A gay aerospace engineer won a £175,000 (approximately $215,000) payout after he endured homophobic harassment by his colleagues after he came out at work to a few people, according to Daily Mail.
Peter Allen is a forty-one-year-old man who worked at Paradigm Precision in Burnley, England. He was due for a promotion that the company decided to not give him after he spoke to his coworkers about adopting a child with his husband. Along with him not getting the promotion he was supposed to get, he also had to endure homophobic incidents, including derogatory emails and coworkers making the “limp-wrist” gesture, which, of course, is a gesture that typically affiliated with femininity, which with some reaching, is also affiliated with male homosexuality.
Allen then left the company and pursued legal action for harassment and unfair termination. Last month, an employment tribunal that Allen was “subject to harassment related to sexual orientation” in the workplace and that he was passed over for the promotion because he asked for adoption leave, claims Judge Mark Leach.
Allen was disheartened to say the least, as he felt that he took a “leap of faith” by coming out to a few people at work but was only met with scorn and harassment. According to Pink News, he said “I’d taken a leap of faith to come out at work, and all this horribleness was evolving in front of me. It was almost as if my worst nightmares about coming out at work were happening. These were senior managers, people above me, these weren’t people who were part of my team.” He also mentioned that he was in a “whirlwind of torment” and that he was sent inappropriate emails and Post-It notes and that he was devastated because Paradigm Precision was not on his side throughout all of this. I can only imagine how horrible it must feel to go from being up for a promotion one day and then the next day be subjected to such harassment.
Despite all of this, Peter Allen’s story is one with a happy ending. As mentioned above, the employment tribunal, after two years, finally gave him closure and he was awarded money over the fact that the company violated the Equality Act and that he was dismissed unfairly. I’m glad that things worked out for him, although the circumstances leading up to this decision were less than ideal. But a victory is a victory.
Source: Daily Mail