Lambda Legal this week filed an EEOC complaint against Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Society, Inc. on behalf of David Jeffcoat, a former employee who said he was fired after his bosses at the Aboretum found out he was gay.
This is the second EEOC complaint Lambda Legal has filed against Dallas Aboretum this year. The first was filed in January on behalf of another LGBTQ former employee — a white, genderqueer lesbian who said their former bosses discriminated against them based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and mental and physical disabilities. The individual in that case has asked to remain anonymous.
As with the first complaint, Lambda Legal also filed a Human Relations Discrimination Complaint on Jeffcoat’s behalf with the city of Dallas under the city’s “Unlawful Discriminatory Practices” ordinance which prohibits discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.
Lambda Legal filed the complaint on behalf of Jeffcoat on Tuesday, March 31. Lambda Legal attorneys Shelly L. Skeen, pictured above, and Nicholas Guillory are handling the case.
According to the complaint, Jeffcoat worked at the Dallas Arboretum as a gate attendant from September 2014 until June 2021. In June 2021, Arboretum management promoted David to operations supervisor, promising to provide training and support to allow him to “grow and succeed in his new position, which his new supervisor told him would take him at least one year and maybe two years to learn,” according to a press release from Lambda Legal. “Failing to keep its promise to provide David with reviews and feedback every 30 days, management missed its 30-day review, but did conduct 60- and 90-day reviews and gave David positive evaluations.”
The complaint states that, acting in accordance with the Aboretum’s COVID-19 protocols, Jeffcoat notified his supervisor last October that he had been exposed to COVID through his male partner, with whom he lived, had come down with COVID. The complaint notes that while Jeffcoat had not tried to hide his sexual orientation from o-workers, he had been private about it and had not told a member of management that he was gay until then.
“Almost immediately, management’s attitude towards David shifted radically,” the Lambda Legal press release said. “Management started scheduling him for back-to-back shifts and gave him long lists of tasks to complete which, as the Arboretum was short-staffed as result of COVID-19, required David to work late to complete.
“During the holiday season, he often started at 8 a.m. and left at 10:30 at night, only to be required to return at 8 a.m. the next day,” the press release continued. “In late October, a manager cussed him out in front of staff, including using the F word, and he was demoted from operations Supervisor for the Main Garden and the Children’s Garden to operations supervisor for only the Children’s Garden. Then, in January, David injured himself after he slipped and fell on the ice at the Arboretum after an ice storm. After missing one day of work, and then arriving late the following day due to doctor-ordered physical therapy, he was fired.”
Jeffocat said, “I was promoted, promised training and support, and received positive evaluations. [But] after they found out I was gay and living with my husband, that all changed.
“They loaded extra daily duties on me, knowing I wouldn’t be able to finish them as we were short-staffed, and then cussed me out publicly when I couldn’t perform to their expectations,” he added. “Then I hurt myself, and instead of giving me the time and space to recover, they fired me. After more than seven years of loyal service for low pay, that’s just wrong, and that’s why I’m bringing this complaint.
“I want to see the Arboretum treat all of its employees, regardless of who they are, with dignity, respect, understanding and acceptance.”
Skeen, who is also handling the complaint against the Aboretum filed in January, said, “The Dallas Arboretum’s mistreatment of and discrimination against David Jeffcoat was blatant, inexcusable and illegal, especially for an employee who had served the Arboretum for more than seven years.
“David reveals he is gay and living with his male partner to whom he was married, and suddenly it’s as if the years of loyal service, the positive reviews and encouragement and the promotion didn’t happen,” Skeen added. “The only thing that changed between David’s promotion in June 2021 and his termination in February 2022 is that Arboretum management learned that David is gay.”
A copy of Jeffcoat’s EEOC complaint is available here.
Read more about Lambda Legal’s work on behalf of former Arboretum employees here.
— Tammye Nash
