Debra Loeffelholz, UW Employee Told Not to "Flaunt" Her Gayness, Can Proceed with Suit

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http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2011/06/debra_loeffelholz_uw_employee.php

If court records are to be believed, Debra Loeffelholz had a boss from hell. A program coordinator in the University of Washington's facilities department, she was asked by supervisor James Lukehart whether she was gay. When she said she was, Lukehart told her not "to flaunt it" around him, according to a state Court of Appeals ruling released today. And that's not all.

She lost the ability to use flex time and attend training seminars. Lukehart refused to complete evaluations of her performance. He told her co-workers that she was gay and overweight. He also had an obsession with revenge, telling Loeffelholz that he had a gun in his car and was compiling information on people "to use against them later," according to the ruling.

So you would think that if anybody was subject to a hostile work environment, Loeffelholz was. But Loeffelholz's claim of discrimination against UW and Lukehart, filed in 2009, hinged on technicalities that caused a trial court to rule against her in a summary judgment.

At issue was the timing of Lukehart's actions. There's a three-year statute of limitations on such suits, so the latest act of discrimination had to be made within that time period. The egregious behavior also had to occur after the state's discrimination laws were amended, in June of 2006, to protect gays and lesbians.