Gay Protests To Target WNBA

(New York City) GLTB civil rights group Lambda Legal announced Tuesday that it will stage protests against Foot Locker stores outside WNBA games in several cities -- including a game in New York on Thursday night -- because the company allegedly discriminated against a gay employee.  

The WNBA was chosen because the women's basketball league has recently begun strengthening its ties with Foot Locker.

Lambda said it would be joined by other lesbian and gay New Yorkers, to distribute leaflets about Foot Locker's alleged discrimination and talk to passers-by and people attending a WNBA game at 6:45 p.m. outside Radio City Music Hall on September 16.   The Liberty, New York's WNBA team, is playing at Radio City Music Hall because Madison Square Garden has not been available.

The protestors also will distribute post-cards for people to send to the company's CEO, Mathew Serra, urging Foot Locker to treat all of its employees equally. 

Similar protests are set for Houston, Los Angeles and Seattle this week, on the heels of the announcement of a multi-year partnership between Foot Locker and the WNBA.  

The Foot Locker protests are part of "Blow the Whistle on Workplace Discrimination," a broad nationwide campaign against anti-gay discrimination that Lambda Legal launched when it recently filed a lawsuit against the company in South Carolina for firing a gay employee. (story)

The suit alleges that Kevin Dunbar, 26, suffered antigay harassment and discrimination at the hands of his coworkers, supervisors and customers.

Dunbar claims that when  Dunbar formally complained that he was being harassed  the discrimination grew worse. His suit says that he was transferred from one store location in Columbia to another, where his new store manager refused to shake his hand and said, "I heard about your shit, I don't want your faggot ass in my store."

"This week, we're 'Blowing the Whistle' on Foot Locker outside WNBA games to make it absolutely clear that antigay discrimination won't be tolerated," said Michael Adams, Lambda Legal's Director of Education.  

"We're holding Foot Locker accountable for its deplorable actions.   Bigotry isn't just wrong.  It's also bad business."

Despite the treatment Dunbar, 26, alleges, Foot Locker, in its policies on discrimination and harassment, promises a harassment-free workplace and includes sexual orientation in that policy.