An article and accompanying video in the Sacramento Bee on December 7, 2018 , His dream to serve the CHP died because he is gay, officer says. Now he’s suing, highlights RBGG client Jay Brome and his legal fight against the California Highway Patrol.
Brome’s story was also highlighted as part of a USAToday feature story on February 8, 2019, LGBT law enforcement officers say they’ve faced horrible discrimination, and now they’re suing and featured in in Sacramento television coverage on March 12, 2019, Former CHP Officer’s Civil Suit Alleges Years of Homophobic Abuse.
According to the Bee article, “His attorney, Gay Grunfeld, filed a 55-page brief Nov. 29 in the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco arguing that a jury should be allowed to hear his claims. An earlier lawsuit filed on Brome’s behalf by a different attorney was dismissed last March on the grounds that it was filed beyond the one-year statute of limitations.
But Grunfeld argues that the dismissal was ordered in error, and that Brome was subjected to continued harassment and discrimination throughout his career.
‘The harassment began during Officer Brome’s academy training, where he faced homophobic slurs and physical threats, and followed him from assignment to assignment – from the CHP’s San Francisco area office, where his career began in 1996, to the CHP’s area offices in Contra Costa and Solano, where he worked from 2008 until the psychological toll of the CHP’s hostile work environment became so intolerable that his doctor ordered him to take medical stress leave on Jan. 15, 2015,’ Grunfeld wrote in her brief.”
Additional media coverage:
Ex-CHP officer sues over anti-gay harassment, Bay Area Reporter, December 19, 2019
Retired CHP officer files discrimination lawsuit, says he was harassed for being gay, KTVU News, December 7, 2018
California cop alleges rampant antigay abuse on the job, Advocate, December 8, 2018