A Norfolk firefighter says he was forced off of the force after his employers found out he was gay.
In October 2014, Scott Phillips-Gartner married his longtime boyfriend. According to The Virginian-Pilot, he claims that when his department found out, they stripped him of his rank and relocated his responsibilities out of a temporary facility “with little to no job duties” miles from his office.
Phillips-Gartner began his career with Norfolk Fire-Rescue as a 911 operator, eventually becoming an assistant fire marshall and a bomb squad technician. He is now suing the department, accusing them of creating a hostile work environment.
“It was humiliating.”
The 55-year-old firefighter, whose suit maintains he was well-regarded by both superiors and colleagues until he’d informed HR he’d gotten married, retired earlier this year after receiving threats that he’d be fired if he didn’t. His attorney, Barry Montgomery, has said that this was not the way his client wanted to leave. “It was humiliating,” Montgomery added.
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The suit notes that Battalion Chief Roger Burris mocked Phillips-Gartner throughout 2015, regularly treating him as less than favourably compared to his heterosexual counterparts. In a December staff meeting of that year, Burris “attacked Gartner’s sexuality” by asking “Where is Ms. Gartner?”
His suit alleges, as well, that the city discriminated against him on the basis of gender, claiming that what happened to him would not have happened to a woman who’d married a man. He also claims his employers “retaliated against him for complaining to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.”
The city of Norfolk, in 2016, put into place policies that “prohibit employees, contractors and volunteers from discriminating against a person because of his or her sexual orientation, among other things.”
City officials in Norfolk declined to comment to The Virginian-Pilot on the suit or story.
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