Congressional staffer forced to quit ‘hostile’ job because he was gay, lawsuit says
A former congressional staffer is suing the office of Rep. Troy Nehls, a Republican from Texas, alleging staff created a “hostile work environment” against the man because he was gay.
The former staffer said Nehls, his chief of staff and his special advisor regularly made offensive comments toward the LGBTQ+ community, and directed many of the comments at him.
While working as legislative correspondent at Nehls’ Washington, D.C., office beginning in Jan. 2021, the chief of staff would make comments such as “gays go to hell” or “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve,” according to the complaint.
Nehls’ press secretary Emily Matthews denied the allegations made in the lawsuit.
“Congressman Nehls’s office did not, and does not discriminate based on any unlawful factor,” Matthews said in an email to McClatchy News. “There is no merit whatsoever to (his) claim and the allegations of sexual orientation harassment are totally false. The office intends to mount a vigorous defense in this matter and is confident that it will be exonerated once all the facts are known.”
The man was told by the chief of staff “not to engage with gay constituents,” the lawsuit said. The staffer said, according to the lawsuit, that he transferred to the congressman’s office in Richmond, Texas, in May 2021 because of the homophobic comments.
Nehls’ office in the 22nd congressional district is now located in Fulshear.
When the staffer got to Texas, however, he encountered the special advisor’s homophobic comments, the lawsuit said.
The special advisor kept an LGBTQ+ poster in his office so he could mock it, frequently in front of the staffer, according to the complaint. He would point at the poster and say, “We don’t need to let gays into military,” “What is the world coming to?” and “We don’t need to support the queers,” the lawsuit said.
Nehls expressed a lack of support for the LGBTQ+ community while the staffer worked for him, according to the complaint, once saying that he “did not support gay people” after he saw an employee watching the show “Queer Eye.”
In August 2022, Nehls asked other people about the man’s sexual orientation, according to the complaint. Following his inquiries, the congressman started to “ostracize” the staffer, who was also a family friend, and treat him in a “hostile” manner until he quit, the lawsuit said.
Nehls stopped reaching out to the staffer and would ignore his interactions, according to court documents. He would also ignore the man at family events, the lawsuit said.
Though he went from Washington, D.C., to Texas, the now-field representative was still frequently required to report to the chief of staff in his role, according to court documents.
The staffer’s attorneys allege the homophobic comments continued as the chief of staff started to take steps to convince the staffer to quit.
In January 2022, the staffer told the chief of staff that he had COVID-19. The chief of staff responded that he “must get COVID so much because he was ‘kissing a lot of boys,’” court documents allege.
The field representative was often denied opportunities to attend trainings and events, according to court documents, and later the chief of staff barred him from executing certain duties of his job.
In January 2023, Nehls’ office hired a new field representative, a heterosexual man, and asked the field representative to train him, according to the complaint. The newly-hired employee eventually took over tasks and attended events instead of the staffer, the lawsuit said.
Months later, the field representative was denied a promotion, though he said he was the “most qualified” for the role, because of his sexual orientation, the lawsuit said. He was then forced to train the person who got the job, per the complaint.
The chief of staff then told the staffer that he had “no future or growth potential” with the congressman’s office and should start exploring other opportunities, the lawsuit said. He was urged to take a job with a pay cut and told that his future in the office was “limited,” according to court documents.
Eventually, he agreed to resign due to “threats and extreme pressure,” according to the lawsuit. He resigned in October 2023.
In the staffer’s final weeks at the job, the chief of staff, according to court documents, told him that their “lifestyles,” a reference to the man’s sexual orientation, did not align.
In 2022, Nehls introduced the “Stop Child Abuse Act” that would block children from gender-affirming care. The bill, which has not moved through the House of Representatives, works to nullify President Joe Biden’s executive order “Advancing Equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Individuals.”
Nehls represents the 22nd congressional district in Texas, which is southwest of Houston.
This story was originally published August 21, 2024 at 3:39 PM with the headline "Congressional staffer forced to quit ‘hostile’ job because he was gay, lawsuit says."
