of their Title VII rights, and assert that all people have the right to a job with dignity, free from repercussions for who they are or whom they love.

Gregory R. Nevins, Omar Gonzalez-Pagan and Sharon M. McGowan are the attorneys for Lambda Legal in this matter. They are joined by co-counsel Mark S. Schuver and Natalie T. Lorenz, of Belleville, Illinois-based Mathis, Marifian & Richter, LTD.

The case is Horton v. Midwest Geriatric Management. Read the complaint here: www.lambdalegal.org/in-court/legal-docs/mo_horton_20180307_complaint .

More information about Lambda Legal's work on employment protections is available here:www.lambdalegal.org/issues/employment-and-rights-in-the-workplace .


This article shared 935 times since Wed Mar 7, 2018
facebook twitter google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

Nex Benedict's autopsy report released
2024-03-27
The full autopsy report for Nex Benedict (he/they)—a 16-year-old transgender and Indigenous student from Oklahoma's Owasso High School who died in February a day after a school fight—has been released. The Oklahoma Office of the Chie ...


Gay News

Thailand parliament passes landmark marriage bill
2024-03-27
On March 27, Thailand's parliament approved a marriage-equality bill by an overwhelmingly large margin—a landmark step that moves one of Asia's most liberal countries closer to legalizing same-sex unions, media ...


Gay News

Wyoming is latest state to ban gender-affirming care for minors
2024-03-24
On March 22, Wyoming became the latest state to prohibit gender-affirming care for minors, The Hill noted. In doing so, it joined 23 other states that passed laws restricting or banning the treatment. Legislators in both ...


Gay News

Family of 2004 murder victim holds event in Lake View; reward announced
2024-03-24
The year 2004, for the family and friends of Lake View resident Kevin Clewer, will forever be marked by tragedy. On March 24 of that year, Clewer, 31, was found in his apartment at 3444 N. Elaine Pl.; he was the ...


Gay News

No charges filed in Nex Benedict fight; campaigns call for Walters' removal
2024-03-22
In Oklahoma, Tulsa County District Attorney Stephen Kunzweiler announced that no charges will be filed in connection with the fight that happened the day before transgender, nonbinary high school student Nex Benedict died by suicide, NBC ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Va. marriage bill, AARP, online counseling, Idaho items, late activist
2024-03-21
Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed bills protecting same-sex marriages at a state level, surprising some, WRIC reported. The bills—passed out of both chambers along mostly party lines—will require clerks ...


Gay News

WORLD Leaked messages, Panama action, author dies at 32, Japan court, out athletes
2024-03-15
Hundreds of messages from an internal chat board for an international group of transgender health professionals were leaked in a report and framed as revealing serious health risks associated with gender-affirming care, including cancer, according to ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Missouri measure, HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, judge, Texas schools
2024-03-15
In Missouri, a newly proposed law could charge teachers and counselors with a felony and require them to register as sex offenders if they're found guilty of supporting transgender students who are socially transitioning, CNN noted. ...


Gay News

College athletes sue NCAA over transgender policies
2024-03-15
Former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines was among a group of college athletes who filed a lawsuit against the NCAA on March 14, accusing it of violating their Title IX rights by allowing trans swimmer Lia Thomas ...


Gay News

LGBTQ+ people attacked by mobs in Greece
2024-03-14
Just weeks after a landmark law granted same-sex couples in Greece the right to marry, nearly 200 people dressed in black chased a transgender couple through the town square in Thessaloniki, the country's "second city" and ...


Gay News

Florida settles 'Don't Say Gay' lawsuit
2024-03-11
On March 11, the state of Florida settled a multi-year lawsuit against the so-called "Don't Say Gay" law, which limits how LGBTQ+ topics can be discussed and presented in schools, The Hill reported. The settlement agreement ...


Gay News

"X" gender marker now available on Illinois driver's licenses and state ID cards
2024-03-11
After several years of preparation, the Illinois Secretary of State's office is has been making the X gender designation available for non-binary residents and others not utilizing the M or F designations, since the beginning of ...


Gay News

WORLD Israeli reservist, man detained, Ghana bill, medic denied honor
2024-03-08
Hanania Ben-Shimon—the gay Israel Defense Forces reservist who was wounded as he killed one of the terrorists in the attack at the A-Za'ayem checkpoint near Ma'ale Adumim recently—published a post in which he pleaded that his ...


Gay News

Court blocks Texas attorney general's demand for PFLAG data
2024-03-01
From a press release: AUSTIN, Texas—Travis County District Court Judge Maria Cantú Hexel on March 1 blocked the latest effort by the Texas Attorney General's Office to persecute Texas families with transgender youth, temporarily haltin ...


Gay News

WORLD Canadian politics, Australian murders, Finnish study, 'Anatomy'
2024-03-01
Canadian conservatives are divided over an anti-trans policy that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith handed down in her province, The Guardian reported. The policy includes a ban on hormonal treatment, puberty ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.