Source: Daily Mail, OnRec.com
The UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission will argue the case of a heterosexual who claims to have suffered years of gay taunts from colleagues.

Stephen English, 56, says he was called a "faggot" even though he was happily married with three children.

The harassment was so relentless, he claims, that he resigned after nine years as a salesman with a blinds company.

He lost his claim for sexual discrimination at a tribunal and at an employment appeal tribunal but the judge at that hearing referred the issue to the Court of Appeal.

Mr English joined the company, Thomas Sanderson Blinds, based near Portsmouth, in 1996 and rose to lead a team of sales reps known as the The Top Guns.

The taunts started, he claims, when an area sales manager discovered that he had been to boarding school and lived in Brighton, which has a high proportion of gays in its population.

"He appeared to have assumed from these two facts that I had homosexual tendencies, despite the fact that I was happily married with three daughters," he told the employment tribunal.

"It became obvious to me that he had shared his views with numerous colleagues. I regularly had to endure remarks such as 'faggot' at national sales meetings, team meetings at my home and regional managers' meetings.

Mr English said: "These comments caused considerable distress both to myself and to my family - who were not only readers of the in-house magazines but were at home on occasions when I held team meetings and overheard comments referring to my perceived sexual orientation.

"To a large extent I went along with the comments as being part of the banter which one has to endure as a result of working with extrovert sales people.

"However, I gradually grew more and more upset and worn-down by them particularly as my daughters were now teenagers and very impressionable."

The level of "banter" had become so malicious, he said, that two colleagues "no longer ever referred to me by my given name - it was usually that of a gay connotation or a derogatory title".

A tribunal dismissed his claim last September after a two-day hearing and an appeal tribunal reached a similar verdict in January.

Judge Peter Clark said Mr English would have been able to bring a discrimination claim if his colleagues genuinely had thought he was gay, but referred the matter to referred the matter up to the Court of Appeal.

Employment officers in the UK warned that the hearing's decision should serve as a warning that such banter could subject employers to more such suits.

Jean Sapeta, Head of Employment at Hempsons pointed out that Judge Clark believed the scope of current regulations to be too restrictive when dealing with such cases. In his decision, the judge questioned whether or not the regulations complied with the European Directive which they were meant to implement and said his decision would probably have been different if the case had been decided under that directive.

"Employers should not be complacent and allow such banter to go unchecked," Sapeta said. "Usually homophobic banter will be caught by the sexual orientation regulations because it will be clear that the abuse was on the grounds of the victim's sexual orientation, whether they were actually gay or just perceived to be gay."

Full article: Married father of three subjected to homosexual taunts - because he lived in Brighton | the Daily Mail
Homophobic banter not covered by Sexual Orientation Regulations, warns legal specialist | OnRec.com