Lawsuit: I was fired for being straight  | News | Advocate.com

Advocate.com health Channel
||  News  ||
 
August 28, 2007
Lawsuit: I was fired for being straight

The former director of California's AIDS/LifeCycle fund-raiser has sued two HIV/AIDS nonprofits that put on the ride, claiming they fired him because he is not gay.

Jeffrey Shapiro filed suit Thursday in Los Angeles superior court, alleging sexual orientation discrimination and intentional infliction of emotional distress by his former employers, the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, City News Service reported.

In his lawsuit, Shapiro claims leaders of the two HIV/AIDS groups hired him in March, then met with him in June and fired him, telling him that "everybody liked him as a person, but they needed somebody who better fit into the culture."

When he asked for clarification, he said in court papers, a director of the Los Angeles center told him that "things like this happen and that they made a mistake to think this could work."

AIDS/LifeCycle, a 545-mile cycling event down the California coast from San Francisco to Los Angeles, benefits HIV/AIDS research. The June 2007 ride drew 2,700 participants and generated a record $11 million, according to the event's Web site.

That ride had been managed by longtime AIDS/LifeCycle director Chris Cole, who left last month, according to Jim Key, public affairs director for the Los Angeles center, to Gay.com. Shapiro had been hired before Cole's departure to provide a transition period, Key said.

"It's our policy not to comment on personnel matters, but we can say that the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation never have and never would terminate someone on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity," Key told Gay.com.

"In fact, both organizations pride themselves on a diverse work force that includes many straight people, including in the highest levels of management and on the AIDS/LifeCycle team," Key said. These include one of Shapiro's two direct supervisors, the director of development at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Key told Gay.com.

AIDS/LifeCycle's director, who manages "a $11 million operating budget (including revenues) and 20-person staff in San Francisco and Los Angeles," reports to leaders of both nonprofits, AIDS/LifeCycle says on its Web site.

Shapiro seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. (Barbara Wilcox, The Advocate)

Reader Comments

These comments are reproduced as written by visitors to this Web site. They have not been edited for content, grammar, or spelling. The viewpoints appearing here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of advocate.com, The Advocate, or its affiliates.

Be the first to comment on this story.

Back to top

Submit a comment for this story:

*Type your comment here (Required, 1000 characters max.):

*Name (Required): 

*Hometown (Required): 

*E-mail address: (Required, but will not be displayed)

Is this comment for publication? 
Yes   No

Daytime phone number: (Required for print publication only and will not be displayed)

Please enter the words you see in the box, in order and separated by a space. Doing so helps prevent automated programs from abusing this service.

  

If you would like to submit a comment for posting, please fill out the form above. 

All comments submitted via this form are subject to posting or publication. (To send a private letter to an Advocate editor or writer, please use the e-mail button at the top of the page, or use snail mail.) If you would like your comment considered for publication in The Advocate magazine, please include your full name, your city of residence, and a phone number where you can be reached during business hours so that we can confirm your identity. Your e-mail address and telephone number are strictly confidential and will not be shared or used for any purpose other than to contact you about your comment.

Comments that do not concern specific articles in The Advocate or on Advocate.com will not be posted or published. See the Contact page for sending comments for reasons other than responding to Advocate editorial and news stories.

Please note that comments sent by fax or snail mail are unlikely to be posted, although they will be considered for publication along with all letters received via e-mail or via this Web page. Comments that chiefly concern Advocate.com content will be considered for posting only on the Web site. The Advocate reserves the right to edit submitted comments for grammar, spelling, obscenities, or libel; we will, however, do our best to preserve the original comment's style and intent. Comments considered for publication in The Advocate magazine may also be edited for length.

More Exclusives
  • Politics and Progress With Patti LaBelle
    The last time girl-group Labelle dropped an album, the thought of a black president or same-sex marriage seemed as “far-out” as the band’s disco-spacewoman suits and fusion of disco, rock, and soul. But the button-pushing, soul-singing trio has reunited, and on the heels of Prop. 8 passing and Barack Obama being elected president, Patti LaBelle talks to The Advocate about the mix of emotions she's dealt with over the past few weeks.
  • Seth Meyers's Big Gay Saturday Night
    SNL funnyman Seth Meyers talks to Advocate.com about last week's episode of Saturday Night Live -- the gayest episode in the history of the show, by some accounts. With touches including Justin Timberlake as Beyoncé's backup dancer and Snagglepuss crashing Weekend Update, it caused some bloggers to take offense ... but Meyers says it's just the sort of stuff that stemmed from many discussions about Prop. 8.
  • All Hands, Black and White, On Deck
    The high number of African-Americans who voted to pass Proposition 8 may have surprised some people, but not the folks at the National Black Justice Coalition, a civil rights organization dedicated to empowering black LGBT Americans. NBJC's CEO offers some insights about the black-white divide and how to mend it going forward.
  • Setting the Agenda ... the Gay One
    COMMENTARY: Prior to the election of Barack Obama, the gay rights agenda risked becoming nothing more than a wish list. But after nearly 30 years during which no major piece of gay rights legislation has been passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the president, it is time to make a a real push for true equality. Our time at the back of the bus must end. Now.
  • Survival of the Fittest
    Fallout 3 for Xbox 360 takes players on a pulse-pounding ride through postapocalyptic Washington, D.C.
  • Oscar-Winning Director Rob Epstein Remembers Harvey Milk
    When Rob Epstein released his 1984 documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, it didn’t simply serve as a memorial to Milk -- it gave him new life. For more than two decades, filmmakers have tried to turn Milk's life into a major motion picture. Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and Gus Van Sant finally made it work, and Epstein, who calls the film "beautiful," takes a look back at the man who inspired a movement and what's become of California's gay community without him.
  • Building Bridges in the Wake of Prop. 8
    In the wake of finger-pointing following California's passing of Prop. 8, television writer and producer Tajamika Paxton suggests the time has come to build a bridge between the LGBT and African-American communities -- to engage in discussion rather than looking for somewhere to place blame.
  • Without Her We're Nothing
    The legendary Sandra Bernhard sits down with The Advocate before the one-night-only revival of her seminal one-woman show Without You I'm Nothing in Los Angeles to discuss Tori Amos, why Prop. 8 is "the best thing that could happen to the gay community," and how she she could possibly love both Rachel Maddow and Rachel Zoe.
  • Carmen Finds Her Spotlight
    It’s not very often that a lowly music critic gets the privilege of witnessing a glowing performance by a major new talent at the beginning of his or her career, but that is certainly what happened to yours truly on the evening of November 15 at the Los Angeles Opera. Viktoria Vizin, an astounding new mezzo-soprano making her L.A. Opera debut as Carmen this season, took my breath away.
  • Connecticut Gets Married
    This weekend, all 50 states participated in protests against the passing of antigay legislation in California, Arizona, Arkansas, and Florida. Gays and lesbians in Connecticut protested too, but they also had reason to celebrate. Last week, same-sex marriages got under way throughout the state.
  • Gay Is the New Black?
    In the wake of California’s passage of Proposition 8, protests are popping up around the country -- and so are comparisons between gays’ and African-Americans’ fights for equality. Is gay the new black? Michael Joseph Gross examines two struggles for civil rights. Plus: Photos from Wednesday night's rally in New York City.
  • The Day in Pictures
    From coast to coast, from gay to straight, from Pink to Mormon moms--a national movement to protest the passing of Prop. 8 in California rises up.
  • Smart Money
    In a time of economic calamity, one voice rises above the panic. Suze Orman is here to help -- she's offered her will and trust kit free to Advocate readers. Click the story for more info.
  • David Hyde Pierce is Gay, Married ... and Marching Against Prop. 8
    As Dr. Niles Crane on the hit sitcom Frasier, David Hyde Pierce had a great deadpan. That also extended to his own life: For years he wouldn’t confirm or deny being gay. Since then he thawed enough to thank his longtime partner, Brian Hargrove, in his 2007 Tony Award acceptance speech. And on Saturday, Pierce was one baseball-capped protester among maybe 20,000 others marching for equality in Los Angeles.
  • Gearing Up
    From Long Beach to Toronto, activists begin to prepare for a weekend of protest -- including the "Raging Grannies" in Palo Alto. See it all come together.
  • Best of Times, Worst of Times
    In the week after Barack Obama’s historic victory, gays and lesbians are pondering another historic, albeit less victorious, moment of their own. Three anti-gay marriage propositions passed -- in Florida, Arizona, and California. In Arkansas gay people were barred from adopting children. Now the real fight begins.
  • Revolution No. 8
    I've been waving a sign on street corners since H8 passed: "Black Queers." Responses have varied -- from honks of support to looks of disapproval from both blacks and whites. A black woman came up to me at a rally and asked me if I didn't think the sign was offensive to black people. I said, "It's who I am, and people should know."
  • You Can Never Go Home Again
    Eight years ago Advocate associate editor Neal Broverman packed up his car and moved from Connecticut to California to find freedom and acceptance. Now that marriage is legal in Connecticut, he's wondering if he ever should have left.
  • Prop. 8 Rally Takes Manhattan
    On the same day that the state of Connecticut began allowing same-sex marriages, thousands of New Yorkers gathered to protest the recent ruling in California taking away those same rights. Over 15,000 people gathered Wednesday night in protest of Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that overturned a recent court ruling allowing same-sex marriage.