National
Lesbian sues over alleged anti-gay job discrimination at Ky. bank
Hudson allegedly was told she was ‘too butch’ for her job
Penelope Hudson is suing a Kentucky bank for anti-gay job discrimination. (Photo courtesy Freedom for All Americans)
A lesbian worker alleging she faced anti-gay job discrimination at a Kentucky bank that led to her termination — including being told she was “too butch” to deal with customers — sued Friday in state court for compensatory and punitive damages.
Penelope Hudson, who filed the lawsuit, worked at the Louisville-based Park Community Credit Union at various locations in Kentucky and Indiana for 15 years until she was terminated in 2016.
According to her complaint, Hudson was “continually subject to harassment, disparate treatment and hostile work environment due to her status as a gay women,” which was witnessed by other employees and customers at the bank.
In a statement, Hudson said she’s “heartbroken” about her termination, adding she loved her job, was good at it and “loved the members that I dealt with every day.”
“I gave my heart and soul to this company, and then I was fired for no other reason than that I am gay,” Hudson said. “That is hard to believe, and I’m filing this case because I want this company to know that this is not OK. I never want any other LGBT person to be treated the way I was treated.”
Among alleged incidents cited in the complaint is being told her appearance was “too butch,” which required her to change her appearance and clothing for her to keep her job. The complaint says Hudson overheard fellow employees discuss her sexual orientation, she was repeatedly passed over for promotions and she was singled out and reprimanded for actions when straight employees did the same things and weren’t punished.
According to the complaint, Hudson on one occasion was attending an event on behalf of her employer at Churchill Downs Racetrack, where she provided tickets and money under the instructions of ensuring other guests have a time. One guest allegedly proceeded to flirt with Hudson, and even after she politely turned him down, he continued, tried to kiss her and asked for her phone number.
Hudson complained to the vice president of human resources, but that person responded, “well we see if the gay thing doesn’t work out, you can also go the other way,” the complaint says.
When Hudson took time off under the Family & Medical Leave Act for invitro treatments, she was asked what her medical condition was after the time was approved, the complaint says. When she told the person asking her she didn’t think she could be asked for information, the person responded the inquiry to ensure “it wasn’t something related to her being gay,” the complaint says.
According to the complaint, at one time, when she sought an explanation from her supervisor on why she wasn’t promoted, the supervisor responded she, the supervisor, doesn’t hate gay people even though her family thinks that’s the case. But Hudson had never stated her supervisor hated gay people and “there was no reason for that to be discussed unless the plaintiff’s perceived sexual orientation was an issue,” the complaint says.
Another incident cited in the complaint is another supervisor having “made the comment more than one time that the plaintiff doesn’t believe in God because she’s gay.” Although Hudson corrected the supervisor’s presumption, the supervisor continued to make it, the complaint says.
Hudson admits to making mistakes over 15 years, the complaint says, but “similar mistakes were made by others, who were not gay of perceived to be gay and they were not terminated for those mistakes.” Hudson was terminated Sept. 29, 2016.
Although Kentucky is among the more than 30 states without explicit protections based on sexual orientation or transgender status, Hudson’s lawsuit seeks restitution under a city ordinance barring anti-gay discrimination as well as state law and Title VII of the Civil Rights of Act. The latter two laws bar discrimination on the basis of sex, and courts have increasingly interpreted sexual-orientation to be a form of sex discrimination.
Representing Hudson in court is Shannon Fauver of the Louisville-based firm Fauver Law Office, who was one of the attorneys representing same-sex couples in the cases that won marriage equality in Kentucky and nationwide.
“What happened to Penelope is wrong – and there is a growing consensus in federal courts, including the full 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, that this kind of employment discrimination based on sexual orientation is clearly illegal under existing law,” Fauver said. “We’ll keep standing up in the court of law, because no hardworking person should face unfair treatment because of who they are.”
The lawsuit seeks a judgment in Hudson’s favor against the bank for compensatory and punitive damages, reasonable costs and attorney fees and “any and all other relief to which she may be entitled.”
The Washington Blade has placed a request seeking comment on the lawsuit in with BoxcarPR, the public relations representing Park Community Credit Union.
New York
Men convicted of murdering two men in NYC gay bar drugging scheme sentenced
One of the victims, John Umberger, was D.C. political consultant
A New York judge on Wednesday sentenced three men convicted of killing a D.C. political consultant and another man who they targeted at gay bars in Manhattan.
NBC New York notes a jury in February convicted Jayqwan Hamilton, Jacob Barroso, and Robert DeMaio of murder, robbery, and conspiracy in relation to druggings and robberies that targeted gay bars in Manhattan from March 2021 to June 2022.
John Umberger, a 33-year-old political consultant from D.C., and Julio Ramirez, a 25-year-old social worker, died. Prosecutors said Hamilton, Barroso, and DeMaio targeted three other men at gay bars.
The jury convicted Hamilton and DeMaio of murdering Umberger. State Supreme Court Judge Felicia Mennin sentenced Hamilton and DeMaio to 40 years to life in prison.
Barroso, who was convicted of killing Ramirez, received a 20 years to life sentence.
National
Medical groups file lawsuit over Trump deletion of health information
Crucial datasets included LGBTQ, HIV resources
Nine private medical and public health advocacy organizations, including two from D.C., filed a lawsuit on May 20 in federal court in Seattle challenging what it calls the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s illegal deletion of dozens or more of its webpages containing health related information, including HIV information.
The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, names as defendants Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and HHS itself, and several agencies operating under HHS and its directors, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration.
“This action challenges the widespread deletion of public health resources from federal agencies,” the lawsuit states. “Dozens (if not more) of taxpayer-funded webpages, databases, and other crucial resources have vanished since January 20, 2025, leaving doctors, nurses, researchers, and the public scrambling for information,” it says.
“These actions have undermined the longstanding, congressionally mandated regime; irreparably harmed Plaintiffs and others who rely on these federal resources; and put the nation’s public health infrastructure in unnecessary jeopardy,” the lawsuit continues.
It adds, “The removal of public health resources was apparently prompted by two recent executive orders – one focused on ‘gender ideology’ and the other targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (‘DEI’) programs. Defendants implemented these executive orders in a haphazard manner that resulted in the deletion (inadvertent or otherwise) of health-related websites and databases, including information related to pregnancy risks, public health datasets, information about opioid-use disorder, and many other valuable resources.”
The lawsuit does not mention that it was President Donald Trump who issued the two executive orders in question.
A White House spokesperson couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on the lawsuit.
While not mentioning Trump by name, the lawsuit names as defendants in addition to HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., Matthew Buzzelli, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health; Martin Makary, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; Thomas Engels, administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration; and Charles Ezell, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management.
The 44-page lawsuit complaint includes an addendum with a chart showing the titles or descriptions of 49 “affected resource” website pages that it says were deleted because of the executive orders. The chart shows that just four of the sites were restored after initially being deleted.
Of the 49 sites, 15 addressed LGBTQ-related health issues and six others addressed HIV issues, according to the chart.
“The unannounced and unprecedented deletion of these federal webpages and datasets came as a shock to the medical and scientific communities, which had come to rely on them to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks, assist physicians and other clinicians in daily care, and inform the public about a wide range of healthcare issues,” the lawsuit states.
“Health professionals, nonprofit organizations, and state and local authorities used the websites and datasets daily in care for their patients, to provide resources to their communities, and promote public health,” it says.
Jose Zuniga, president and CEO of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), one of the organizations that signed on as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in a statement that the deleted information from the HHS websites “includes essential information about LGBTQ+ health, gender and reproductive rights, clinical trial data, Mpox and other vaccine guidance and HIV prevention resources.”
Zuniga added, “IAPAC champions evidence-based, data-informed HIV responses and we reject ideologically driven efforts that undermine public health and erase marginalized communities.”
Lisa Amore, a spokesperson for Whitman-Walker Health, D.C.’s largest LGBTQ supportive health services provider, also expressed concern about the potential impact of the HHS website deletions.
“As the region’s leader in HIV care and prevention, Whitman-Walker Health relies on scientific data to help us drive our resources and measure our successes,” Amore said in response to a request for comment from the Washington Blade.
“The District of Columbia has made great strides in the fight against HIV,” Amore said. “But the removal of public facing information from the HHS website makes our collective work much harder and will set HIV care and prevention backward,” she said.
The lawsuit calls on the court to issue a declaratory judgement that the “deletion of public health webpages and resources is unlawful and invalid” and to issue a preliminary or permanent injunction ordering government officials named as defendants in the lawsuit “to restore the public health webpages and resources that have been deleted and to maintain their web domains in accordance with their statutory duties.”
It also calls on the court to require defendant government officials to “file a status report with the Court within twenty-four hours of entry of a preliminary injunction, and at regular intervals, thereafter, confirming compliance with these orders.”
The health organizations that joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs include the Washington State Medical Association, Washington State Nurses Association, Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Academy Health, Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, Fast-Track Cities Institute, International Association of Providers of AIDS Care, National LGBT Cancer Network, and Vermont Medical Society.
The Fast-Track Cities Institute and International Association of Providers of AIDS Care are based in D.C.
U.S. Federal Courts
Federal judge scraps trans-inclusive workplace discrimination protections
Ruling appears to contradict US Supreme Court precedent
Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas has struck down guidelines by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission designed to protect against workplace harassment based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
The EEOC in April 2024 updated its guidelines to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County (2020), which determined that discrimination against transgender people constituted sex-based discrimination as proscribed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
To ensure compliance with the law, the agency recommended that employers honor their employees’ preferred pronouns while granting them access to bathrooms and allowing them to wear dress code-compliant clothing that aligns with their gender identities.
While the the guidelines are not legally binding, Kacsmaryk ruled that their issuance created “mandatory standards” exceeding the EEOC’s statutory authority that were “inconsistent with the text, history, and tradition of Title VII and recent Supreme Court precedent.”
“Title VII does not require employers or courts to blind themselves to the biological differences between men and women,” he wrote in the opinion.
The case, which was brought by the conservative think tank behind Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation, presents the greatest setback for LGBTQ inclusive workplace protections since President Donald Trump’s issuance of an executive order on the first day of his second term directing U.S. federal agencies to recognize only two genders as determined by birth sex.
Last month, top Democrats from both chambers of Congress reintroduced the Equality Act, which would codify LGBTQ-inclusive protections against discrimination into federal law, covering employment as well as areas like housing and jury service.
Calendar: May 23-29
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