District of Columbia
D.C. trans woman files bias lawsuit against Whole Foods, Amazon
Co-workers accused of ‘threats to do bodily injury,’ ‘lewd, obscene acts’
A lawsuit filed by a D.C. transgender woman in July 2022 accuses the Whole Foods supermarket company and its parent company Amazon.com, Inc. with failing to stop as many as 20 Whole Foods employees in six D.C.-area Whole Foods stores from allegedly subjecting the trans woman who worked in those stores with sexual harassment and assault, threats of assault, anti-trans name-calling, and lewd and obscene gestures.
Court records show two separate complaints, one against Whole Foods and the other against Amazon, were initially filed July 11, 2022, in D.C. Superior Court by Vanessa Navarrete, who later changed her name to Ximena Navarrete, after the case was transferred in August 2022 to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The records show Navarrete’s initial filing in U.S. District Court called for $1 million in damages from Whole Foods, with a second filing two months later in the same federal court calling for $1.5 million in damages from Amazon.
An initial answer to the complaint filed Nov. 3, 2022, by attorneys representing Amazon states, “Amazon denies that it engaged in any wrongful conduct with respect to Plaintiff,” among other reasons, on grounds that Amazon “was not Plaintiff’s employer.”
But a 57-page amended complaint filed as part of the lawsuit on Jan. 5, 2023, names as defendants in the lawsuit Amazon.com, Inc.; Prime Now LLC, the Amazon-owned company that operates the Whole Foods supermarket chain; and D.C.-area Whole Foods employees listed as “John Doe 1-10” and “Jane Doe 11-20.”
In subsequent court filings, Amazon attorneys repeatedly assert that the defendant in the case is Prime Now LLC “improperly identified as Amazon.”
The complaint describes in graphic terms the allegations made by Navarrete in her lawsuit.
“During the course of Plaintiff’s employment, Plaintiff was subjected to a pattern of discrimination, harassment, threats to do bodily injury, lewd, indecent, and/or obscene acts, indecent exposure, offensive language, offensive and unwanted physical contact, due to Plaintiff’s sex, perceived sex, personal appearance, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, race, national origin, age and disability,” the complaint states.
“During the course of Plaintiff’s employment, Defendant Amazon and members of management were indifferent to the discrimination, harassment, threats to do bodily injury, lewd, indecent and/or obscene acts, indecent exposure, offensive and unwanted physical contact to which Plaintiff was subjected,” according to the complaint.
The lawsuit says Navarrete, 46, worked at the D.C. Whole Foods stores at the 1400 block of P Street, N.W. and in D.C.’s Tenleytown and Friendship Heights neighborhoods as well as the stores in Silver Spring, Md. and Arlington and Springfield in Virginia from Sept. 20, 2020, to Oct. 6, 2021, as a “Prime Now – Whole Foods Shopper,” a position in which she fulfilled food orders placed by customers online.
Supporting documents filed with the lawsuit say the alleged mistreatment of Navarrete began on her first day at work at one of the Whole Foods stores when a manager required her to wear a name badge with her birth name. Court documents show that she disclosed her birth name at the time she applied for the job and openly identified as transgender and requested, with Whole Foods managers initially agreeing, that she be identified and addressed as a female with her female name.
Her wearing a name tag with the male dead name played a key role in prompting co-workers to begin harassing her, court documents show.
Court records also show she identified herself as “Victor Navarrete (Vanessa)” in the first, handwritten version of her lawsuit filed in D.C. Superior Court, which she filed herself without an attorney. Her first amended complaint filed in the U.S. District Court identifies her as “Victor Navarrete a/k/a Vanessa Navarrete.” However, the lawsuit repeatedly states that she made it clear to managers and officials with Whole Foods Human Resources Department that she identifies as a female and wants to be addressed and listed in work-related documents by her female name.
According to the lawsuit, her employment with Whole Foods was terminated in October 2021 due to discrimination based, among other things, on her status as a Latina transgender woman and “for seeking redress from the discrimination and/or harassment.”
The Jan. 5, 2023, amended complaint charges Amazon and Whole Foods with violating the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, the D.C. Human Rights Act, and the D.C. Bias Related Crimes Act for their “wrongful employment practices against Plaintiff.”
The Washington Blade reached out by phone and email to the two lead attorneys representing Amazon in the lawsuit – Michael A. Chichester Jr. and Brandon Robert Mita of the D.C. law firm Littler Mendelson PC for comment on the case on behalf of Amazon and Whole Foods. Neither responded to the request for comment.
The Blade similarly reached out by email to spokespersons for Amazon and Whole Foods seeking comment on the lawsuit. As of Aug. 1, neither had replied.
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, a national LGBTQ advocacy organization, has awarded Amazon, Inc. its highest score of 100% in its 2023-2024 Corporate Equality Index rating that evaluates LGBTQ supportive policies for employees.
The HRC Corporate Equality Index did not have a rating for Prime Now LLC or Whole Foods.
Court records show that Navarrete also filed a discrimination complaint against Amazon regarding her employment at Whole Foods with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on April 5, 2021, and another discrimination complaint against Amazon for the same alleged improper treatment with the D.C. Office of Human Rights on that same day.
The court records show that the EEOC on Jan. 4, 2023, issued a “right to sue” letter clearing the way for Navarrete to file her lawsuit in federal court under court rules that require people alleging employment discrimination to seek an “administrative” remedy before going to court.
The most recent court records show that U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is presiding over the lawsuit case, in April of this year denied a motion by Navarette’s attorneys to file another amended complaint with new allegations against Whole Foods employees. Among the new allegations, court records show, is that a Whole Foods male employee allegedly “groped” Navarrete’s buttocks and breasts, another employee allegedly exposed his genitals to her, and another allegedly sent her “explicit text messages and photographs of male genitals.”
Yet another new allegation, the record shows, is a security guard working for Whole Foods allegedly visited Navarette at her home and raped her after asking her for sex in exchange for helping her resolve her problems at work.
The Blade couldn’t immediately find in the court records a reason given by the judge for denying the motion to file the new amended complaint. But a motion filed by Amazon’s attorneys opposing the request by Navarette to amend the complaint argues that the new allegations are significantly different from the allegations in her original complaint and would be legally “untimely” in violation of court rules.
In reference to its call for monetary damages and compensation, the lawsuit states that because of Amazon’s “unlawful conduct,” Navarrete “has suffered, and continues to suffer, mental anguish and emotional distress, including but not limited to, humiliation, embarrassment, stress and anxiety, loss of self-esteem and confidence, and emotional pain and suffering, as well as physical injury, for which she is entitled to an award of compensatory damages and other relief.”
As of Aug. 1, the court records show that no trial date has been set for the case. The records do show that as required by court rules, the two sides entered mediation last year in an effort to reach a resolution to settle the case, but the mediation ended with no agreement being reached.
Erica Bilkis, one of two attorneys with the D.C. law firm Alan Lescht & Associates representing Ximena Navarrete, pointed out that 55 years after the Stonewall Rebellion started the modern LGBTQ rights movement, “trans women of color are still being persecuted and fighting for equal treatment in their personal and professional lives.” Bilkis added, “We are hopeful that we will not only bring justice on behalf of Ms. Navarrete, but also encourage others to bravely speak out against this systemic issue.”
District of Columbia
Activists hold chalk art protest at McDonald’s after anti-gay assault
Police say victim attacked, beaten by 15 people for not saying ‘excuse me’
Local gay activist Joey Minervini and two others used chalk to draw LGBTQ supportive messages on the sidewalk outside the McDonald’s restaurant at 14th and U Streets, N.W. at 9 a.m. Sunday Nov. 3, one week after D.C. police say a gay man was attacked and assaulted by 15 men and women at that McDonald’s while shouting the word “faggot.”
Police say they are investigating the Oct. 27 assault against Sebastian Thomas Robles Lascarro, 22, that Lascarro has said began inside the McDonald’s at about 1 a.m. when one of the attackers, a woman, criticized him for not saying “excuse me” when he walked past her.
“He ignored her, and he walked away,” Lascarro’s husband, Stuart West, told the Washington Blade. West said his husband told him the woman then called him a faggot and her friends, who were mostly men, blocked the exit door at the McDonald’s, preventing Lascarro from leaving and about 10 of the attackers began to punch him repeatedly in the face and body.
He was taken by ambulance to Howard University Hospital, where he was treated for multiple cuts and bruises before being released the next day.
Minervini released a series of photos he took of the Nov. 3 chalk protest, a few of which show the words “EXCUSE ME We All Belong” drawn in rainbow colored chalk on the sidewalk in front of the McDonald’s entrance. Other messages they drew on the sidewalk included, “We all belong here,” and “D.C. For You And Me,” with a drawing next to it with fingers making the peace sign.
Joining Minervini for the protest was D.C. artist and muralist Chelsea Ritter-Soronen, who operates a local chalk art and mural business called CHALK RIOT, Minervini told the Blade. He said one of his friends, Darren Pierre, also participated in doing the chalk art drawings.
Minervini said most passersby, including customers entering and leaving the McDonald’s, appeared to be supportive of the protest, with some taking pictures of the chalk drawings.
“The vibe there was positive,” he said. “Some people were unaware of what we were doing, so I explained to them a gay man was attacked for apparently not saying ‘excuse me.’ So, that’s why we were chalking the words ‘excuse me’ to reclaim the phrase,” Minervini said. “We were doing it there to reclaim the space a little bit.”
He said he did not see any of the McDonald’s employees come out to look at the drawings up until the time the three ended their chalk art action about 10:15 or 10:30 a.m. Minervini said he and a friend walked past the McDonald’s around 5 p.m. Sunday evening and the chalk drawings were still on the sidewalk.
D.C. police have listed the attack against Lascarro as a suspected hate crime. But they have not provided an update on their investigation, including whether investigators have interviewed McDonald’s employees who were present during the attack or whether they have requested video footage from the security cameras at the McDonald’s.
West, Lascarro’s husband, said the ambulance took Lascarro to the hospital before police arrived and police officers first spoke to Lascarro about the attack at the hospital rather than at the scene of the assault.
“Thankfully, he has been recovering from his injuries, the scrapes, cuts, bruising and swelling have all started to heal, but I fear the real damage can’t be seen,” West said in an updated message in a GoFundMe posting he set up to help defray the costs of Lascarro’s medical expenses.
“Unfortunately, after this incident, he’s battling with many emotions including anxiety, depression, fear of leaving the house and worse, questions whether D.C. is the right fit for him,” West says in his posting.
West told the Blade Lascarro, who goes by his middle name of Thomas, is a recent immigrant from Colombia who has permanent U.S. resident status. He said Lascarro had been at the nearby gay bars Crush and Bunker before stopping at the McDonald’s on his way home.
District of Columbia
D.C. police investigating anti-gay assault at 14th & U McDonald’s
In separate incident, gay man found unconscious near Florida Avenue bar
D.C. police are investigating an incident in which a group of as many as 15 men and women allegedly assaulted a gay man while some of them called him a “faggot” at around 1 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 27, at the McDonald’s restaurant at 14th and U Streets, N.W., according to a police report and the victim’s husband.
The report, which lists the incident as a suspected hate crime, says the victim, Sebastian Thomas Robles Lascarro, was taken to Howard University Hospital for treatment. A police spokesperson said he was released from the hospital the next day.
A GoFundMe page posted by Stuart West, Lascarro’s husband, who said Lascarro goes by his middle name Thomas, states, “Medical bills, therapy costs, and ongoing recovery needs will continue to increase and any help to ensure he gets the care he needs to regain his health and peace of mind will be a blessing.”
The GoFundMe message adds, “Thomas was attacked by a mob who used hateful, derogatory language targeting his identity as a gay man. This horrific hate crime left him hospitalized overnight, facing serious physical injuries and emotional trauma.”
In response to an inquiry from the Blade about the 14th and U Street incident, a D.C. police spokesperson disclosed that a man whose friends identify him as gay was found unconscious on the ground suffering from a head injury about 5 a.m. also on Sunday, Oct. 27, at the intersection of 5th and T Streets, N.W. just off Florida Avenue near the gay bar Uproar.
A police report lists the case as a robbery but doesn’t say how the injuries he suffered to his head happened. And like the case of the gay man attacked at the McDonald’s, friends of the man found unconscious posted a GoFundMe page identifying the man.
“Bryan Smith (aka the barber) recently suffered immense trauma to his head and will be hospitalized for the foreseeable future,” it says. “Bryan is a dear friend and a pillar in the D.C. queer and nightlife communities,” the GoFundMe appeal says. “Any amount of donations would be greatly appreciated to go towards the upcoming expenses he will incur.”
One of the friends who posted the GoFundMe told the Washington Blade they would have no further comment at this time. However, D.C.’s Fox 5 News reports members of Smith’s family said he remains in a coma, with D.C. police saying they have video footage of two possible suspects who reportedly took Smith’s phone and wallet containing credit cards.
Although people who knew Smith said he had worked for many years as a hairstylist, the Fox 5 News report says he had recently been serving as a DJ. It points out that police are offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of the perpetrators responsible for Smith’s robbery and assault.
West, the husband of Lascarro, when contacted by the Blade, said Lascarro, 22, had been at the nearby gay bars Crush and Bunker, and he stopped at the McDonald’s on his way home. West said the assault began inside the McDonald’s, which was crowded with customers. He said the police report correctly states that Lascarro told police the incident began when one of the attackers, a woman, criticized him for not saying “excuse me” when he walked past her.
“He ignored her, and he walked away,” West told the Blade, adding that the woman then called him a faggot and her friends, who were mostly men, blocked the exit door at the McDonald’s, preventing Lascarro from leaving and demanded that he apologize to the woman.
“And when he said he was not going to apologize and he raised his hand to try and move the door to get out, that’s when more than 10 individuals started to assault him,” West said. “And so, they started punching him all over his face and body, and it eventually moved to outside the McDonald’s on the D.C. sidewalk, where more people got involved and started hitting him and assaulting him.”
At one point when Lascarro was sitting on the ground, “bloodied, dazed, and confused, they decided to throw drinks and trash at him,” West said. He said when two people walking by asked him if he needed help, Lascarro was able to dial 911 on his phone, and an ambulance arrived minutes later, which took him to the hospital.
“They performed a full CT scan and thankfully there were no critical injuries discovered,” West said. “So, the only injuries are bruises and scrapes and cuts and a very sore jaw,” he said, adding that the head injuries have caused his husband to suffer migraine headaches.
West said he later visited the McDonald’s and asked two supervisors if they would release to him a copy of the video surveillance camera images from their security cameras from the night of the attack. He said the two declined his request but said they were cooperating with the police investigation.
D.C. police officials have said investigators routinely obtain video camera footage from businesses or from city security cameras along public spaces such as parks or streets when investigating crimes.
Police have said anyone with information that could lead to the identification of the perpetrators involved in the crimes targeting Lascarro and Smith should contact police at 202-727-9096.
The GoFundMe pages for the two men are here:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-thomass-recovery-from-hate-crime
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-bryan-smiths-medical-recovery
District of Columbia
46 known LGBTQ candidates running for D.C. ANC seats
32 running unopposed on ballot, 22 are incumbents
At least 46 known LGBTQ candidates are running for seats on the city’s Advisory Neighborhood Commissions in the Nov. 5 D.C. election, with a half dozen or more LGBTQ candidates running in each of the city’s wards except for Ward 3, where just two known LGBTQ candidates are running.
Among the 46 known LGBTQ candidates, 22 are incumbent ANC commissioners seeking re-election to another four-year term. The ANC Rainbow Caucus, which consists of LGBTQ ANC members, shows on its website it currently has 27 incumbent commissioners, most of whom are running for re-election.
That appears to indicate the percentage of LGBTQ ANC members seeking to run for re-election is greater than the percentage of the overall number of ANC members running for another term. According to reports by the Washington Post and other media outlets, many ANC members have chosen not to run for re-election this year, based in part on the stress that goes with the job
Under the D.C. Home Rule Charter, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners serve as unpaid elected officials charged with making recommendations to the city government on a wide range of neighborhood issues, including the approval of liquor licenses for bars and restaurants and zoning regulations. City officials are required to give “great weight” to the ANC recommendations, but government officials are not required to accept the recommendations.
The official list of ANC candidates on the D.C. election ballot released by the D.C. Board of Elections shows that 51 of the 345 ANC Single Member Districts, or SMDs, do not have a candidate running on the Nov. 5 election ballot. The Board of Elections has released a separate list of registered write-in candidates that includes several ANC candidates.
The Board of Elections list shows there are a far larger number of ANC single member districts in which a single candidate is running unopposed. Among the 46 LGBTQ ANC candidates, 32 have no opponent on the election ballot.
Gay ANC commissioner Vincent Slatt, who represents the Dupont Circle ANC district 2B03, and who serves as chair of the ANC Rainbow Caucus, said ANC members face a considerable amount of stress.
“ANCs are volunteer, uncompensated positions that we do in addition to our day jobs,” Slatt told the Washington Blade. “There is an extremely high turnover rate due to the lack of support we receive from the executive agencies, and the perception of our neighbors that we provide constituent services that our Council members provide,” he said.
Slatt added that residents sometimes lack full understanding of the role of ANC members, which “has created a large amount of turnover, and the problem is getting worse.”
The Blade obtained its list of known LGBTQ ANC candidates in part from the ANC Rainbow Caucus, which compiled its own list of LGBTQ candidates, and from the LGBTQ Victory Fund, the national group that supports LGBTQ candidates for elective office, which released a list of 13 Victory Fund “approved” ANC candidates. The Blade obtained a few additional names of LGBTQ ANC candidates not on the Rainbow Caucus or Victory Fund lists from people who knew the candidates.
Also, among the known LGBTQ ANC candidates, in just two single member districts, two LGBTQ candidates are running against each other. One is in district 1B03 in the Columbia Heights neighborhood in which J. Swiderski is challenging incumbent Jamie S. Sycamore.
The other is in district 2G01 in the Shaw neighborhood in which Howard Garrett, the recently elected president of the Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s LGBTQ Democratic group, is running against community activist Parker Griffin. The two are competing for an ANC seat in which the incumbent is not running for re-election.
Similar to past election years, the largest number of known LGBTQ ANC candidates are running this year in districts in Ward 2, including the Dupont Circle, Logan Circle, and Shaw neighborhoods. However, more LGBTQ candidates this year are running in Wards 4, 5, and 8 than in past years.
Gay former ANC commissioner Kent Boese, who until 2022 had represented the Ward 1 SMD in the Park View neighborhood, continues in his current role as director of the D.C. Office of Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, to which he was appointed in October 2022. Among his duties is to oversee fiscal and administrative operations of ANCs across the city.
Following is a list of the LGBTQ ANC candidates and the single member districts and neighborhoods in which they are running.
1A04 – (Columbia Heights)
Jeremy Sherman, he/him
1A07 – (Columbia Heights)
Mukta Ghorpadey, she/her
1A10 – (Columbia Heights)
Billy Easley, he/him
1B03 – (Columbia Heights/U Street)
J. Swiderski, they/he
Jamie S. Sycamore, he/him
1B06 – (Columbia Heights/Meridian Hill)
Miguel Trindade Deramo, he/him
1B07 – (U Street)
Matthew Holden, he/him
1D01 – (Mount Pleasant)
Jay Falk, she/her
1E01 – (Park View)
Brad Howard, he/him
1E07 – (Howard University/Pleasant Plains)
Brian Footer, he/him
2A05 – (Foggy Bottom)
Luke Chadwick, he/him
2B02 – (Dupont Circle)
Jeffrey Rueckgauer, he/him
2B03 – (Dupont Circle)
Vincent Slatt, he/him
2B09 – (Dupont Circle/U Street)
Christopher Davis, he/him
2C01 – (Penn Quarter)
Michael D. Shankle, he/him
2F05 – (Logan Circle)
Christopher Dyer, he/him
2F06 – (Logan Circle)
John Fanning, he/him
2F07 – (Logan Circle)
Kevin Cataldo, he/him
2G01 – (Shaw)
Parker Griffin, he/him
Howard Garrett, he/him
2G02 – (Shaw)
Alexander ‘Alex’ Padro, he/him
2G04 – (Shaw)
Steven McCarty, he/him
3B06 – (Wesley Heights)
S. Robert Rodriquez, he/him
3F05 – (Van Ness/Cleveland Park)
Adrian Jesus Iglesias, he/him
4B01 – (Takoma)
Doug Payton, he/him
4B10 – (Lamond Riggs)
Jinin Berry, she/her
4C06 – (Petworth)
Christen Boss Hayes, they/them
4E02 – (16th Street Heights)
Vince Micone, he/him
5B02 – (Brookland)
Nandini Sen, she/her
5B04 – (Brookland)
Ra Amin, he/him
5B05 – (Brookland)
Mónica Martínez López, she/her
5D05 – (Trinidad)
Salvador Sauceda-Guzman, he/him
5D06 – (Trinidad/Carver)
Charquinta (Char) McCray, she/her
5E05 – (Bloomingdale)
Tyler Lopez, he/him
5F06 – (Eckington)
Joe Bishop-Henchman, he/him
6B03 – (Capitol Hill)
David Sobelsohn, he/him
6B09 – (Capitol Hill/Barney Circle)
Karen Hughes, she/her
7B05 – (Hillcrest)
Elizabeth Reddick, she/them
7C01 – (Deanwood)
Brian Glover, he/him
7C03 – (Lincoln Heights)
Carlos Richardson, he/him
7C08 – (Capitol View)
Brandon M. Scott, he/him
7E06 – (Benning Ridge)
Ravi K. Perry, he/him
8A01 – (Fairlawn)
Tom Donohue, he, him
8B05 – (Garfield Heights)
Marcus Thomas Hickman, he/him
8C08 – (Douglass)
Elizabeth Carter, she/her
8F04 – (Navy Yard)
Edward Daniels
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