From Watson v. Philadelphia Parking Auth., decided Monday by Judge Cynthia Rufe (E.D. Pa.):
Plaintiff describes himself as an African-American, homosexual male. He began working at the PPA on February 24, 2020, as a "Data Officer." On his first day of employment, Plaintiff was given a copy of the PPA's social media policy and the employee handbook. Before and during his employment with the PPA, Plaintiff maintained various social media accounts. During Plaintiff's first week of employment, Defendant received an anonymous complaint regarding Plaintiff's social media use. The anonymous complaint referenced posts written before his employment and one post written on February 26, 2020, after Plaintiff started at the PPA, stating "this guy has the prettiest ass…I hope his girlfriend knows how lucky she is!" The post did not include a photograph or identify the individual.
Plaintiff testified in his deposition that during a meeting about the post, his direct supervisor, Deputy Executive Director Clarena Tolson, told him that "heterosexual men, employees, wouldn't want to work with [Plaintiff] without—without fearing for their safety and that people could consider [Plaintiff] a sexual predator because of it." Plaintiff further testified that Richard Dickson, the First Deputy Executive Director, then told him, "I'm sorry, I don't know how it feels to be a Black, gay man, but [ ] gay men are under so much scrutiny here," and that because Plaintiff was "coming from multiple identity groups" he "would face even higher scrutiny." Tolson and Dickson determined that Plaintiff did not create this post during work time, it did not refer to a PPA employee, and it did not violate the company's social media policy. Scott Petri, the Executive Director of the PPA, was not in this meeting and Plaintiff asserts that Petri refused to meet with him.
